Ancient Medicine

From the British Museum: Pompey consulting the witch Erictho, the witch kneels on the ground in a clearing holding her staff over the body of a dead soldier which she conjures on the ground before her; illustration to Lucan's 'Pharsalia'; by Elisha Kirkall

An arctic fox peeking out from its den.

In his De Orbe Novo (1516), Peter Martyr of Angleria records a cosmogony of the Taíno people of Hispaniola, derived from the earlier report of the friar Ramón Pané.

Goat, located in Fiesch, Valais (Switzerland).

Votive relief from the sanctuary of Amphiaraos at Oropos (Γ 3369).

Fragment of bas-relief, female patient on a bed.

Garum, mosaic from the villa of Aulus Umbricius Scaurus, Pompeii: G(ari) F(los) SCOM(bri) SCAURI EX OFFI(ci)NA SCAURI.

Leopard attacking a prisoner in an amphitheatre spectacle in a Roman mosaic (late 2nd century CE).

Scenes of artisans at work: a shoemaker (left) and a rope-maker (right).

Honey bees.

Cornus mas, the Cornelian cherry.

Al-nâridîn or al-sunbul al-hindî or Indian spikenard.

Tile mosaic with rabbit, lizard and mushroom. 19th or 20th c. via Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fresco depicting the reading of the rituals of the bridal mysteries.

Angos in the Vienna Dioscorides, Codex Vindobonensis Med.

Abrotano maschino.

Nut and astrological figures.

A Snake by Maria Sibylla Merian.

Octopus, detail from Oceanus and Tethys mosaic, Zeugmas Mosaic Museum, Gaziantep.

House of Chaste Lovers, Pompeii.