Medicine Timeline

Timeline

6500 BCE
First evidence of the surgical procedure of trephination found in France.
5000 BCE
Evidence of the surgical procedure of trephination found in China.
2667 BCE - 2648 BCE
Imhotep in Egypt writes medical texts describing diagnosis and treatment of 100 diseases and 48 injuries.
c. 1800 BCE
The Kahun Gynecological Papyrus deals with women's health and contraception.
c. 1500 BCE
Saffron used as medicine on the Aegaean island of Thera.
c. 1050 BCE
Babylonian "Diagnostic Handbook" is written by the physician Esagil-kin-apli of Borsippa.
950 BCE - 1400 BCE
Evidence of the surgical procedure of trephination found in Mesoamerica.
800 BCE - 700 BCE
Homer's Iliad is composed with mention of medical treatment in Greek warfare.
700 BCE
First Greek medical school opens in Cnidus.
c. 600 BCE
Charaka and Sushruta found two schools of Ayurveda.
c. 460 BCE - c. 370 BCE
Traditional dates for the life of Hippocrates in Greece, the "father of medicine" and inventor of the Hippocratic Oath for physicians.
431 BCE
The temple to Apollo Medicus is built in Rome.
325 BCE - 280 BCE
Life of Herophilus of Chalcedon, who studied the brain and the nervous system, attributing intelligence to the brain.
292 BCE
The Romans adopt the Greek god of medicine Asclepius by stealing his sacred snake from Epidaurus and setting up a temple on the Tiber Island.
219 BCE
The physician Archagathus of Sparta arrives in Rome.
c. 1 CE - 50 CE
Life of Roman physician Scribonius Largus.
43 CE
The physician Scribonius Largus travels to Britain with the entourage of Claudius.
c. 60 CE - 130 CE
Life of the physician Soranus of Ephesos.
129 CE - c. 216 CE
Life of the physician Galen of Pergamon.
c. 830 CE - c. 870 CE
Hunayn ibn Ishaq translates Galen's works into Arabic.
c. 1030 CE
Avicenna writes the Book of Healing and the Canon of Medicine, based on earlier works.
1895 CE
X-rays discovered by Wilhelm Röntgen.