The hill of Monte Carru (Alghero) has brought to light a necropolis of Roman Empire, (1st-3rd century AD). The necropolis shows different burial rituals with 200 cremations and 150 inhumations. This necropolis can be attributed to the Roman settlement of Carbia, mentioned by the Antoninian Itinerary, a document written during Caracalla’s time (212-217 AD), which was probably located in this area but it hasn’t been found yet. The aims of the research are the preliminary constitutional and biodemographic reconstruction of this population, through sex and age determination, the reconstruction of the health condition and the lifestyle of the population. The analysis has shown higher percentage of adult individuals (47% males and 36% females) with average age of death of 19/35 years. Important the low percentage of pathologies and a sexual dimorphism in enthesopathies. The paleodiet analysis of bones, performed by XRF of trace elements, showed an almost constant presence of Zinc and Stronzium due to an essentially omnivorous diet.
This essay fits in the tradition of writing fictional life stories according to the bioarchaeology of personhood model, with much attention for objects, care and anthropological comparison. As a starting point, it takes recent excavations at Ostia and environs. Ever since the nineteenth century, both writers and historians have tried to come closer to the voices of the past by writing faction. This is, however, the first attempt to bring disabled persons from the Roman period to life. The essay tries to do do justice to the multifaceted experiences of disabled people, who were never categorized as such in the ancient world.
This chapter provides a review of breast, breastfeeding and breast-milk in the Middle Ages through the socio-cultural and medical perspectives. The different socio-cultural and economic factors that were influential in determination of the selection of the nursing person; the mother versus a wet nurse are discussed. The chapter also provides the recommendations of medieval medical authorities in terms of “qualities of the breastfeeding person” and “the ideal breast milk”
This work discusses on the problems of the differential diagnosis in paleopathology, describing one case of intense modification observed in a skeletal sample from the archaelogical site of Baucina (Sicily, VI century BCE). Difficulties in this setting originate mainly from the aspecificity or absence of pathological markers on ancient bones and confounding features arising from clinical phenocopies or taphonomic artifacts. On the base of an in-depth morphological analysis of the find, with aid of CT scan imaging and wide revision of the medical and paleopathological literature, we arrived to a convincing diagnosis.
In the early 19 century the cholera endemic in Bengal spread to the West as an effect of theth revolution in transportation resulting from the invention of the steam engine. Tuscany was struck in 1835 and then, even more violently, in 1854-55. Between 2007 and 2010, the Division of Paleopathology of the University of Pisa undertook the archaeological exploration of the cholera cemetery of Benabbio, a mountain village near Lucca, where the cholera lashed between August and October of 1855 causing 46 deaths in a population of around 900 inhabitants. The archaeological excavation of the cholera cemetery made it possible to detect for the first time the characteristics of these types of burials and provide a new resource for anthropologists and historians of medicine revealing the differences between persistent traditional local customs and regulations imposed by the religious and civic authorities.
For many centuries, the physician’s interest in the female body and, consequently, in the diseases linked to the genitourinary system and the differences between the sexual organs, tended to concentrate on philosophical traditions whose origins were rooted in anthropological, religious, magical and superstitious notions, rather than actually making use of biological observations. Even when the great authors speak of ‘woman’s illnesses’, they almost all refer to pregnancy and childbirth and thus celebrate their exclusive and recognised social role as ‘breeders’. There was only one exception, in other words, when dealing with diseases that could affect the female breast and, in particular, tumour pathology. Precisely because the breast could be identified as a more immediate sexual attraction for men, this organ was considered their personal ‘property’, especially after having nourished them and subsequently fulfilling them sexually, and therefore great interest and special attention was paid to any diseases affecting it. As a result, the breast wrote its own ‘history’, which followed two parallel and often overlapping paths in the 14 th -16 th centuries: the first pigeonholed it as ‘‘traditional knowledge’, expressed in Recipes and Secret Advice dedicated exclusively to women; while the second took form in the production of treatises in the medical field, which exploited the progress in anatomic knowledge on physiology and pathology carried out on respectively healthy and sick organs.
This study focusses on some diseases that occurred in the human remains from the Samnitic necropolis of Opi Val Fondillo (AQ) by the river Sangro in the middle of the National Park of Abruzzo (Central Italy). Up to now, 89 people have undergone general anthropological investigations. Further inquiries were necessary. The most common pathological disorders were cervical, lumbar and sternoclavicular arthrosis. There were some skeletal evidences of identifiable traumas; particularly the fractures of ribs and upper limbs. The incidence of developmental defects in the skeletal population is moderate. Moreover, there is a case of cancer to report: a cranial osteoma, that is a benign tumor localized on the right side of the frontal bone, with a diameter of about 1 cm, formed by a dense, symptomatic lamellar bone with no consequences during life.
During the restoration of the church of the Conversion of St. Paul, located in Roccapelago, 400 individuals were found, who had lived between 17th and 18th century CE. Thanks to the simple stratigraphy of the site and to the secure dating of the layers, it was possible to investigate the development of paleopathological and occupational aspects from the 17th to the 18th century. This study analyzes possible social and occupational changes through anthropological analysis, using a statistical method, to highlight a phase of social transition that took place in the community of Roccapelago during the 17 th and 18 th centuries.
This paper discusses the transmission of a surgical procedure for the correction of gynecomastia, or female-like breasts in men. The procedure originated in Greek medicine and was passed to Arabic and later Latin authors on surgery. The paper argues that persistence of the text and its adaptation into Latin are evidence that the procedure maintained a gendered meaning for Latin authors. This gendered meaning led Latin authors to continue copying the procedure, though not to perform it.
ANNE OF AUSTRIA AND THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BREAST CANCER DURING THE XVII CENTURY IN FRANCE Through the example of Anne of Austria’s disease (1601-1666), we will see how the physio-pathological and therapeutic concepts of breast cancer evolved in this pivotal period that was the second half of the 17th century in France. We will also be interested in the political meaning of cancerous disease, and the food therapy that meets the belief of cancer-animal.
The skeletal remains of Saints Attinia and Greciniana are preserved in a glass box in the Cathedral of Volterra. According to the tradition the two Saints suffered martyrdom by spear and sword around 303 AD, at the time of the Diocletian persecution of Christians. The Division of Paleopathology of the University of Pisa performed an anthropological and paleopathological examination of the skeletal remains attributed to Attinia and Greciniana, which in the Modern Age were arranged in an artistic manner, with several flower decorations and with the long bones tied together. The study demonstrated that the remains belonged respectively to a female individual aged 25-30 years and to a mature female aged 50-55 years, and that the two women showed no anthropological evidences of childbirth. No alterations were observed, except for dental pathologies in both skeletons and degenerative arthritic changes in Saint Greciniana. The bones showed signs of extensive past restorative interventions.
A WOMAN’S BOSOM IN THE EYES OF FRENCH DOCTORS IN THE 16th AND 17th CENTURIES The breasts were considered to be the most important glands in a woman’s body by French doctors in the 16th and 17th centuries. Medical practitioners were interested in this especially curious and practical anatomical organ for it’s ability to produce food, it’s anatomy, and it’s diseases and how to cure them. In my article, I want to show the doctor’s perspective of women’s breasts at the beginning of modern times in France. Initially, I describe the problems of breasts from an anatomical point of view and I show the controversies related to the phenomenon of breastfeeding. Secondly, I endeavour to identify the most common breast diseases during this period and present methods of treatment. I also demonstrate the curative care that was prescribed in all kinds of pharmacopoeia.
TOXIC DRUGS AND REMEDIES AGAINST POISONS IN THE PS. ORIBASIUS’S ECLOGAE The text concerns the Ps. Oribasius’s Eclogae medicamentorum and in particular focuses on the toxicological section which is quite extensive (chapter 117-135) compared to the brevity of the whole work (one book). We will analyze some selected passages, chosen within this section, to examine in comparison with the sources or the indirect tradition and to propose some new solutions of restitution and interpretation of the text.
TRINI COLORES, CANDIDUS PRIMO, MOX RUBENS, MATURIS NIGER (nat. 15, 97) TREES COLOURS MEDICINE: SUGGESTIONS FROM BOOKS 15 AND 23 OF THE NATURALIS HISTORIA BY PLINIUS THE ELDER Books 15 and 23 of the Naturalis Historia by Plinius the Elder are part of his opera dedicated to botany. Book 15 is a compendium relating to the observation and description of specific nature and characteristics of the olive tree and of fruit trees, mostly cultivated; these trees are also analyzed in the book through digressions on the remedia. Book 23 is articulated as a broad reflection on medicinal properties (medicinae arborum) of the trees described in Book 15. These two books, even if one independent from the other, can be read in parallel. Basically, I present my study about the two books following the original organization of the Plinian opera; it focuses not only on the investigation about the term colour itself, but also about the names of the different colours and other terms or attributions attributable to the colour/colours. The search for colour in the original texts is more emphasized in the analysis of Book 15; otherwise, I offer Book 23 as a reduced promptuarium medicinarum arborum, obviously based on the Plinian description. In the end, some brief considerations on the value of colour in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The late Alexandrian physician Antyllus (approx. 2 nd century AD) was one of the most important surgeons of Graeco-Roman antiquity and the only ancient surgeon whose writing is quoted in the Arab world. The fragments of his handbook transmit a part of the knowledge from the Alexandrian period, in which surgery reached its climax. The original surgical treatises of this era have all been lost as has been Antyllus’ handbook. However, numerous Greek and Arabic fragments of it still survive in compilations. The present paper provides a first edition of Antyllus’ chapter on lithotomy, reconstructed from the Arabic. Lithotomy was one of the most serious interventions of elective surgery practised during antiquity. This topic is particularly well covered in the Arabic Antyllus fragments, so that the chapter can probably almost be entirely reconstructed. Several new insights into the diagnosis and treatment of urolithiasis in antiquity can be retrieved from this chapter, facts that were hitherto unknown from other ancient sources. A comparison of the reconstructed chapter with the same one in the Byzantine compilation by Paul of Aegina further reveals that Paul used Antyllus as his unquoted source, making some modifications and shortening the text. The Arabic fragments mentioned can be found in al-Rāzī’s Kitāb al-Ḥāwī (Rhazes’ Liber Continens), which is currently only available through incomplete and philologically inadequate Latin and Arabic editions. Considerations for a new standard for editions from the Ḥāwī are outlined in this paper as well. For this edition, manuscripts were collated that have not been used by scholars so far.
When Galen was still living, pseudo-Galenic texts were sold in Rome under his name, as Galen himself tells us in the initial passage of his bio-bibliographical work De libris propris. In Late Anquity and the Early Middle Ages, there were more Pseudo-Galenic texts available in Latin than Galenic works, as Klaus-Dietrich Fischer showed in a seminal article published in this journal in 2013. Later on, Pseudo-Galenic texts continued to be added to the Galenicum Corpus, which increased over time until the 17th century. This paper examines the Pseudo-Galenic texts in the twenty-five complete editions of Galen published in Latin, in Greek and in Greek-Latin from 1490 to 1689, particularly how their number, their identity, the way they were defined and considered, and whether they have been the subject of philological investigation.
Salomania is a phenomenon spreading very rapidly from 1906 on; a fanaticism for the new cruel and “uncanny” feminine type. “Uncanny” (a term often used by recent muscology) translates the German Unheimlich introduced by Freud to indicate those phenomena that affect expectations and overturn the shared human qualities. The perturbation aroused by the mythical figure of Salome derives not so much from the absence of moral limits, but from its behavioral traits contrasting with the representation of the redemptive ewig Weibliche, and closer to the violent will of male possession. In the construction of the new figure, non-Wagnerian singers (Gemma Bellincioni, Mary Garden, Aino Akte) played a fundamental role, as musch as the dancers who created the instinctive and unconventional “modern dance” (Maud Allan, Ida Rubinstein, Isadora Duncan). Key words: Salomania - Unheimlich - Danza - Teatro
The present book explores the history of the breast and of breastfeeding from Antiquity to the Renaissance. Consulting a large range of sources – including medical sources, literary testimonia, sculptural and painting representations – the contributors look at the breast and breastfeeding from sacred, religious, erotic, psychological and scientific perspectives. This interdisciplinary approach is also socio-anthropological in the sense that the authors offer new culturalhistorical interpretations that enrich our knowledge of the female breast as a symbol of beauty, fertility and femininity. In addition, the contributors provide a study of the socio-cultural aspects of breastfeeding practices.
At the turn of the 19th century, the theater expressed and often anticipated the tensions that animated contemporary neuropsychiatric research, and at the start of the 20th century the concepts of neurosis, hypnosis and hysteria burst onto theatrical stages in dramaturgic and musical creations. Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Elektra of 1903 (later set to music by Richard Strauss), whose heroine is stigmatized from the very start as “a case of hysteria” is an emblematic example. Key words: Theater - Music - Literature
The Hippocratic corpus includes several treatises dealing with gynaecological diseases where ailments of the breast appear, mainly related to gravidity and lactation; breast is mentioned in individual patients as well. Some changes in the breast along pregnancy could foretell health, disease and death of the foetus. Galen considered the design of the vessels that nurture breast and uterus, a wonderful achievement of Nature. Both of them have their origin in the same veins and are useful to eliminate excess and purify the body. When menstruation stops because of gravidity, there remains an excess in the vessels that is accumulated as milk in the upper part of the body, because the embryo pushes the vessels upwards. The genesis of milk had been earlier studied by the Hippocratics, Aristotle and Soranus. Men breasts were also considered. Paulus of Aegina explained the problem of men with gynecomastia, and explained the ways to eliminate it.
