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Skull with Trephination
A Neolithic (3500 BCE) skull showing evidence of a trephination operation - the removal of a part of the cranium to relieve pressure, used as a medical treatment for a variety of ailments from migraines to mental illness. The treatment was...
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A Mesopotamian Tablet with Gynaecological Treatments
Recipes were written in cuneiform inscriptions. They concern conditions such as infertility and pregnancy. Probably from Babylon, Mesopotamia, Iraq. Circa 600-400 BCE. (The British Museum, London)
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A Mesopotamian Tablet with Gynaecological Recipe Against Miscarriage
A medical recipe was written on this clay tablet to prevent miscarriage. It recommends that a women should wear for 3 days a particular species of dried edible mouse which has been stuffed with myrrh. Probably from Babylon, Mesopotamia, Iraq...
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Gynaecological Instrument
A bronze gynaecological instrument, Roman, 1st century CE. (Archaeological Museum of Como, Italy)
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Prosthetic Toe of Painted Cartonnage
This false toe was found attached to the foot of a mummy, and is an early example of the use of prosthetics in the ancient world. From Egypt. Third Intermediate Peridod, 1070-664 BCE. (The British Museum, London)
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Fractured Femur of an Egyptian Mummy
This right femoral bone shows evidence of malunion and misalignment of a healed fractured. From Abydos, Egypt. Late Period, after 664 BCE. (The British Museum, London)
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Cartonnage Mummy Case & Skeleton of a Child with a Rare Bone Disease
The child suffered from a disease called osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease). His skull and part of his skeleton are on the left side of the cartonnage. The remains of this infant constitute the best preserved instance of the condition...
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Egyptian Doctor
Statue of a man. 12th Dynasty, about 1911-1870 BCE. Deir el-Bersheh, Egypt. The British Museum, (photo taken at The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia) This figure, with its short wig and long kilt, is thought to depict one of the earliest...
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Arthritis of a Knee Joint of a Mummy
The left femur and tibial bones of this elderly man show evidence of arthritis at the knee joint. From tomb 36, Gabati, Sudan. Meroitic period or later, circa 300 BCE. (Th British Museum, London)
Article
Ibn Sina, Biruni, and the Lost Enlightenment
Ibn Sina and Biruni were two of the most outstanding thinkers to have lived between ancient Greece and the European Renaissance. These two giants of a lost era of enlightenment were born in Central Asia about the year 980. For six hundred...