Ancient Medicine: From Mesopotamia to Rome

by Laura M. Zucconi

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2019

Overview

This book by Laura Zucconi is an accessible introductory text to the practice and theory of medicine in the ancient world. In contrast to other works that focus heavily on Greece and Rome, Zucconi’s Ancient Medicine covers a broader geographical and chronological range. The world of medicine in antiquity consisted of a lot more than Hippocrates and Galen.

Zucconi applies historical and anthropological methods to examine the medical cultures of not only Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome but also the Levant, the Anatolian Peninsula, and the Iranian Plateau. Devoting special attention to the fundamental relationship between medicine and theology, Zucconi’s one-volume introduction brings the physicians, patients, procedures, medicines, and ideas of the past to light.

Key Features

• Examines how ancient societies understood the role of humans in cosmology
• Reconciles natural phenomena with cosmological perspectives
• Incorporates key concepts of medical anthropology to highlight the rational thought process behind ancient medical practices

Contents

• Introduction
• Mesopotamian Medicine
• Egyptian Medicine
• Canaanite Medicine
• Hittite Medicine
• Classical Greek Medicine
• Hellenism and Hellenistic Medicine: A Brief Introduction
• Ptolemaic Egyptian Medicine
• Etruscan and Roman Medicine
• Second Temple and Early Rabbinic Medicine
• Persian Medicine

Product Details

• Title: Ancient Medicine: From Mesopotamia to Rome
• Author: Laura M. Zucconi
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 400
• Resource Type: Introduction
• Topic: Ancient History

About Laura M. Zucconi

Laura M. Zucconi is professor of historical studies at Stockton University, Galloway, New Jersey, a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge, and the author of Can No Physician Be Found? The Influence of Religion on Medical Pluralism in Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Israel.