Archaeological Sources for the History of Medicine in Greece in the Prehistoric and Archaic Periods (before 500 BC)

Abstract

For the study of the history of Greek medicine in the period in question, four basic types or categories of sources are available. They include:

1) anthropological sources (preserved human skeletal remains),

2) iconographical sources (images of afflicted bodies or body parts, medical and/or surgical interventions, as well as the medicinal deities of heroes),

3) literary sources (administrative and economic records from the prehistoric period and several writings of literature from the Archaic period) and

4) sc. other sources. This paper describes and discusses the fourth category of sources, i.e. the archaeological one in the narrower sense that cannot be incorporated into the three previous types/categories of sources. These are, above all, medical and surgical instruments and pottery that served as vessels for keeping medicinal preparations and/or ingredients, or as utensils for their application. An absolutely special finding is that of potsherds with preserved organic residues from the turn of the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, found at the Chrysokamino metallurgy workshop in Eastern Crete. Analysis of the residues proved the production of medicinal preparations with plants to cure injuries or symptoms connected with the metal industry. This category of sources also includes relics of buildings with rooms most probably used in treatment, the earliest cult precincts of medicinal deities and heroes (the Cretan sc. peak sanctuaries, where a healing cult was also practised, dated mainly to the Middle and Late Bronze Ages; the earliest sites of Asclepius's cult, sc. asklepieia, are dated to 8th - 6th centuries BC) and structures connected with a clear fresh water supply, such as various kinds of aqueducts and fountains. The chronological range of these sources is from the turn of the Early and Middle Bronze Ages (end of 3rd mill. BC) until 500 BC.