Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - An impressive discovery of the 2,000-year-old tomb with human remains that belong to a Roman physician, aged between 50 and 60 years, with no signs of disease or trauma, was made by archaeologists from ELTE (Eötvös Loránd University), the eLTE BTK, the Jasz Museum, and the Eotvos Lorand Research Network, Hungary.
Image credit: ELTE BTK
The find was located near Jaszbereny, in central Hungary, only 60 km (37 mi) from Budapest, Hungary.
Archaeologists also found the physician's complete medical equipment in his tomb in two wooden boxes. Interestingly, similar equipment has earlier been unearthed in Pompeii. According to the team, also other medical instruments of extraordinary quality - used for healing and surgical intervention - were also found.
This period may have been a transitional period between the Celtic and Roman Sarmatian populations, so it is striking that a physician equipped with such impressive instruments visited this area.
The leading hypothesis is that a well-equipped doctor, probably trained in one of the Imperial centers, may have traveled to this area to rescue someone.
Dr. Levente Samu, a member of the excavation team and research assistant at the Institute of Archaeology of ELTE, said that in addition to genetic research, it is also planned to carry out an isotopic analysis of the skeleton, which will help determine whether the doctor was of local origin.
Image credit: ELTE BTK
Excavations also revealed artifacts like pincers, needles, tweezers, high-end scalpels indispensable for surgical operations, and remains of medicinal products and drug residues.
According to researchers, the copper alloy scalpels were decorated with silver plating and fitted with interchangeable steel blades
A rubbing Stone was placed at the knee of the Dead Man, which, according to the abrasion marks, may have been a combination of herbs and other medicines.
Parallels of surgical instruments are known from vast areas of the Roman Empire, and exact similarities of scalpels can also be found in a Gaul site. Even so, similar finds from the former Barbaricum are sporadic, so the researchers believe that the unknown physician and his burial may have resulted from some extraordinary event. He perhaps arrived from another area to heal a prestigious local figure or came to accompany a military movement of the Roman legions.
The importance of the find is highlighted by the fact that – based on the range of instruments – we are talking about a complete medical set in the era's conditions.
Image credit: ELTE BTK
At the press conference held on 25 April, Prof. Dr. Tivadar Vida, director of the Institute of Archaeology of ELTE, presented the idea, plan, and goals of the excavation. In the earlier season of the excavation in 2020, there were unearthed objects dated to the Copper Age and the Avar period. Then, the site was additionally surveyed using a magnetometer, Tivadar Vida, director of the Institute of Archaeology at ELTE said.
Dr. Levente Samu, a member of the team of archaeologists who carried out the excavation and a research assistant at the Institute of Archeology of ELTE, spoke about the conduct of the excavation, as well as the discovery and context of the find, and Dr. Benedek Varga, director of the Semmelweis Museum of medical history, praised the find from a medical history point of view.
At the same time, the certified restoration artist Szilvia Dobroney-David outlined the restoration process of the discoveries.
Written by Conny Waters - AncientPages.com Staff Writer
