Was pre-historic medicine sophisticated? Essay

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Pre-Historic Medicine Essay

Numerous people believe that pre-historic medicine was based on superstition and paranormal beliefs. This is due to the diminutive evidence that is recovered and the absence of written language. In fact, pre history is the era in which there was no written language which is why historians find it so difficult to establish hard evidence about pre historic medicine. However, to some, the pre-historic era was the era in which man kind progressed greatly. Why? Well, there theory goes a bit like this. If you were new to this earth, and was given a mountain enriched with pure gold as well as a million miles of river deposited with diamonds and ruby (and you did not know what these were), would you be able to create a beautiful gold ring encrusted with ruby and diamond. Many say that this was the situation that the pre-historians were in. They had no clue how they came, what they were made of, where they were and many other didnt's , don'ts and 'had no clue's'. So to commence at 0% knowledge about medicine and to end the pre historic era at 15% knowledge about medicine is an infinite increase. So, was the pre historic era an era with amazing medical advancements or the era of superstition?

There were many advances throughout the pre historic era and we can come to that conclusion via cave paintings and skeletons. First of all, after examining cave paintings Professor Ibrahim Kahn of the University of Georgia said “We can see from the cave paintings that pre-historians were aware of the location of the heart”. After investigation, I can personally come to the conclusion that the pre-historic people had a satisfactory amount of knowledge about the construction of the body. This can be derived from cave paintings dating back 30,000 years ago which show people aiming their spears in the hearts of animals. This shows that the pre historic people were aware of the vital organs and in essence, how to kill animals efficiently.

However, many could argue that these pictures are no solid proof that they had any anatomic knowledge. And in some aspects I understand there perspective, seeing a spear go through the heart of the animal is no evidence to go by.

Furthermore, an operation which strongly suggests that prehistoric medicine was revolved around superstition was treppaning. Trepanation has been practised since thousands of years. It is possibly one of the earliest forms of surgical intervention on the head of which we have any authentic
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