medicine in the ancient world

By: Michael B. Poliakoff

Three ancient Olympic combat events—wrestling, boxing and pancratium—reveal much about the aspirations and values of ancient Greece, about what was deemed honorable, fair and beautiful, both in the eyes of those of who competed and those who traveled to Olympia to watch.

By: Sarah Yeomans

Ancient Pergamon's strategic location along both land and sea trading routes contributed to its prosperity. Pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean region would flock to the city to engage in commerce or to visit the famous Asclepion, a center of medical treatments.

By: Sarah Yeomans

What exactly did ancient cultures do to combat disease and injury, and did these methods have any real basis in science as we know it today? The answers may surprise you.

By: Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and John R. Hale

According to Strabo and other sources, the Pythia who gave prophecies on behalf of Apollo was inspired by mysterious vapors. Is there evidence that intoxicating gases actually drifted through the Temple of Apollo at Delphi?

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

Were Bronze Age Canaanites on drugs? Apparently so. To be fair, drug use across the ancient world was much more common than one might think, […]

By: Robin Ngo

Archaeologists working in Thebes discovered a burial for victims of the 3rd-century C.E. Cyprian Plague.

By: Sarah K. Yeomans

Did the Antonine Plague influence shifts in religious practices at the end of the second century C.E., particularly the spread of the new religion of Christianity? Religious practices shifted because of the Antonine Plague. Architectural projects slowed, but the building of sacred sites intensified.

By: Noah Wiener

Bacterial research has linked the Justinian Plague to the world’s most infamous affliction, the Black Death.

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

In this lecture presented at The Explorers Club in New York, Sarah Yeomans examines a recently excavated archaeological site that has substantially contributed to our understanding of what ancient Romans did to combat disease and injury.

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

Traveling 75,000 miles to over 30 cities, actor Morgan Freeman leads Season 3 of National Geographic’s The Story of God.