- When archaeologists excavated an unusual
2000-year-old burial site in the outskirts of Colchester, England -- the
oldest recorded town in Britain -- they uncovered various vessels, a dinner
setting and a wooden game board. But what brought the find to international
attention was a surprisingly sophisticated medical kit dated at about 50
A.D.
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- The medical kit from left to right: two
scalpels, saw, two combined sharp and blunt hooks, unknown double sharp
hook, two forceps, three handled needles, scoop probe, and the handle of
an unkown object.
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- "The medical pieces are extraordinary,"
says Philip Crummy, director of the Colchester Archeological Trust. "There
are lots of examples of medical kits in continental Europe, but this is
the first example from Britain. It's very special because it's a very early
example and it's British."
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- The complete medical kit (shpwn above
right) composed of thirteen instruments including scalpels, hooks, needles,
forceps -- suggesting that the British healer practiced a variety of surgical
techniques on tonsils, hemorrhoids and even cataract surgery.
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- "The operations could have included
bone surgery, tonsillectomy, the treatment of vericose veins, and fine
operations," says Ralph Jackson, an expert in ancient medical instruments
at the British Museum in London.
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- The find is dated about ten years after
the Roman occupation of Britain, but the medical tools are British, says
Jackson. The tools were found in a Celtic tomb and are single-piece iron
instruments. The Romans used bronze.
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- The medical tools were found on top of
a gaming board with counters. Click on the picture to see a diagram of
the game.
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- Still, the "overall similarity to
the contemporary sets of instruments from other parts of the Roman empire
suggest contact with Roman medical personnel and presumably an acquaintance
with the precepts of classical medicine," says Jackson.
Two millennia ago, healers in the Celtic world belonged to a high-status,
learned group of people including Druids (religious priests), bards, diviners
and physicians. It isn't clear how these functions overlapped as Druids
were also credited with powers of magic and divination and may have also
been well-versed in poetry. The British doctor could very well have been
a Druid, a group the Romans tried to stamp out in the mid AD 50s.
A warrior grave (with spear) and a literate man's grave (with inkpot) were
also uncovered at the site.
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- "We believe they must have collaborated
with the Romans for them to be allowed to be buried in what must have been
a traditional British manner," says Crummy.
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- These mysterious rods were also found
in the British tomb. They may have been used for divination -- to find
out if the time was right for whatever surgical course of action.
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- The finding is exciting for the Brits
because it's the first "tangible evidence of British medical practice"
in the pre-Roman period, says Crummy. It also suggests that the burial
site was a special one where people were buried together not because of
relation as one might expect, but because of a special skill.
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- "The doctor was obviously a medical
person, the inkpot owner was maybe a clerk and the warrior an armor bearer
with special skills."
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