Prehistoric people's health

The study of ancient people and their illnesses is known as paleopathology. Although the focus of this science is on old and ‘dusty’ specimens, the field itself is one that is brimming with new discoveries.

In the Paleolithic Age, the earliest stage of human evolution, social structures consisted of small groups of hunters and gatherers, and life was dangerous with numerous challenges to health.

The burials sites of Neanderthals provided a great deal of evidence that enabled scientist to study about prehistoric peoples. Some of the skeletons showed signs of bone disease such as arthritis, that must have developed over many years.

Prehistoric humans initially had simple approaches to health, which became more complex as their behavioral and cultural repertoire developed.

Ancient medicine evolved over millennia, in interchange with culture and society. It later provided a platform for traditional medicine, which continues to be practices today, for modern biomedicine.

Disease was present on earth long before human life, and scientists can only speculate about the human practice of prehistoric medicine.

Prehistoric people probably treated their wounds similarly to the way animals treat themselves: immersing themselves in cool water and applying mud to irritated areas, sucking stings, licking wounds and exerting pressure on wounds to stop the bleeding.

Anthropologists have found that some primitive peoples employ a variety of means for staunching the flow of blood, for example using herbs or roots, often with astringent or antibacterial qualities, that they apply to the wound on the form of powders or poultices.
Prehistoric people's health

Archeology: Limitation and Contributions to Understanding of Human Culture

One of the limitations on archeology is that what remains are only the durable materials of a past culture. These are not necessarily what the people might have left if they had wanted to show us what was important to them.

Prehistoric peoples did not have the future in mind when they dump their garbage or buried their dead; they did not provide us with a time capsule containing records of their way of life.

Thus not only must we interpret the material they left behind within the limited context in which we find them, such as a burial site or a refuse pit; we must also try to paint a picture of an entire way of life without the hope of ever finding physical evidence for much of that picture.

We can make an inventory of the kinds of tools or weapons of early humans used at a given sites, and we can note which ones are found most often, how they are made and so forth.

What, then, can archeology contribute to our understanding of human culture and social behavior? First, we can learn much about the technology of earlier peoples through their materials remains, as well as through analysis of such aspects of their life style as what they ate.

For example we can tell whether a particular group lived mainly by hunting or fishing or farming. A second aspect of the life of early peoples that is revealed to us through archeology is their economic practices.

For example, sometimes we find pottery or jewelry made from materials that are to have known available only in distant place. This usually means that these items were not made at the site but obtained through some other means – either by traveling to the place where they were available or by trading with other group.

Finally, archeology evidence can reveal a great deal about certain aspects of the religious and spiritual life of ancient societies. We can recognize sacred objects by their location in centers of religious activity or in burial sites.

When we are fortunate enough to find their temples or other religious structures, we can determine their importance and their influence on the society. But in other areas it is very hard to interpret the evidence.

Thus we know little about ancient people their feelings about spirit and so forth. Even when we find materials object that might suggest such beliefs; we cannot ask anyone to explain their meaning but must go on what we know about other aspects of that society and later societies that seem to be similar to it.