Prehistoric Britain Flashcards
Why were hunter-gatherers generally a fit and healthy group of people?
They used bows and spears to hunt their food, meaning they needed to be in peak physical condition.
They were NOMADs: they had no fixed home but lived ‘on the move’, so didn’t have to live with polluted water supplies or human excrement that attracted disease-carrying insects.
What were the two types of prehistoric people?
Hunter-gatherers
Farmers
What changed about prehistoric people’s lifestyles when they became farmers?
They settled in one place and farmed the land, grew crops and kept herds of animals.
How did the illnesses that settlers suffered from change?
They suffered fewer injuries and accidents than hunters.
Lots of hard physical work meant that men and women suffered from painful joints and bones.
Animals polluted water supplies.
What does the word ‘prehistory’ mean?
Before writing, so the prehistoric period can mean different times in different places.
What kinds of health problems did prehistoric people suffer from?
Loss of blood from wounds Fractured bones Gangrene, anthrax, rabies Sore throats Painful joints and bones Water pollution (settlers)
Why did women generally die younger than men?
Childbirth was extremely dangerous with a lack of medical aid. It involved a lot of trial and error.
Why were diseases such as heart disease and cancer so rare?
Daily exercise and a natural, healthy diet. They did not smoke.
What can the study of skeletons and preserved bodies tell you about prehistoric people?
What sorts of diseases they suffered from.
What conditions their bones and teeth were in.
Whether physical work or warfare caused death or deformity.
What they ate for their last meal.
How old they were when they died.
How can you learn about prehistoric medicine from people living today?
Aborigines: a group of people native to Australia whose lifestyles have not changed for thousands of years. They are still in the prehistory period.
What did prehistoric people believe to be the causes of illness?
They understood that some medical problems were as a result of natural causes (e.g. An open wound).
When the causes of an ailment were not understood, the problem was believed to have supernatural causes (e.g. A fit was caused by the body being possessed by an evil spirit or a curse put on it).
Did prehistoric people develop surgery at all?
Yes, they used TREPHINING or TREPANNING. This involved a hole being cut into the skull in order to release ‘evil spirits’. There is some archaeological evidence to suggest that some people did survive such an operation, although most would’ve died shortly after surgery.
How did BELIEFS affect medicine in prehistoric Britain?
Any illness where the cause were not obvious were put down to evil spirits or curses, meaning that the real causes had no need to be discovered.
How did EDUCATION affect medicine in prehistoric Britain?
People were not educated on the anatomy of the human body, rather how to hunt and kill successfully, so few had the desire to find out more about medicine and how certain diseases may have been lined to it.
How did COMMUNICATIONS affect medicine in prehistoric Britain?
People would rarely write things down, nor did they live in large groups. If any person did find a cure for an illness then there was no way for this to be passed on to other civilisations.
