Ancient Medicine: From Mesopotamia to Rome

This book by Laura Zucconi is an accessible introductory text to the practice and theory of medicine in the ancient world. In contrast to other works that focus heavily on Greece and Rome, Zucconi’s Ancient Medicine covers a broader geographical and chronological range. The world of medicine in antiquity consisted of a lot more than Hippocrates and Galen.

Zucconi applies historical and anthropological methods to examine the medical cultures of not only Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome but also the Levant, the Anatolian Peninsula, and the Iranian Plateau. Devoting special attention to the fundamental relationship between medicine and theology, Zucconi’s one-volume introduction brings the physicians, patients, procedures, medicines, and ideas of the past to light.

Laura M. Zucconi is associate professor of historical studies at Stockton College, Galloway, New Jersey, a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge, and the author of Can No Physician Be Found? The Influence of Religion on Medical Pluralism in Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Israel.