t
imeline of the dissemination of medical knowledge
Wellcome Library, London.
Ebers Papyrus
0
BC
BC
0 32
E
50 15 BCE
Or the Book of the Dead, written
0
ca
Believed to have been written ca
Sumer – though there is suggestion of synchronous development in Egypt and China
Papyrus of Ani 30
First Written Language
E
Edwin Smith Papyrus
Wellcome Library, London.
In the reign of Ptolemy. The Alexandrian library may have preserved 400,000 to 700,000 papyrus rolls—the largest collection of recorded information in the ancient world.
ca
Believed to have been written
Royal Library of Alexandria Founded
0 16
Aulus Cornelius Celsus
0
BC
Composed the earliest surviving major medical treatise written in Latin: De Medicina
E
Wellcome Library, London.
75 12 BCE
Trephination is thought to have been performed in order to release evil spirits from the body, which were believed to be responsible for causing illness.
The Last Day of Pompeii, Karl Briullov Public Doman. Wikimedia Commons.
BCE)
10 5
Science Museum, London. Wellcome Images.
(Beginnings of Corpus Hippocraticum, ca 430
40
Hippocrates
E BC
E
Tools, such as pieces of flint and sharp animal teeth, were used to cut into the skull, even in the Neolithic period.
12 21 BCE
Wellcome Library, London.
79
Life of Sushruta ca
60
Libraries Buried at Pompeii and Herculaneum
0
BC
E
00
BC
E
00 12 0
BC
E
00 12 5
BC
E
00 13 0
BC
E
00 13 5
BC
E
00 14 0
E
BC
14 5
00
BC
E
50
CE
BC
E
00 15 0
E
0 BC
15 50
E
BC
16 0
00
CE
15 B 0
10 B 0
00
00
0
12 9
ca
15 0
00
00
BC
Oldest Surgical Procedure
5 37 E 0 - BC
50
Though cave paintings appear from 30,000 BCE, one drawing ca. 15000 BC depicts a mammoth with a leaf-shaped dark area where the heart should be, perhaps the first anatomical drawing.
Galen Born
46
One of the oldest known ancient Mesopotamian medical texts is a collection of 15 prescriptions written in Sumerian on a clay tablet.
ca
Cave Paintings
Wellcome Library, London.
ca
Medical Clay Tablet
The Invention of Paper in China
Wellcome Library, London.