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Today, a prosthesis is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, generally designed and assembled according to the individual's appearance and functional needs with a view to being both as unobtrusive and as useful as possible. In classical antiquity, however, this was not necessarily the case. The ancient literary and documentary evidence for prostheses and prosthesis use is contradictory, and the bioarchaeological and archaeological evidence is enigmatic, but discretion and utility were not necessarily priorities. So, when, howand why did individuals utilise them? This volume, the first to explore prostheses and prosthesis use in classical antiquity, seeks to answer these questions, and will be of interest to academics and students with specialistinterests in classical archaeology, ancient history and history, especially those engaged in studies of healing, medical and surgical practices, or impairment and disability in past societies.
List of contents
List of Figures; List of Tables; List of Abbreviations; List of Contributors; Introduction, Jane Draycott; Chapter 1: The Complex Aspects of Experimental Archaeology: The Design of Working Models of Two Ancient Egyptian Great Toe Prostheses, Jacky Finch; Chapter 2: A Very Distinctive Smile: Etruscan Dental Appliances, Jean Mackintosh Turfa and Marshall Becker; Chapter 3: Prosthetic Hair in Ancient Rome, Jane Draycott; Chapter 4: ‘An Amputee May Go Out with his Wooden Aid on Shabbat’: Dynamics of Prosthetic Discourse in Talmudic Traditions, Lennart Lehmhaus; Chapter 5: Evidence of a Late Antique Amputation in a Skeleton from Hemmaberg, Josef Eitler and Michaela Binder; Chapter 6: Living Prostheses, Katherine van Schaik; Chapter 7: ‘Prosthetic Imagination’ in Greek Literature, Anne-Sophie Noel; Chapter 8: The Psychology of Prostheses: Substitution Strategies and Notions of Normality, Ellen Adams; Index
About the author
Jane Draycott is Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Research Fellow in Ancient Science and Technology at the University of Glasgow, UK. Previously she was Lecturer in Classics at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Associate Teacher in Roman Archaeology at the University of Sheffield, all in the UK, and 2011–12 Rome Fellow at the British School at Rome, Italy.
Summary
This volume presents cutting-edge and varied research which reveals the extent to which the study of prostheses is a vibrant and dynamic field of enquiry, and which has the potential to have far-reaching implications for the study of the history of health and well-being, impairment and disability, and understandings of the body.
