1979.10

Four Roman bronze surgical instruments: Curved Dissector

Alongside 1979.11-13.

Pres. length 8.1cm.

In generally good condition. The stem is of rounded section. At the end are ridges and a spherical moulding (the actual tip missing), similar to those before the blade. Curved lanceolate blade with slight central rib on the inner face.

Perhaps second century AD. While it is possible that these items formed a group, they are not a matched set.

There has been a great deal of work in recent years on ancient medicine and its practice. For a standard and now old reference, see J.S. Milne, Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times (New York 1907, repr. 1970). Among more recent publications, one may note S. Boucher, Bronzes antiques. Musée Municipal de Vienne (Paris 1971) 196-197;  B. Vulpes, Illustrazione di tutti gli strumenti chirurgici scavati in Ercolano e in Pompei, AWelt 15 (1984) Sondernummer; R. Jackson, “Roman Doctors and their Instruments: Recent Research on Ancient Practice”, Journal of Roman Archaeology 3, 1990, 5-27 with good bibliography; id., “ “The Composition of Roman Medical Instrumentaria as an Indicator of Medical Practice: A Provisional Assessment”, in: Ph.J. van der Eijk, H.F.J. Horstmanshoff and P.H. Schrijvers (eds), Ancient Medicine in its Socio-Cultural Context, 1 (Clio Medica, Amsterdam 1995) 189-207;  id., “Holding on to Health? Bone Surgery and Instrumentation in the Roman Empire”, in: H. King (ed.), Health in Antiquity (London – New York 2005) 97-119; D. Gibbins, “Surgical Instruments from a Roman Shipwreck off Sicily”, Antiquity 62, 1988, 294-297; L.J. Bliquez, Roman Surgical Instruments and Other Minor Objects in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (Mainz 1994); id., The Tools of Asclepius. Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times (Leiden 2015); E. Künzl, “Medizinische Instrumente aus Sepulkralfunde der römischen Kaiserzeit”, Bonner Jahrbücher des Vereins von Altertumsfreunden im Rheinlande 182, 1982, 1-132 (reprinted as a book and now regarded as a standard work, Bonn – Cologne 1983); E. Künzl, “Operationsräume in römischen Thermen. Zu einem chirurgischen Instrumentarium aus der Colonia Ulpia Traiana, mit einem Auswahlkatalog römischer medezinischer Instrumente im Rheinischen Landesmuseum Bonn,” BJb 186, 1986, 511-522; A. Krug, “Römische Skalpelle: Herstellungstechnische Anmerkungen”, Medizinhistorisches Journal 28, 1993, 93-100.

On medicine more generally, see for example J. Scarborough, Roman Medicine (Ithaca NY 1976); R. Jackson, Doctors and Diseases in the Roman Empire (London 1988); M.D. Grmek, Diseases in the Ancient Greek World (Baltimore 1989); G. Sabbah (ed.), Etudes de médecine romaine (St. Etienne 1989).

For an interesting discussion of the place of medicine and medical practitioners in the Roman world, see T.S. Barton, Power and Knowledge: Astrology, Physiognomics, and Medicine under the Roman Empire (Ann Arbor 1995), where she is persuasive in her arguments that these three activities should be grouped together as mystified practices with a strong rhetorical element. Note also M. Kobayashi, “The Social Status of Doctors in the Early Roman Empire”, in: T. Yuge and M. Doi (eds.), Forms of Control and Subordination in Antiquity (Tokyo-Leiden 1988) 416-9; D. Gourevitch (ed.), Maladie et maladies: histoire et conceptualisation. Mélanges en l'honneur de Mirko Grmek (Geneva 1992); and Ph.J. van der Eijk et al. (eds), Ancient Medicine in its Socio-Cultural Context: Papers read at the Congress held at Leiden University, 13-15 April 1992 (Amsterdam 1995).

Charles Ede Ltd (London), Antiquities 114 (1979) no. 40 (ill.)