| Very little is known about prehistoric medicine apart | | | | practiced in prehistoric medicine though this may have |
| from fossils, implements and cave drawings. Ill-health | | | | been done using wooden splints. Herbs were one of |
| shows its marks on human remains and broken bones | | | | these, as well as the religious incantations and prayers |
| were a common problem. It is thought that prehistoric | | | | for the removal of evil spirits and petitions for |
| humans did much like animals, licking wounds, resting | | | | well-being. The very little understanding of human |
| when sick or having been injured, seeking heat when | | | | anatomy probably came from the cutting open of |
| cold and coolness when hot. | | | | human carcasses. |
| Prehistoric Medicine and Religion | | | | Fossil human skulls with holes bored or ground out of |
| Divine intervention certainly preceded prehistoric | | | | them have been found, some of these are quite large. |
| medicine. Possible evidence shows that what we call | | | | There is evidence that some of these unfortunate |
| holistic medicine today has always been a perhaps an | | | | souls survived this ordeal. This process is known as |
| instilled part of human nature. There seems to have | | | | trepanning and is thought to have been done to |
| always been a unanimous awareness of good and | | | | release evil spirits from the body. Cave paintings |
| evil in all ancient cultures. From the dawn of recorded | | | | depicts the relieving pressure from migraine |
| history, medicine and religion co-existed and by | | | | headaches, seizures and mental disorders. The portion |
| necessary inference, prehistoric medicine and religion. | | | | of bone taken from the skull is said to have been |
| Humanity likely blamed evil spirits for disease and | | | | worn as an amulet for warding off evil spirits. Albeit |
| pestilence. Petition to divine authorities included prayers | | | | there may have been some medical significance for |
| and rituals in behalf of well-being. This is one of the | | | | this practice. |
| earliest tenets of prehistoric medicine that has | | | | Prehistoric Medicine Contributions to Modern and |
| persisted even to this day. It is one that has been | | | | Alternative Medicine |
| omitted from modern Western mainstream medicine, | | | | The earliest American inhabitants which are said to |
| making it incomplete despite its scientific advances in | | | | have ventured out of Africa and ancient European |
| human health. | | | | cultures and migrated into the Far East as it was in |
| A cave drawing shows a figure depicting a human | | | | prehistoric times. If these people settled in the Far East |
| body with the head of a deer possibly representing a | | | | for any length of time, they may have brought medical |
| shaman or medicine man. Such professionals in | | | | knowledge as it was known there to the American |
| prehistoric medicine relied on human sacrifice, | | | | continent during the Ice Ages. Migrating throughout the |
| incantations and chanting to the Supreme Being(s) in | | | | American continents they brought their medical |
| behalf of the ailing person, infusing inanimate objects, | | | | knowledge with them and adapting new ones making |
| such as a bones or sticks, with the evil spirit from the ill | | | | ado with the resources available to them. For the most |
| or diseased person, thus removing the evil spirit from | | | | part, these peoples became cultures lost in time, |
| that person. | | | | remaining in prehistoric though holistic living. |
| Prehistoric Medicine and Agriculture | | | | Europeans would make landfall on the North American |
| Man became aware of the healing properties of | | | | much later and native American medical knowledge |
| certain plants and incorporated that into his growing | | | | passed on to their still primitive and quite medieval |
| knowledge of medicine. Perhaps the scene of the | | | | medical knowledge. It is known today that many of the |
| Adamic garden as well as some Chinese pictographs | | | | native American therapeutic procedures were superior |
| that have survived from ancient times showing garden | | | | to those of the Europeans at the earliest times. Indeed, |
| scenes in striking detail depicts prehistoric medicine at | | | | some of these have come down to us in conventional |
| its dawning. | | | | medicine today. |
| The setting broken limbs do not appear to have been | | | | |