Prehistoric, Ancient and Medieval Medicine: New Perspectives and Challenges for the Twenty-First Century

This volume contains a total of 21 chapters on prehistoric, ancient, and medieval medicine, presented from various perspectives. After a general introduction outlining the directions, possibilities, and methods of research in archaeology and the history of medicine in the period under review and arguing for the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach, there follow 20 chapters presenting specific research topics. These chapters cover a wide chronological span, from the Stone Age to more or less the end of the Middle Ages, and geographical extent, from Western Europe through the Mediterranean (including Egypt and the Levant) to the Near East (including modern Iraq). The papers in this volume are divided into three sections, roughly spanning prehistory, the Classical era and the Middle Ages respectively.