The purpose of this study is to examine the healing strategies
employed by the inhabitants of Egypt during the Roman period, from
the late first century BC to the fourth century AD, in order to
explore how Egyptian, Greek and Roman customs and traditions
interacted within the province. Thus this study aims to make an
original contribution to the history of medicine, by offering a
detailed examination of the healing strategies (of which 'rational'
medicine was only one) utilised by the inhabitants of one
particular region of the Mediterranean during a key phase in its
history, a region, moreover, which by virtue of the survival of
papyrological evidence offers a unique opportunity for study. Its
interdisciplinary approach, which integrates ancient literary,
documentary, archaeological and scientific evidence, presents a new
approach to understanding healing strategies in Roman provincial
culture. It refines the study of healing within Roman provincial
culture, identifies diagnostic features of healing in material
culture and offers a more contextualised reading of ancient medical
literary and documentary papyri and archaeological evidence. This
study differs from previous attempts to examine healing in Roman
Egypt in that it tries, as far as possible, to encompass the full
spectrum of healing strategies available to the inhabitants of the
province. The first part of this study comprises two chapters and
focuses on the practitioners of healing strategies, both
'professional' and 'amateur'. Chapter 2 examines those areas of
ancient medicine that have traditionally been neglected or
summarily dismissed by scholars: 'domestic' and 'folk' medicine
with particular emphasis on the extent to which the specific
natural environment of any given location affects healing
strategies. Chapter Three examines the nature and frequency of eye
diseases and injuries suffered by the inhabitants of Roman Egypt.
Chapter Four examines the nature and frequency of the fevers
suffered by the inhabitants of Roman Egypt, focusing first on the
disease malaria, which is attested by papyrological, archaeological
and palaeopathological evidence as having been suffered throughout
Egypt. Chapter Five examines the dangers that the animal species of
Egypt could pose to the inhabitants of the province, focusing
particularly upon snakes, scorpions, crocodiles and lions, as
attested by papyrological and epigraphic evidence such as private
letters, mummy labels and epitaph inscriptions. The concluding
chapter underlines the importance for a study of the healing
strategies utilised in any province of the Roman Empire (or indeed
any region in the ancient world) of taking into account the
historical, geographical, cultural and social context of the
location in question.
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