New findings of Turkmen archeologists shed light on the medieval history of medicine in the East
The expedition of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve "Ancient Merv" discovered medical instruments used in the 9th-12th centuries in the fortress of Dandanakan, located three dozen kilometers west of the city of Mary.
Found artifacts, which will soon become exhibits of national museums, will help researchers better understand the development of medicine, both in Turkmenistan and in the vast area of the Muslim East. It is known that the Oriental art of healing spread far beyond the boundaries of its origins, reaching the medical tracts translated into Latin into the remotest corners of the planet.
The site of the excavation - the fortress of Dandanakan - is located along the Great Silk Road, and as historians write, it was a place for medical practice of such great healers and scientists as Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Biruni, Ali ibn Sahl Robban, Ibn Musa and other prominent healers, who left works, the use of which has not lost its relevance to this day.
Unique artifacts were found in the ruins of a brick building, which, according to archaeologists, served as a medieval hospital, which was both a medical school and a charitable institution where great healers worked, and their diligent followers learned the skill.
They, who lived far from us, made a huge contribution to the development of modern medical disciplines such as surgery, therapeutics, pharmacology, ophthalmology, psychiatry, veterinary medicine and many others that, without the information of ancient healers, would hardly have reached us in the form, in which we know them today.
The artifact found on the other day, as well as many others, suggest that, despite a huge number of discoveries made over the past centuries, for us the story has not fully revealed the veil of its secrets - both on the territory of the Dandanakan fortress and other protected places of Turkmenistan ...
