How did health and medicine develop from Prehistoric times to Ancient Egypt ?
In the Pre-historic period people believed illness and disease were caused by spirits and Gods.
Ill people were usualy treated by the medicine man or women. Illness and injury was treated by herbs and charms.
A form of surgery was used called Trephining this involved drilling a hole into the skull using a sharp flint.
This was used for severe headaches or to let out evil spirits that they believed were causing pain and illness. Most people died from this but there have been skulls found with the bone regrown over the hole, which shows that some survived this dangerous ordeal.
The Eqytptian period witnessed a number of changes in medicine. One such change was specalist doctors, they tried to expand there knowledge of illnesses and medicines.
Another change was new herbs and plants being brought from different countries through trade.This ment that docotors had more plants to use as remedies.
These changes were brought about by a number of factors. One such factor was communication. The Egyptians invented papyrus which was a kind of paper made from reeds, they also came up with a simple, easy way of writing. This ment that the medical information could be recorded down acuratley and then passed on or even swaped for other information.
Another factor was education. However not everything changed. There were some continuities. For example people still believed that spirits and gods caused illness.
These changes resulted in progress and regression in medicine because even though Egyptians learned a little about anatomy due to mummification, disection of the body was forbidden as they believed that you needed your body in the afterlife.
