
H 205 x W 290 mm
306 pages
79 figres, 4 tables (colour throughout)
Published Mar 2026
ISBN
Hardback: 9781805832591
Digital: 9781805832607
Keywords
Archaeology of medicine; History of medicine; Prehistory; Antiquity; Medieval; Europe; Mediterranean; Near East; Palaeopathology; Disease; Healing
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Edited by Tomáš Alušík, Pavla Alušíková Dostalíková, Milena Melfi, Conan T. Doyle, Rupert Breitwieser
Hardback
£65.00
This volume presents 21 chapters on prehistoric to medieval medicine across Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East. Emphasizing interdisciplinary methods, it surveys research directions and offers studies spanning the Stone Age to the Middle Ages, grouped into three chronological sections.
List of Figures and Tables
Foreword
Editors and Contributors
Introduction: Archaeology and History of Medicine of the Prehistoric to Medieval Periods in the Twenty-first Century – Tomáš Alušík
Chapter 01: Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan: A Sanctuary for Medical Treatment and Healing for the Injured and Ailing Members of its Neanderthal and Proto-Neolithic H. sapiens Occupants – Anagnostis P. Agelarakis
Chapter 02: Disease and Medicine in the Hittite Kingdom – Robert Arnott (†)
Chapter 03: An Akkadian Ritual Against ‘Mountain Fever’ – Letizia Savino
Chapter 04: The Life after the Pyramid Age: A Secondary Cemetery at Djedkare’s Necropolis at Saqqara (Egypt) – Hana Vymazalová
Chapter 05: The Earliest Documented Healers/Physicians in the Ancient Greek World (c. 3500/3000-500 BC) – Tomáš Alušík
Chapter 06: The Maintenance of Female Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Prehistoric Aegean – Brandelyn Andres
Chapter 07: Dealing with Epidemics in Antiquity - Social Reactions and Emotions – Rupert Breitwieser
Chapter 08: An Archaeology of Temperaments, or from Four Humours to Four Temperaments – Sylva Fischerová
Chapter 09: The Athenian Plague: an Historical Hoax? – Lutz Alexander Graumann
Chapter 10: ‘You Need to Sail to Antikyra’: Healing Classical Madness – Athanasios Sideris
Chapter 11: The Asklepieion of Paros: Restudy of the Old Evidence and New Archival Sources – Tomáš Alušík and Pavla Alušíková Dostalíková
Chapter 12: Cure and Cult at the Asklepieion of Lebena in Crete – Milena Melfi
Chapter 13: Healing Places in the Ancient World: So-Called Healing Sanctuaries Revisited. New Perspectives on Archaeological Sites in Central Italy (4th – 1st Century BC) – Velia Benthin
Chapter 14: Nutrition and Health in Imperial Roman Populations with Implications for Tuberculosis – Jared J. Eddy
Chapter 15: The Rhetoric of Healing: Strategies of Persuasion in Greek Healing Prayers and Exorcisms – Daniel Vaucher
Chapter 16: Pilgrimage to the Healing Cults in the Near East and Egypt During Late Antiquity: Continuity Between Pagan and Christian Antiquity – Vlastimil Drbal
Chapter 17: From Asklepieion to Kosmidion? Temple Sleep: A Dynamic Ritual in Late Antiquity – Mark Beumer
Chapter 18: Temperament and Emotion: Embodied Emotion in Late Antique Medical Thought and Modern Paradigm Shifts in Neuroscience – Conan T. Doyle
Chapter 19: Hospitaller Care of the Order of St John in the Holy Land – Robin Pánek
Chapter 20: The Earliest Written Records of Medieval Hospitals in the Territory of Present-Day Slovakia – Matej Gogola
Assoc. Prof. Tomáš Alušík, Ph.D. is a Classical archaeologist, historian and palaeopathologist, currently an Associate Professor at the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague.
Pavla Alušíková Dostalíková, BA, DiS. is a cultural historian-archaeologist and an archaeological illustrator and photographer. She is currently an External Research Affiliate of the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague.
Dr Milena Melfi is a Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at the Faculty of Classics of the University of Oxford, and Curator of the Cast Gallery in the Ashmolean Museum.
Conan Turlough Doyle, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of medieval English at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague.
Mag. Dr. Rupert Breitwieser works as a senior fellow at Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg, Department of Antiquities.