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Bronze Artifact: Greek Medical Lancet
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Bronze Artifact: Greek Medical Lancet

Ancient Greek Bronze Medical Lancet

Ancient Greek Bronze Medical Lancet

license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
source: Wikimedia Commons
author: Wellcome Images
Description

A photograph shows a bronze medical lancet used in ancient Greece. The lancet has a slightly curved body with a sharp, flattened tip for incisions.


Date

Artifact: unknown

Photo: 2014


Information

This ancient bronze lancet would have been used for bloodletting in ancient Greece. If a physician determined that a patient would benefit from a treatment of bloodletting, they would use a lancet such as this one to make a small incision from which to drain the blood. This was a very common treatment, considered to bring into balance the four humors of the body in some cases.


Related Articles

Bloodletting | Ancient Greek Medicine

Bibliography

Brain, P. (2009). Galen on bloodletting. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.