Traditional Medicine and Ethnomedicine World Conference 2026
Speakers - TMEWC2026
David Jopling
David Jopling
- Designation: York University
- Country: Canada
- Title: Evidence of 780,000 year old paleo medicine
Abstract
Most of what is known about paleo medicine dates from the Upper Paleolithic, and is based on plant remnants and fossils found in the archaeological sites of Neanderthals and behaviourally modern Homo sapiens. This paper reports on what might be a much earlier use of medicinal plants by hominins in the Early to Middle Pleistocene, at the 780,000 year old archaeological site at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (in current day Israel). Almost all of the plant remnants in the plant assemblage are medicinal plant taxa that have been used for thousands of years in traditional medicine most are still in use in contemporary herbal medicine. The use of plant medicines with front line therapeutic and prophylactic properties anthelmintics, anti leishmanials, anti-inflammatories, and analgesics would have mitigated some of the costly social and economic impacts of the diseases encountered by the hominins who occupied the site. The results of this study suggest that we might need to revise our established notions of the first appearance of paleo medicine in the archaeological record.
Uncovering Ancestral Knowledge, Forging Health in the Future
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