Death and Disease in the Ancient City PDF

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Human frailty and mortality influence the structure and functioning of all societies; questions of how the ancients coped with their own mortality, how they sought to classify and control the causes of death, and how they treated the dying and the dead, are therefore central to any understanding of antiquity. This innovative volume draws upon recent research in archaeology, ancient history, and the history of medicine to evaluate all these issues. It addresses a wide range of topics, including views of ancient disease causation; public and private health measures; how the natural and urban environment affected the well-being of the individual; how the city was organised to protect the health and safety of the living; and how the living sought protection from the polluting influence of both the diseased and the dead. Lucid and accessible, this work is the first to unite the study of death and disease in antiquity, providing valuable insights into how these factors shaped the ancient city. It will appeal not only to classical scholars and students, but to all those interested in the history of death and disease.

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• Product Details
• Table of Contents
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• Series: Routledge Classical Monographs
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (September 20, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415214270
• ISBN-13: 978-0415214278
• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 5.9 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Death and Disease in the Ancient City PDF

Death and Disease in the Ancient City is a well-edited -- nay, fantastically edited -- collection of essays that provide an eye-opening look at a subject seldom touched upon, but which is of great importance if we are to understand the everyday reality of human existence thousands of years ago: the utter precariousness of life itself, and the specter of a possible sudden death from a myriad of sources that seemed to hang over the heads of all classes of people like the Sword of Damocles. This book deals with how the ancients viewed diseases, how they ritualized and fetishized death and mourning, and how they tried to fit the fragility and helplessness of their own lives into rational (for them) cosmological and epistemological schemes that could provide comfort and some sense of understanding of and coping with the awesome forces that could cruelly wrench existence from the living in, literally, a heartbeat.

The essays in this volume provide vital discussions on a myriad of fascinating topics, and plenty of notes have been provided to help the reader do more research on his or her own. The co-editor's dedication to providing readable and intriguing meditations on these matters is laudable, and pulled off successfully. This book is sure to be the standard tome on this subject for years to come, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

By Robert D. Archer