Healthmaking in Ancient Egypt

Anne E. Austin, Ph.D. (2014), University of California - Los Angeles, is an Assistant Professor of History in the University of Missouri - St. Louis. Her research combines textual and osteological data to inform about daily life in ancient Egypt including topics covering medicine, health, and tattooing.

Acknowledgments

List of Figures

List of Tables



1 Introduction

 1 A Mythical History of Human Health

 2 Correcting the Myth by Redefining Health and Disease

 3 How to Understand Health in the Past

 4 A Case Study on the History of Health at Deir el-Medina

 5 The Path Toward Understanding Illness and Care at Deir el-Medina

 6 A Note on Translations and Names



2 A New Theoretical Approach to Ancient Health

 1 The Biopsychosocial Model as a Scalar Approach to Health

 2 Quantifying Health in Bioarchaeology through Stress Models

 3 The Osteological Paradox and its Impact on Interpreting Health Patterns in the Past

 4 Explaining Health Patterns at Scale: The Goldilocks Problem

 5 Revealing Hidden Heterogeneity in Frailty with the Social Determinants of Health

 6 Studying Health and Care in Past Populations: A Case Study at Deir el-Medina



3 The Place, The Community, and The Evidence

 1 The Place

 2 The Community

 3 Texts as Evidence for Health Patterns and Health Experiences at Deir el-Medina

 4 Human Remains at Deir el-Medina

 5 Demography and Representation in the Human Remains from Tombs 217, 290, and 298

 6 Bringing Together the Evidence



4 Finding Health and Stress at Deir el-Medina

 1 Comparing Skeletal Stress Indicators in the Nile Valley and Beyond

 2 Indicators of Stress in Childhood

 3 Adolescent Health at Deir el-Medina

 4 Adult Health at Deir el-Medina

 5 Understanding Stress and Health and Deir el-Medina



5 Forging Social Support

 1 Social Support and its Connection to Improved Health Outcomes

 2 Was Social Support an Emic Concept at Deir el-Medina?

 3 Who Provided and Who Received Social Support

 4 Provisioning

 5 The Principle of Reciprocal Giving

 6 Securing Social Support through the Legal System

 7 Forms and Strategies of Social Support at Deir el-Medina and their Connection to Stress

 8 Physical Limitations and Social Support at Deir el-Medina

 9 Social Support and Health Outcomes at Deir el-Medina



6 Accessing Healthcare

 1 Linking Health Care Access to Community Health Outcomes

 2 Healthcare Professionals at Deir el-Medina

 3 Medical Literacy

 4 Healthcare Access in the human remains: Three Case Studies

 5 Healthcare Access and Health Outcomes at Deir el-Medina



7 Maintaining Economic Stability

 1 Economic Stability and its Connection to Improved Health Outcomes

 2 Placing Economic Stability into the Past

 3 Accessing Necessities through the Royal Pact

 4 The Royal Pact and its impact on Working Conditions

 5 Maintaining Economic Stability outside of the State

 6 Osteobiographies: Economic Stability during the 18th Dynasty

 7 Connecting Economic Stability to Health Outcomes at Deir el-Medina



8 Conclusion

 1 How Wealth made Health in Ancient Egypt

 2 Revealing Hidden Heterogeneity in Frailty in the past Beyond Ancient Egypt

 3 Healthmaking in Ancient Egypt



Appendix: The Osteological Datasets

Works Cited

Index