The international conference "Egypt and Cyprus in Antiquity" held in Nicosia in April 2003 filled an important gap in historical knowledge about Cyprus' relations with its neighbours. While the island's links with the Aegean and the Levant have been well documented and continue to be the subject of much archaeological attention, the exchanges between Cyprus and the Nile Valley are not as well known and have not before been comprehensively reviewed. They range in date from the mid third millennium B.C. to Late Antiquity and encompass every kind of interconnection, including political union. Their novelty lies in the marked differences between the ancient civilisations of Cyprus and Egypt, the distance between them geographically, which could be bridged only by ship, and the unusual ways they influenced each other's material and spiritual cultures. The papers delivered at the conference covered every aspect of the relationship, with special emphasis on the tangible evidence for the movement of goods, people and ideas between the two countries over a 3000 year period.

There are many recoverable aspects and indications concerning medicine and healing in the ancient past - from the archaeological evidence of skeletal remains, grave-goods comprising medical and/or surgical equipment and visual representations in tombs and other monuments thorough to epigraphic and literary sources. The 42 papers presented here cover many aspects medicine in the Mediterranean world during Antiquity and early Byzantine times, bringing together both internationally established specialists on the history of medicine and researchers in the early stages of their career. The contributions are grouped under a series of headings: medicine and archaeology; media (online access to electronic corpus); the Aegean; medical authors/schools of medicine; surgery; medicaments and cures; skeletal remains; new research in Cyprus; Asklepios and incubation; and Byzantine, Arab and medieval sources. These subject areas are addressed through a combination of wide ranging archaeological and osteological data and the examination and interpretation of philosophical, literary and historiographical texts to provide a comprehensive suite of studies into early practices in this fundamental field of human experience.