The Archaeology of Medicine in the Greco-Roman World

Description

This book teaches students and scholars of Greco-Roman medical history how to use and critically assess archaeological materials. Ancient medicine is a subject dominated by textual sources, yet there is a wealth of archaeological remains that can be used to broaden our understanding of medicine in the past. In order to use the information properly, this book explains how to ask questions of an archaeological nature, how to access different types of archaeological materials, and how to overcome problems the researcher might face. It also acts as an introduction to the archaeology of medicine for archaeologists interested in this aspect of their subject. Although the focus is on the Greco-Roman period, the methods and theories explained within the text can be applied to other periods in history. The areas covered include text as material culture, images, artifacts, spaces of medicine, and science and archaeology.

Patricia A. Baker is Head of Classical and Archaeological Studies at the University of Kent. She was made a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 2006. She is an active field archaeologist and has participated in excavations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy. She is currently working on a project in Monte San Martino ai Campo, Trentino, Italy, a multi-period site dating from the Iron Ages to the Middle Ages. She is author of Medical Care for the Roman Army on the Rhine, Danube and British Frontiers in the First, Second and Early Third Centuries AD and editor of Medicine and Space: Body, Buildings and Borders in the Classical and Medieval Traditions; Practitioners, Practices and Patients: New Approaches to Medical Archaeology and Anthropology; and TRAC 98: The Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference Proceedings 1998.

'There is no other book which collects together the archaeological evidence relevant to the study of ancient medicine in this way against a critical methodological background; and it will do doubt find its way on to a good number of course bibliographies.' Rebecca Flemming, Social History of Medicine