Medieval History
While it is a painful truism that brutality and violence are at least as old as humanity, so, it seems, is caring for the sick and disabled.
And some archaeologists are suggesting a closer, more systematic look at how prehistoric people ? who may have left only their bones ? treated illness, injury and incapacitation. Call it the archaeology of health care.
The case that led Lorna Tilley and Marc Oxenham of Australian National University in Canberra to this idea is that of a profoundly ill young man who lived 4,000 years ago in what is now northern Vietnam and was buried, as were others in his culture, at a site known as Man Bac.
Almost all the other skeletons at the site, south of Hanoi and about 15 miles from the coast, lie straight. Burial 9, as both the remains and the once living person are known, was laid to rest curled in the fetal position. When Ms. Tilley, a graduate student in archaeology, and Dr. Oxenham, a professor, excavated and examined the skeleton in 2007 it became clear why. His fused vertebrae, weak bones and other evidence suggested that he lies in death as he did in life, bent and crippled by disease.
Click here to read this article from the New York Times
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Medieval History
Ancient Bones That Tell a Story of Compassion
And some archaeologists are suggesting a closer, more systematic look at how prehistoric people ? who may have left only their bones ? treated illness, injury and incapacitation. Call it the archaeology of health care.
The case that led Lorna Tilley and Marc Oxenham of Australian National University in Canberra to this idea is that of a profoundly ill young man who lived 4,000 years ago in what is now northern Vietnam and was buried, as were others in his culture, at a site known as Man Bac.
Almost all the other skeletons at the site, south of Hanoi and about 15 miles from the coast, lie straight. Burial 9, as both the remains and the once living person are known, was laid to rest curled in the fetal position. When Ms. Tilley, a graduate student in archaeology, and Dr. Oxenham, a professor, excavated and examined the skeleton in 2007 it became clear why. His fused vertebrae, weak bones and other evidence suggested that he lies in death as he did in life, bent and crippled by disease.
Click here to read this article from the New York Times
- Medieval Skeletons Unearthed In Gloucester
The remains of two people were discovered by workers in Gloucester, England who were digging up a road near the city centre. Gloucestershire County Council's archaeology service has examined the bones, which were laid side by side in the ground, and...
- Brain Surgery Was Performed In Ninth-century Ireland
Remarkable new details were revealed this week from the discovery of a medieval grave in County Donegal in Ireland. One of the most notable is that archaeologists have come across the remains of a young woman buried around the year 800 AD who underwent...
- Dog Seeks Archaeology - Only Old, Dusty Types Need Apply
The Australian military has often gone to animal refuge's looking for dogs with unique skill sets to train for rehoming in the military in jobs such as bomb sniffing, and there have been many 'rescues/adoptions' as a result of these visits....
- The Lost Face Of Princess Arsinöe Iv
Is this the face of Cleopatra's half sister, Princess Arsinöe IV? Based on the bones of one of the most controversial archaeological finds in Egyptian history, some specialists claim that it is. In 1926, archaeologists found a young woman's...
- Have Richard Iii's Remains Been Found?
A team of historians and archaeologists may have found the remains of one of the most maligned English monarchs, Richard III. The bones which were discovered in a parking lot in Leicester are thought to be a "prime candidate" for the king. Although not...