Regional Connections and Variations in the Archaeology of Healing and Disability: The Temples of Asclepius

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Mediterranean Archaeology: Connections, Interactions, Objects, and Theory" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Asclepius was worshiped as the god of healing throughout the Mediterranean from c. 500 BCE to 400 CE. Temples to the god "Asclepieia" have been found across the region, from Epidaurus in Greece, to Pergamon in Asia Minor, to Tiber Island in Rome. In antiquity, asclepieia were renowned as places where the sick could have their ills treated or cured, and where disability could be averted or reversed. Asclepieia are also credited as the forerunners of hospitals and medical clinics, and excavations of various asclepieia have offered insight into not only into the god’s cult, but also the hopes and fears of the sick and disabled in the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. This paper examines architectural remains, material culture and limited textual evidence from major asclepia – Rome, Epidaurus, Athens, and Pergamon – to discuss how the cult of Asclepius was realized in different geographic and temporal contexts. The archaeology also reveals how asclepieia performed their communal and secular obligations: providing care to those society considered sick, disabled, or incomplete. While some of the care provided at the asclepieia was just a spiritual placebo, the idea that these temples served as early medical clinics has been exaggerated only slightly.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Mediterranean Archaeology: Connections, Interactions, Objects, and Theory

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23952