Disease, Health and Pandemics in Ancient Egypt, the Ancient Middle East, and the Classical World

4 credits · Undergraduate

Disease is a constant of the human condition. Like health, it is both a social construct and a physical reality. Epidemics are diseases that affect very large numbers of people; pandemics are epidemics with a passport—they spread over multiple countries and often continents. In this course we will survey, compare, and contrast ancient and modern conceptions of disease and health, and medicine and doctors, and examine and evaluate what evidence exists—historical, textual, archaeological--for identifying epidemics and pandemics in ancient times.