Prehistoric medicine A recap

Aims of this revision session By the end of this revision lesson you should Understand the problems we have with the evidence and prehistoric medicine Describe the main features of prehistoric medicine Compare and contrast prehistoric medicine and aboriginal medicine and to draw some conclusions

Prehistoric times Prehistoric means before history but really means before written history As a result we have very little evidence and as a result have to make educated guesses about what life was like for people in prehistoric times Usually refers to the people who lived before BC

Problems with the evidence We only have archaeological evidence – problem is it cannot tell us the whole story We also have cave paintings and other finds One way that we can find out evidence is to look at people around the world who lived similar lifestyles to prehistoric people until relatively recently

Lifestyle of prehistoric man Hunter gathers Followed the animals that they hunted Did not farm Rarely lived beyond 30 years Did not write things down Used flint and had a basic understanding of the world Very religious – blamed spirits for good and bad things

Practical ideas Have evidence that they used herbs and spices to treat diseases Evidence that they may have healed broken bones using casts and splints Used berries to cure common conditions such as constipation and diarrhoea

Medicine men Prehistoric men used medicine men to help them to get rid of the evil spirits that thy thought caused disease Used lucky charms to help Used chants and magic spells to help people to get better

Trepanning PH man performed this operation without anaesthetic – removed a piece of the skull to relieve pressure on the brain We know that people survived because we have found skulls where the bone has started to grow back Evidence of early knowledge of surgical techniques

Yet this reason was done for supernatural as opposed to natural reasons They did in order to create a hole through which an evil spirit (which they thought caused the disease) could escape. Also did surgery to remove cysts and moles

The aborigines These are the original inhabitants of Australia Until 100 years back they lived in a similar way to prehistoric men We can make educated guesses about prehistoric men from looking at their lifestyle