book cover

H 205 x W 290 mm

306 pages

79 figres, 4 tables (colour throughout)

Published Mar 2026

Archaeopress Archaeology

ISBN

Hardback: 9781805832591

Digital: 9781805832607

DOI 10.32028/9781805832591

Recommend to a librarian

Keywords
Archaeology of medicine; History of medicine; Prehistory; Antiquity; Medieval; Europe; Mediterranean; Near East; Palaeopathology; Disease; Healing

Related titles

Prehistoric, Ancient and Medieval Medicine

New Perspectives and Challenges for the Twenty-First Century

Edited by Tomáš Alušík, Pavla Alušíková Dostalíková, Milena Melfi, Conan T. Doyle, Rupert Breitwieser

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£65.00

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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.

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Contents

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

About the Author

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.