Chinese medicine: Did you mean...?

Tobacco is considered the most sacred of the Indigenous sacred medicines, used in virtually every ceremony as a means of connecting directly to the Creator. Native tobacco is used in ceremonies such as pipe ceremonies, non-smoke offerings...

Emperor Gaozu (also Kao-tsu, formerly Li Yuan, r. 618-626 CE) was a Sui military commander who led a rebellion against his former masters, seized control of the state, and founded the Tang Dynasty (618-906 CE). Overshadowed in the ancient...

Oracle bones or dragon bones were the shoulder blades of oxen or the flat underside of a turtle shell known as a plastron that were used for divination during the Shang Dynasty of China which dates between c. 1600 and 1046 BCE. The bones...

The ancient Egyptians experienced the same wide array of disease that people do in the present day, but unlike most people in the modern era, they attributed the experience to supernatural causes. The common cold, for example, was prevalent...

A famous story from Greece relates how a young woman named Agnodice wished to become a doctor in Athens but found this forbidden. In fact, a woman practicing medicine in Athens in the 4th century BCE faced the death penalty. Refusing to give...

Silk is a fabric first produced in Neolithic China from the filaments of the cocoon of the silk worm. It became a staple source of income for small farmers and, as weaving techniques improved, the reputation of Chinese silk spread so that...

In this lecture presented at The Explorers Club in New York, BAS Director of Educational Programs Sarah Yeomans examines a recently excavated, as-yet unpublished archaeological site that has substantially contributed to our understanding...

A ten-year project to study and digitise some 80,000 cases recorded by two famous astrological physicians has opened a wormhole into the everyday worries and desires of people who lived 400 years ago.

Empress Wu Zetian (Empress Consort Wu, Wu Hou, Wu Mei Niang, Mei-Niang, and Wu Zhao, l. 624-705 CE, r. 690-704 CE) was the only female emperor of Imperial China. She reigned during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) and was one of the most effective...

The god Apollo in Greek mythology is the Olympian god of, well, quite a lot! Apollo is associated with the bow, music, divination, the sun, poetry, healing and medicine and, who would have thought, plagues. He was one of the most loved gods...