Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to discuss a more integrated approach to the discussion of the social function of medicine in the Aegean Bronze Age, focusing on the identity and the social roles of the actors involved in healing practices and how these roles were renegotiated by the act of healing.

Paper long abstract:

The necessity and practice of medicine is interlinked with human existence. The notion of medicine and healing is discussed in Aegean archaeology to a large extent, focusing mostly on the medical uses and properties of certain plants, such as saffron, and the connection of healing practices with the worship of the Goddess. In that way, current research has not expanded to incorporate medicine within the wider social structure and determine the roles of the actors involved.

This paper seeks to address the missing elements from the study of Aegean medicine, posing questions that deal with social roles fulfilled by the healers and the healed; how that influenced both their respective status as well as the quality of the treatments; the potential differences between treatments offered from and by people of different social strata; the various functions of the religious element in healing practices.