How did health and medicine develop from Prehistoric times to Ancient Egypt
In prehistoric Period, people thought that illness and diseases were caused by supernatural and natural causes. If you had a Broken leg for example, it was obvious to them that those were natural causes. Anything else that they couldn’t answer was said to be the work of evil spirit, so supernatural causes. Evidence for this comes from the study of skeletons and comparisons between the prehistoric people and the aborigines as they share similar beliefs.
Ill people in prehistoric times were treated by medicine men and family. Medicine men were healers that were valuable and significant to their tribes.this is because they knew and understand spirits and how to cope with them. Family, especially women treated illness a s part of their role as mother and wife, just like they still do today.
illness and injury was treated using herbs and plants. This was mostly used by women because they knew about their healing power. evidence for treatments with herbs and plants is found on prehistoric sites. One example is Chickweed used to treat ulcers and skin problems. the treatments and remedies had to be remembered because they were no writing and were passed on by word of mouth.
A form of surgery used by the prehistoric people was trephining, this involved cutting a hole in the skull or removing a piece of bones. Although it was dangerous because of the carved stone they had for equipment, it proves to be successful as bones were found showing evidence of healing.
This type of surgery was used for treatment against severe headaches or to ease pressure caused by swelling because of skull injury. Another idea is that trephining was used to let out evil spirits that caused illness and disease, but this idea is not proven by any evidence.
The Egyptians period witnessed a number of changes in medicine. One change was the way the Egyptians treated corpse by embalming them for after life. This enabled them to learn a little about anatomy as they knew a little about the heart, the pulse, the lungs, the brain…. ,but they didn’t know their correct functions. This is partly because embalming was done quickly because of the heat and the Egyptians did not allow dissection as it their bodies were important to them for their after life.
Another change was the ability of Egyptians to travel as their wealth enable them to trade with communities around the world in places like India, China and parts of Africa. This meant that the Egyptians and the other communities could share their knowledge and ideas about remedies.It therefore, permitted Egyptians doctors to built up a better knowledge of treatments and remedies so that they could treat illness better for both their communities and others; and this was a step from prehistoric era.
These changes were brought about by a number of factors. One such factor was improved communication. This enable trade and sharing of ideas about medicine. But another big change was the invention of writing on papyrus- a paper made from reeds- which Egyptians develop to make writing more convenient. To medicine, this invention enabled doctors to share accurately their remedies and treatments to other healers and sold to other communities.
Another factor was religion which nourished the idea of embalming. This gave a chance to Egyptians to learn about anatomy and try to understand it ; although religion objected to dissection which would have been the best way to learn about the body.
However, not everything changed. There were some continuities. For example, Egyptians also believed that illness were caused by supernatural and natural causes, although much their medicine knowledge was based on the theory of blocked channels inspired by their environment, therefore a natural cause of disease. Another continuity was that although Egyptians could had doctors for the more wealthy, illness of the less fortunate were still treated by family just like in prehistoric era.
These changes resulted in progression in medicine because treatments were getting better, doctors had better tools to carry out more complex surgery and together this enhanced life expectancy of the Egyptians compared to prehistoric people.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:43 am
A really good post Stephanie, you have recalled many of the key points from your learning here and have explained the importance of certain developments well. In order to secure your target grade you should a think about a few things when you are writing an answer (either here, in your folder or in an exam!): Make sure you are clear about the point that you are trying to make – for example: where you are discussing trephinning I think you should make it clear that prehistoric man would have thought that severe headaches were in fact caused by evil spirits, you mention this but you do not make the link clear. You should also think about how you organise your points for example you correctly identified how embalming helped Egyptian doctors learn a little about anatomy and how they were prevented from learning more because dissection was banned: BUT : you didn’t link both these points together and mention that religion (factors) both helped and hindered medicine in ancient Eqypt…
Overall a really good first blog post and I’m looking forward to many more.