Medicine through time- prehistoric medicine

Question 1

How do we discover evidence about prehistoric people?

Answer 1

Historians’ statements about prehistoric medicine are usually based on ancient archaeological discoveries. They are also often based upon comparisons with pre-literate but nevertheless modern-day societies - such as that of Australian Aborigines. These latter may or may not have beliefs similar to those held by the peoples of prehistory, there is no way of knowing for sure.

Question 2

What were the defining characteristics of prehistoric people?

Answer 2

could not write.
nomadic
Strong belief in the supernatural

Question 3

How did their inability to write affect medicine?

Answer 3

They could not therefore pass on a body of medical knowledge beyond that which could be remembered. However, many of the primitive peoples that survive in the modern age seem to have built up a system of skills and behaviours that keeps them healthy in their environment, despite not having anything written down. They have done this through a process of trial and error and natural selection, and it seems likely that the people of prehistoric times were similar.

Question 4

How did their nomadic lifestyle affect medicine?

Answer 4

they did not settle down and build things like hospitals, neither did they have enough consistency in their own lives to observe how all human bodies work the same.

Question 5

How did their strong belief in the supernatural affect medicine?

Answer 5

The primitive technology of prehistoric peoples put them at the mercy of the elements, and led to a system of beliefs that saw humankind as being at the mercy of unpredictable spirits. These were said to bring life, death, health and disease. Such ideas led to a world in which spiritual rituals and the shaman, or witch-doctor, dominated medicine.

Question 6

What can be said about a prehistoric impression of fingers and hands?

Answer 6

The fingers may have been lost to leprosy, but also may have been cut off as a punishment, or in war, or lost in accidents. Note that although we can prove that prehistoric people lost their fingers, it is impossible to prove from the archaeological record how much it hurt when this happened.

Question 7

What can be said about a prehistoric cave-painting of an antler-man?

Answer 7

The cave painting may show a spirit-being, but also it may show a shaman dressed in an animal-skin, or it may show the animal itself. The painting doesn’t give any proof of the thinking behind the drawing.

Question 8

What would a clay model of a sheep’s liver from prehistoric times suggest?

Answer 8

Prehistoric people used auguries (such as the condition of a sheep’s liver) to try to predict health and disease. The find is clearly the shape of a liver, with holes for marker pegs, but it does not provide any proof of how it was used.

Question 9

What could be said of prehistoric people from Stonehenge?

Answer 9

Stonehenge proves that prehistoric people were able to organise themselves over long periods of time and place. But it does not tell us what kind of government these people had, or how well they were organised, or whether this was a permanent or temporary feature of their society.

Question 10

What did prehistoric people know about anatomy?

Answer 10

knew little about the inner workings of the body.
must have known at least something about bone structure.
believed that life and the functions of the body were determined by the spirits (‘animism’).

Question 11

How can we know that prehistoric people had little knowledge of the inner workings of the body?

Answer 11

If we assume that prehistoric peoples were similar to the few remaining primitive peoples of the modern age, we can also assume they knew little about the inner workings of the body.

Question 12

How can we know that the prehistoric people had some knowledge of bone structure?

Answer 12

Some of their burial practices (where bones were stripped of the flesh, bleached and buried in different piles), however, suggest that they must have known at least something about bone structure. And archaeologists have found evidence of cannibalism amongst some prehistoric people, so presumably these people also knew something about the flesh and inner organs of the body.

Question 13

How can we know that prehistoric people believed in spirts?

Answer 13

. The Australian Aborigines of recent times believed that illness occurred when a person’s spirit was lost or stolen by an enemy. Possible link to trephining.

Question 14

Why is it likely that prehistoric people knew how to set broken bone?

Answer 14

Australian aborigines in recent times were able to stitch up wounds and to set broken bones by encasing them in mud. Some historians suggest that this shows that prehistoric people could have acquired similar skills.

Question 15

Why is it unlikely that prehistoric people know how to set broken bones?

Answer 15

The presence of healed but badly set bones in prehistoric graves, however, suggests that they could not set broken bones.

Question 16

What was trephinning used for?

Answer 16

Historians have suggested that the motivation of these operations was medical, in so far as it was intended to remove an evil spirit which, for example, was causing epilepsy or headaches. This may be true, but cannot be proved.

Question 17

What do trephinned skulls say about prehistoric people?

Answer 17

The precise cuts that can be seen on some of the trephined skulls, and the re-growth of the bone (which proves that the patient/victim survived the operation), do indicate that prehistoric people had the ability and knowledge to be successful surgeons.

Question 18

What do we know about how prehistoric people diagnosed illness?

Answer 18

There is no archaeological evidence that proves how prehistoric people diagnosed or treated illness, but it seems likely that these people knew next to nothing about the real nature of disease. We can take evidence from modern day Australian Aborigines, but it is not guaranteed as being the same.

Question 19

How did prehistoric people try to treat disease?

Answer 19

It is likely they used spiritual practices, like the Australian Aborigines, but it is impossible to prove. Despite their lack of scientific knowledge, it’s possible that prehistoric people knew and used plants and various substances to cure disease. The Native Americans of the 19th century knew of more than 100 herbs and substances that had healing properties.

Question 20

Why is using herbal remedies not enough to suggest that prehistoric people had a practical, scientific side to them?

Answer 20

Healers could well have used these medicinal substances as part of their spiritual practices and, if the healing proved successful, could certainly have ascribed the success to the spirits, not to the substances they had used in the cure.

Question 21

What was public health like for prehistoric people?

Answer 21

They were nomadic, so saw no need for sewers or hospitals. Also it is unlikely they had knowledge of personal health, though they might have had certain religious believes (such as burring excrement) which could be seen as healthy, but There is no evidence that primitive peoples understood that there was any link between dirt and disease.

Question 22

Who treated prehistoric people?

Answer 22

A witch-doctor (likely) and women with herbal remedies.

Question 23

How would witch-doctors have treated someone?

Answer 23

The witch-doctors would have combined healing with other spiritual functions.
Probably - although they may well have treated illness in ways that sometimes caused a cure - prehistoric peoples did not have even the concept of curing illness through medicine that we have today.