Medical archaeology is a relatively new subfield that analyzes materiality such as surgical tools, human bones, and ancient DNA to study the history of healthcare and medicine. Archaeology proposes engaging questions about medicine and health in relationship to artifacts, features, and structures. Medical archaeology also bridges the gaps in knowledge found in textual formats such as medical history. As an anthropology major and pre-med student, I was delighted to examine medicine through an archaeological lens. Overall, this research was a fun break from wrapping my head around organic chemistry concepts.

There are many archaeological finds relating to ancient medicine and health. For example, a 7th-century BC female skull excavated at Thrace shows definitive evidence of cranial surgery. The skull revealed scraping of cranial bone in width, length, and depth. Meanwhile, in Egypt, the Ebers papyrus details physicians’ medical practices. The papyrus suggests the use of Tar in healing skin conditions and rashes. Additionally, the papyrus notes the use of cannabis for healing fingernails. These archaeological finds suggest advanced healing practices and surgery during antiquity. 

A more modern example of medical archaeology is The Archaeology of 19th Century Health and Hygiene at the Sullivan Street Site In New York City. The site focuses on backyard features and artifacts from four house lots. During the 19th century, medicine was the primary medical treatment for illness. Types of treatment available were home remedies, prescribed medicines, and over-the-counter patent medicines. Patent medicines were more affordable than prescription medicines. 

Some Sullivan Street households were Dr. Robson and a lower-class family at 93 Amity Street. Dr. Robson’s assemblage included only medical bottles. Meanwhile, 93 Amity Street only contained patent bottles. Hygiene was increasingly becoming a priority and was associated with moral status. Hygiene items such as soap containers, basins, and toothbrushes were discovered at each Sullivan Street residence. Once more, there were more items discovered at Dr. Robson’s than at 93 Amity Street. Therefore, access to prescription medicine and hygiene products was based on class and wealth. 

What is archaeological science? Archaeological science is an innovative method of approaching historical health and medical practices with archaeological materials such as skeletal remains and ancient DNA. Skeletal and ancient DNA analysis is used to uncover biological sex, health conditions, and diseases. Iron deficiency, known as anemia, is detected in small holes in the skull and ancient DNA analysis. Interestingly, Ancient DNA has been discovered on objects such as a Paleolithic pendant and in sediment from Pleistocene caves. Overall, Extracting ancient DNA is challenging and easily degraded with modern DNA. Archaeological science is so fascinating because it carries archaeology into the future of scientific research and analysis.

Additional Reading

https://medicalmuseum.health.mil

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-archaeological-science

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8178570/

Bibliography

Baker, Patricia Anne 2016Chapter 1, Chapter 7. Essay. In The Archaeology of Medicine in the Greco-Roman World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Diamandopoulos, Demetrios 2014Medicine and Archaeology. Essay. In Medicine and Healing in the Ancient Mediterranean. Oxford: Oxbow Books. 

Howson, Jean E. 1993The Archaeology of 19th-Century Health and Hygiene at the Sullivan Street Site, New York City. Northeast Historical Archaeology 22(1): 137–160. 

Ludlow, Hannah 2020Ancient Skin and Haircare. Project Archaeology. https://projectarchaeology.org/2020/04/17/ancient-skin-and-haircare/, accessed September 9, 2023. 

Massilani, Diyendo, Mike W. Morley, Susan M. Mentzer, et al. 2021Microstratigraphic Preservation of Ancient Faunal and Hominin DNA in Pleistocene Cave Sediments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119(1). 

Saraceni, Jessica Esther N.d.Woman’s DNA Recovered from Prehistoric Pendant. Archaeology Magazine. https://www.archaeology.org/news/11417-230504-denisova-pendant-dna, accessed September 9, 2023. 

Image Credit

Image 1 Google

Image 2 Howson

Image 3 Martin Rowson

The ancient underground city of Derinkuyu, located in present day Turkey, was discovered in 1963 by a man renovating his basement. This massive network of tunnels and rooms extends 280 feet into the earth and contains up to 18 stories. Archaeologists estimate that the city could house 20,000 people. But why was such a large city constructed beneath the earth’s surface? And who could have dug it? And when? And why was it abandoned? Questions like these still plague archaeologists and some of their answers remain undetermined. 

Who could have built such an extensive underground matrix, and when? Archaeologists still aren’t sure. Some christian iconography suggests that they were built by early christians in the first couple centuries CE. Many archaeologists claim that the tunnels were dug before that, by the Phrygians around 700 BCE. However, some believe Derinkuyu could date back to 2000 BCE, built by the Hittites, who dominated the area at the time. If it was the Hittites who built the city, it is certain that they were not the last to reside there. Derinkuyu was likely shared by several different cultures since its original construction. For instance, there is strong evidence to suggest that Christians from the 6th to the 10th century CE made additions to the tunnel network. Determining exactly what cultures inhabited the tunnels is nearly impossible, unfortunately, as any artifacts or iconography to indicate their identity have been replaced with each new community to move in. 

Derinkuyu is located in the historical Cappadocia region, covered in a rocky landscape full of “fairy chimneys”. These stunning natural rock formations are the result of erosion of a type of stone called tuff, which is ironically very soft and ideal for digging. Whoever it was that constructed the underground city had highly advanced rock mining skills, as the soft rock is at high risk of caving in, yet there is no evidence that any rooms ever did. When closed off from the Earth’s surface, the tunnels were ventilated by over 15,000 chimneys. Each was only about 4-5 inches wide, but supplied adequate ventilation to all levels of the city. The upper levels served mainly as the living quarters, as they were the best ventilated. Lower levels were used more for storage as well as a dungeon. All the levels in between contained churches, a convent, a room for wine press, and even housed domestic animals. Some shafts extended even further below the lowest levels, and doubled as wells, which were still being used by modern locals of the area before Derinkuyu’s rediscovery. The name darin kuyu actually translates from Turkish to “deep well”.

For an informational tour of the tunnels, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_7uDG-VJZE

Why was such a large settlement built entirely underground? Most archaeologists share the opinion that Derinkuyu was built as a refuge, whether from enemy armies or the extreme seasons. Enormous rolling stones used to cover the ground level entrances to the city serve as evidence for these claims. Underground, temperatures remained constant and could be regulated, and crops could be stored and protected from the weather. Regardless of the original reason for its construction, Derinkuyu was undoubtedly used as refuge for the local population while the Byzantines and Arabs were at war between the 8th and 12th centuries CE, as well as throughout the Mongol raids of the 14th century. There is even some linguistic evidence in the tunnels that a local Greek population sought shelter there occasionally. After the Greco-Turkish war ended in 1922, the Cappadocian Greeks left the area, taking with them the knowledge that the city, which they had named Malakopia, meaning “soft” in Greek, ever existed beneath the ground. 

Derinkuyu is not alone beneath the Turkish landscape. Hundreds of subterranean dwellings have been discovered and explored around the area. Until recently, none came close to the grandeur of Derinkuyu. But in 2014, another underground city was discovered nearby in Nevsehir, which may rival Derinkuyu’s impressive size. Though it has yet to be fully explored, seismic surveys indicate that this city may extend as deep as 370 feet, almost 100 feet deeper than Derinkuyu, and contain almost five million square feet. It was similarly built, containing living spaces, kitchens, churches, linseed presses to produce oil for lighting. Artifacts such as grindstones, ceramics, and crosses suggest that this city was used in the Byzantine era and through the Ottoman conquest. However, though we know the Byzantines inhabited the site, we cannot know for sure that they were the people to originally construct it. Questions of who really constructed these massive underground dwellings and when remain unanswered and up to interpretation. 

For information on more subterranean cities in Turkey, check out this website:

The mystery of Derinkuyu’s original construction illuminates a very important aspect of archaeology. While artifacts found at a site may provide reason to believe that their owners did reside there, they do not always prove that their owners were the ones to construct the site as a whole. Throughout human history, property has been passed on from culture to culture. Countless cities have been abandoned by one culture and adopted by another. Countless cities have been captured and reclaimed. Sometimes, we find evidence of the entire lineage of cultures to inhabit these places. However, often, traces of a culture’s presence can be wiped away by time and those who followed. This only emphasizes the fact that nothing in archaeology is certain and there are some questions which have been lost to time and can never be answered.

References:

“Derinkuyu: Mysterious Underground City in Turkey Found in Man’s Basement.” Big Think, June 30, 2022. https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/derinkuyu-underground-city/. 

Pinkowski, Jennifer. “Massive Underground City Found in Cappadocia Region of Turkey.” Adventure, May 4, 2021. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/150325-underground-city-cappadocia-turkey-archaeology. 

Written forms of documentation can be very effective in inspiring archaeological surveys and site discovery. Beginning in 1845, archaeologists, concerned with corroborating Old Testament accounts of the cities of Nineveh and Calah happened upon the ancient ruins of Northern Iraq’s ancient city of Kalhu, known today as Nimrud. In 1949, British archaeologists continued a well-documented excavation of the site, uncovering the remains of an ancient palace dedicated to King Ashurnasirpal II. Determining age of the artifacts to be discovered at this site became relatively easy due to documentation of ancient rulers, which placed King Ashurnasirpal’s rule as approximately 833-859 BCE. Bricks made by brick-makers for the construction of the King’s palace were excavated, and using knowledge of ancient Cuneiform text, the context of one specific brick artifact became explicit (figure 1). However, if it had not been for this inscription, the context of the artifact would have been harder to determine due to centuries of upheaval in the area that destroyed the palace the brick came from. While the clay brick had been discovered with a horizontal break, the handling of the artifact in the year 2020 resulted in the vertical break within the lower half of the brick (figure 1). While initially deemed unfortunate, this mistake presented a unique opportunity: The analysis of an uncontaminated sample of clay that could be dated with almost absolute certainty.

As we have learned in class, the preservation of artifacts depends on a multitude of factors ranging from the type of material to environmental conditions. The clay brick was preserved in great condition, as well-fired clay is great for preservation, and the artifact’s dry underground environment contributed to sustained preservation. Scientific study of the uncontaminated sections of the brick was uncomplicated due to this level of preservation. Samples of the clay brick were taken from five distinct spots (figure 2). Analysis of the brick determined that it was made of mud collected near the Tigris River, and DNA analysis led to the discovery of multiple ecofacts –botanical material and animal dung.

The DNA analysis of the brick resulted in the detection of thirty four taxonomic groups of plants including cabbage, heather, birch, laurels, and cultivated grasses. In the future, the use of Assyrian plant descriptions and modern botanical records could offer us a glimpse into the ancient biodiversity of the region and help with modern studies of biodiversity loss. The scientific study of the clay brick has launched a multitude of efforts to better understand the cultures of ancient societies surrounding the cultivation of plants and the use of plants in ancient medicine.

Further readings:

References:

Arbøll, Troels Pank, Sophie Lund Rasmussen, Nadieh de Jonge, Anne Haslund Hansen, Cino Pertoldi, and Jeppe Lund Nielsen. “Revealing the Secrets of a 2900-Year-Old Clay Brick, Discovering a Time Capsule of Ancient DNA.” Nature News, August 22, 2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-38191-w.

Leonard, Ben. “Plant DNA Extracted from Ancient Clay Brick.” Archaeology Magazine, August 23, 2023. https://www.archaeology.org/news/11699-230823-iraq-brick-dna.

Mark, Joshua J. “The Nimrud Ivories: Their Discovery & History.” World History Encyclopedia, September 7, 2023. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/784/the-nimrud-ivories-their-discovery–history/.

Shown above is what to be believed as the largest ancient city found in Egypt. The site dates from the era of 18th-dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III, who ruled between 1386 and 1353 B.C. and presided over an era of extraordinary wealth, power and luxury.  It has been buried under the sand for thousands of years and many archeologist believe this is one of the most significant discoveries since the finding of King Tutankhamun’s Tomb. This land was not only under-control of the pharaoh Amenhotep III but continued to be used by King Tutankhamun. Many items were preserved and uncovered during the excavation of this site. These include jewelry, colored pottery, amulets, and mud-bricks that show the seals of Amenhotep III. These discoveries shows what life was like during their wealthiest years.

For more info on what it meant to archeologist: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/09/lost-golden-city-ancient-egypt-aten-discovered#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20Egyptian%20mission%20under%20Dr,Aten%2C%20ever%20uncovered%20in%20Egypt.

Finding this civilization was a major discovery in the world of archeology as many artifacts and ecofacts have been uncovered during the excavation time period. These items were able to tell stories of the past and gave us more information on what life was like nearly 3,000 years ago for these Ancient Egyptians. The mission expected to reveal untouched tombs with a variety of different items and that is exactly what they did. 22 bodies were found including both Amenhotep III and his wife Queen Tiye. Archaeological theory involves examining the cultural and symbolic significance of artifacts. The golden objects and other artifacts found in the city provide insights into the culture, beliefs, and practices of the ancient Egyptians who lived there. Along with this, the discovery of these objects created from a variety of materials, including gold gives us evidence of the wealth in this society.

After the son Akhenaten fled the city archeologist were able to study the area and see that four distinct settlement layers were shown. This means only four groups of people used this land until it eventually became untouched by humans. Because of this the city seems to be so well preserved. Many archeologist question why groups decided to leave but also see it as a huge gain as we can now study everything that went into these neighborhoods. Being able to now see the life these rulers left behind gives us so much more information on what lives were like during that time period. The ‘Lost Golden City’ has been one of the most significant findings in archeology and after years of excavation they are still uncovering more.

For more info on discovery as a whole: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/lost-golden-city-luxor-discovered-archaeologists-egypt

Video Showing Artifacts and Info on History: https://youtu.be/jTpoOh7D7AY

CItation:

“3,000-Year-Old ‘lost Golden City’ of Ancient Egypt Discovered.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 9 Apr. 2021, www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/09/lost-golden-city-ancient-egypt-aten-discovered#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20Egyptian%20mission%20under%20Dr,Aten%2C%20ever%20uncovered%20in%20Egypt.

Blakemore, Erin. “‘lost Golden City of Luxor’ Discovered by Archaeologists in Egypt.” History, National Geographic, 26 Jan. 2022, www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/lost-golden-city-luxor-discovered-archaeologists-egypt.

A volcanic eruption in 79 AD preserved the Roman city Pompeii as it existed at the moment of the eruption. In class we discussed how Pompeii is not a time capsule. Following Pompeii’s preservation came looters, excavations, and repairs that have since altered the site. Contrary to popular belief, Vesuvius did not preserve daily life in Pompeii. It preserved a city in chaos, with people fleeing the city and buildings damaged by earthquakes and falling rocks (Wallace-Hadrill, 87). We know so much about Pompeii today not only because of how the site was preserved, but also because of written remains. As Vesuvius erupted, Pliny the Younger documented what he observed (Wallace-Hadrill, 4). Furthermore, the city was covered in inscriptions and graffiti. There are buildings and statues with dedications to those who patroned them. There are programmata (graffiti that endorse candidates during local elections) and regular graffiti on the walls of most buildings (Akar and Stevens, 167). Looking at the different types of artifacts and features found at this site can reveal the lives of underrepresented groups at Pompeii. For example, at Asellina’s tavern there are programmata that implies that a woman owned the tavern and employed other women, despite women not being full citizens.

In one programmata, Asellina and her girls ask that C. Lollius Fuscus become duumvir, which was a high political office (Akar and Stevens, 166). In another programmata, Asellina alone promotes L. Celsius Secundus for duumvir. Maria and Aegle endorse Cn. Helvius Sabinus for the position of aedile and Zmyrina endorses C. Polybius as duumvir (Bernstein, 12-13).

It is believed that Asellina owned this tavern because she signed off on programmata alone, because her name regularly appeared in other programmata, and because Zmyrina, Maria, and Aegle were referred to as Asellina’s girls (Ruddell, 18). Asellina’s name was Roman, but her girls had foreign names, with Zmyrina’s name coming from Asia Minor, Maria’s from Hebrew, and Aegle’s from Greek. For this reason, they are believed to be waitresses and possibly slaves (Ruddell, 47).

More than 2500 programmata have been found at Pompeii. Of those 2500 only 400 are signed and only around 60 are signed by women. Of those 60, four are signed by Asellina, Zmyrina, Maria, and Aegle (Akar and Stevens, 167). Four women who weren’t legally citizens, some of whom were likely slaves, involved themselves in politics they legally couldn’t participate in. Graffiti on the outer wall of Asellina’s Tavern.

By looking at the features of this specific site, we are able to learn about the lives of people otherwise unseen. We get a glimpse of the lives of non-elite women in Pompeii.

To learn more about how class and wealth influenced how women got power at Pompeii, read: https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1448584/files/77494697/download?verifier=Y5SJwipWmhWb8iBmgJ2yB9tPAEXhPs6iGTxC85K0&download_frd=1

To learn more about inns and taverns at Pompeii, read: https://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/16855

References:

Akar, Philippe, and Anne Stevens. 2016. “Women as Political Activists in Pompeii.” Clio. Women, Gender, History Volume (43): 166–74.

Bernstein, Frances. 1988. “Pompeian Woman and the Programmata.” In Studia Pompeiana & Classica in Honor of Wilhelmina F. Jashemski, edited by Robert I. Curtis, 1-18. New Rochelle, NY: A.D. Caratzas.

Magel, Shmuel. “Thermopolium of Asellina (IX, 11, 2) on Via dell’Abbondanza, and painted advertisements on the wall”. JSTOR, c2010. From Sites and Photos. https://jstor.org/stable/community.15296454 (accessed September 9, 2023).

Poehler, Eric. “A Map for the Grande Progetto Di Pompei and the Portale Della Trasparenza.” Pompeii Bibliography and Mapping Project, January 18, 2015. https://digitalhumanities.umass.edu/pbmp/?p=1448.

Ruddell, Sharon M. 1964. “The Inn, Restaurant and Tavern Business in Ancient Pompeii” Master’s thesis. University of Maryland

Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew. 1994. Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP.