Medicine and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt PDF Download

Author: Philippa Lang
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004218580
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Current questions on whether Hellenistic Egypt should be understood in terms of colonialism and imperialism, multicultural separatism, or integration and syncretism have never been closely studied in the context of healing. Examing all forms of healing within the specific socioeconomic and environmental constraints of the Ptolemies’ Egypt, this book explores how linguistic, cultural and ethnic affiliations and interactions were expressed in the medical domain. Topics include the environmental and demographic background, perceptions of Greek and Egyptian medicine, the intersection between religion and healing, interactions on the theoretical and textual plane, diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutics in practice, and the range of medical practitioners. The book concludes with a case study of medicine in Ptolemaic Alexandria.

Author: Laura M. Zucconi
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467457515
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
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.

Author: Katelijn Vandorpe
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118428404
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 911

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Book Description
An authoritative and multidisciplinary Companion to Egypt during the Greco‐Roman and Late Antique period With contributions from noted authorities in the field, A Companion to Greco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt offers a comprehensive resource that covers almost 1000 years of Egyptian history, starting with the liberation of Egypt from Persian rule by Alexander the Great in 332 BC and ending in AD 642, when Arab rule started in the Nile country. The Companion takes a largely sociological perspective and includes a section on life portraits at the end of each part. The theme of identity in a multicultural environment and a chapter on the quality of life of Egypt's inhabitants clearly illustrate this objective. The authors put the emphasis on the changes that occurred in the Greco-Roman and Late Antique periods, as illustrated by such topics as: Traditional religious life challenged; Governing a country with a past: between tradition and innovation; and Creative minds in theory and praxis. This important resource: Discusses how Egypt became part of a globalizing world in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine times Explores notable innovations by the Ptolemies and Romans Puts the focus on the longue durée development Offers a thematic and multidisciplinary approach to the subject, bringing together scholars of different disciplines Contains life portraits in which various aspects and themes of people’s daily life in Egypt are discussed Written for academics and students of the Greco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt period, this Companion offers a guide that is useful for students in the areas of Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and New Testament studies.

Author: James P. Allen
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588391701
Category : Art, Egyptian
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
Diseases and injuries were major concerns for ancient Egyptians. This book, featuring some sixty-four objects from the Metropolitan Museum, discusses how both practical and magical medicine informed Egyptian art and for the first time reproduces and translates treatments described in the spectacular Edwin Smith Papyrus.

Author: Andrew Griebeler
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226826791
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
A richly illustrated account of how premodern botanical illustrations document evolving knowledge about plants and the ways they were studied in the past. This book traces the history of botanical illustration in the Mediterranean from antiquity to the early modern period. By examining Greek, Latin, and Arabic botanical inquiry in this early era, Andrew Griebeler shows how diverse and sophisticated modes of plant depiction emerged and ultimately gave rise to practices now recognized as central to modern botanical illustration. The author draws on centuries of remarkable and varied documentation from across Europe and the Mediterranean. Lavishly illustrated, Botanical Icons marshals ample evidence for a dynamic and critical tradition of botanical inquiry and nature observation in the late antique and medieval Mediterranean. The author reveals that many of the critical practices characteristic of modern botanical illustrations began in premodern manuscript culture. Consequently, he demonstrates that the distinctions between pre- and early modern botanical illustration center more on the advent of print, the expansion of collections and documentation, and the narrowing of the range of accepted forms of illustration than on the invention of critical and observational practices exclusive to modernity. Griebeler’s emphasis on continuity, intercultural collaboration, and the gradual transformation of Mediterranean traditions of critical botanical illustration persuasively counters previously prevalent narratives of rupture and Western European exceptionalism in the histories of art and science.

Author: Rosalie David
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1835536298
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Medicine and Healing Practices in Ancient Egypt provides a new perspective on healthcare and healing treatments in Egypt from the Predynastic to the Roman periods. Rather than concentrating exclusively on diseases and medical conditions as evidenced in ancient sources, it provides a ‘people-focused’ perspective, asking what it was like to be ill or disabled in this society? Who were the healers? To what extent did disease occurrence and treatment reflect individual social status? As well as geographical, environmental and dietary factors, which undoubtedly affected general health, some groups were prone to specific hazards. These are discussed in detail, including soldiers’ experience of trauma, wounds and exposure to epidemics; and conditions - blindness, sand pneumoconiosis, trauma and limb amputations – resulting from working conditions at building and other sites. Methods of diagnosis and treatment were derived from special concepts about disease and medical ethics. These are explored, as well as the individual contributions and professional interactions of various groups of healers and carers. Medical training and practice occurred in various locations, including temples and battlefields; these are described, as well as the treatments and equipment that were available. Ancient writers generally praised the Egyptian healers’ knowledge, expertise, and professional relationship with their patients. A brief comparison is drawn between this approach and those prevailing elsewhere in Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome. Finally, Egypt’s legacy, transmitted through Greek, Roman and Arabic sources, is confirmed as the source of some principles and practices still found in modern ‘Western’ medicine. Combining information from the latest studies on human remains and the authors’ biomedical research, this book brings the subject up to date, enabling a wide readership to access often scattered information in a fascinating synthesis.

Author: Pearce Paul Creasman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019022908X
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
The concept of pharaonic Egypt as a unified, homogeneous, and isolated cultural entity is misleading. Ancient Egypt was a rich tapestry of social, religious, technological, and economic interconnections among numerous cultures from disparate lands. In fifteen chapters divided into five thematic groups, Pharaoh's Land and Beyond uniquely examines Egypt's relationship with its wider world. The first section details the geographical contexts of interconnections by examining ancient Egyptian exploration, maritime routes, and overland passages. In the next section, chapters address the human principals of association: peoples, with the attendant difficulties of differentiating ethnic identities from the record; diplomatic actors, with their complex balances and presentations of power; and the military, with its evolving role in pharaonic expansion. Natural events, from droughts and floods to illness and epidemics, also played significant roles in this ancient world, as examined in the third section. The final two sections explore the physical manifestations of interconnections between pharaonic Egypt and its neighbors, first in the form of material objects and second, in the powerful exchange of ideas. Whether through diffusion and borrowing of knowledge and technology, through the flow of words by script and literature, or through exchanges in the religious sphere, the pharaonic Egypt that we know today was constantly changing--and changing the cultures around it. This illustrious work represents the first synthesis of these cultural relationships, unbounded by time, geography, or mode.

Author: Vivian Nutton
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000963861
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
The third edition of this magisterial account of medicine in the Greek and Roman worlds, written by the foremost expert on the subject, has been updated to incorporate the many new discoveries made in the field over the past decade. This revised volume includes discussions of several new or forgotten works by Galen and his contemporaries, as well as of new archaeological material. RNA analysis has expanded our understanding of disease in the ancient world; the book explores the consequences of this for sufferers, for example in creating disability. Nutton also expands upon the treatment of pre-Galenic medicine in Greece and Rome. In addition, subtitles and a chronology will make for easier student consultation, and the bibliography is substantially revised and updated, providing avenues for future student research. This third edition of Ancient Medicine will remain the definitive textbook on the subject for students of medicine in the classical world, and the history of medicine and science more broadly, with much to interest scholars in the field as well.

Author: Ada Nifosi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351596152
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
How did Greco-Roman Egyptian society perceive women’s bodies and how did it acknowledge women’s reproductive functions? Detailing women’s lives in Greco-Roman Egypt this monograph examines understudied aspects of women's lives such as their coming of age, social and religious taboos of menstruation and birth rituals. It investigates medical, legal and religious aspects of women's reproduction, using both historical and archaeological sources, and shows how the social status of women and new-born children changed from the Dynastic to the Greco-Roman period. Through a comparative and interdisciplinary study of the historical sources, papyri, artefacts and archaeological evidence, Becoming a Woman and Mother in Greco-Roman Egypt shows how Greek, Roman, Jewish and Near Eastern cultures impacted on the social perception of female puberty, childbirth and menstruation in Greco-Roman Egypt from the 3rd century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D.

Author: Lennart Lehmhaus
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501502557
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
With a clear comparative approach, this volume brings together for the first time contributions that cover different periods of the history of ancient pharmacology, from Greek, Byzantine, and Syriac medicine to the Rabbinic-Talmudic medical discourses. This collection opens up new synchronic and diachronic perspectives in the study of the ancient traditions of recipe-books and medical collections. Besides the highly influential Galenic tradition, the contributions will focus on less studied Byzantine and Syriac sources as well as on the Talmudic tradition, which has never been systematically investigated in relation to medicine. This inquiry will highlight the overwhelming mass of information about drugs and remedies, which accumulated over the centuries and was disseminated in a variety of texts belonging to distinct cultural milieus. Through a close analysis of some relevant case studies, this volume will trace some paths of this transmission and transformation of pharmacological knowledge across cultural and linguistic boundaries, by pointing to the variety of disciplines and areas of expertise involved in the process.