Medicine: Did you mean...?

Sushruta (c. 7th or 6th century BCE) was a physician in ancient India known today as the “Father of Indian Medicine” and “Father of Plastic Surgery” for inventing and developing surgical procedures. His work on the subject, the Sushruta Samhita...

The Hidatsa Sun Dance Ritual (also known as Hidatsa Sun Dance) is a Native American story of the Hidatsa nation illustrating the practice of an individual initiating the Sun Dance for personal reasons, in this case, to win the hand of the...

Making the Sacred Bundle is an origin story of the medicine bag from the Pawnee nation. A medicine bag is a pouch or bundle containing items of resonant spiritual power for an individual or the tribal community that symbolize and maintain...

Magic and medicine in ancient Egypt were understood as gifts from the god Heka, who presided over both, and were used together – or interchangeably – by medical professionals in treating patients. 'Magic' was recognized as the act of drawing...

Hippocrates was born on the Greek island of Kos in the 5th century BCE, and he became the most famous physician in antiquity. He established a medical school on the island, wrote many treatises on medical matters, and is, through his systematic...

Winnebago Medicine Bundle, Nebraska, United States, 1850-60. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Interior View of the Medicine Lodge, Mandan O‑kee-pa Ceremony, oil on canvas by George Catlin, 1832. Smithsonian American Art Museum

Physicians in ancient Rome manufactured a wide variety of pharmaceuticals used to treat health concerns. Roman medicine was highly sophisticated, and Roman medical literature describes early antiseptics, narcotics, and anti-inflammatory medicines...

The Persian manuscript copy of The Canon of Medicine by Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Museum and Mausoleum of Avicenna, Hamedan, Iran.

Medicine in the ancient world was often combined with what we would consider magic, especially in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. In Mesopotamia, the goddess Gula who is also known as Ninkarrak and Ninisinna presided over health and healing...