Disease and Healing in the Indus Civilisation

Associate Fellow Professor Robert (Bob) Arnott has released a new book, Disease and Healing in the Indus Civilisation, (Archaeopress Archaeology, 2024)

The book presents for the first time, a synthesis of what is currently known about health, disease and healing in the Indus Civilisation in the third to early second millennia BCE, underpinned by original research. It is the result of a detailed study of published human skeletal remains and material culture, with an increasing awareness of the natural environment.

When combined with a knowledge of palaeoepidemiology and the natural history of disease, ancient climate change, and what is known of healing and health in contemporary Bronze Age societies of the Near East, with which the Indus Civilisation was in contact, it has been possible to piece together a picture of diseases in the period, the practice of healing and the development of public health.

For the first time, the book illustrates the health, life expectancy, and the illnesses and injuries from which those at the bottom of society suffered, both at work and at home.

More information and buy the book

Professor Robert (Bob) Arnott is an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. He studied at University College London, the University of Warwick, the University of Pittsburgh and the British School at Athens. He was before early retirement, Professor of the History and Archaeology of Medicine, Director of the Centre for the History of Medicine, Sub-Dean of the School of Medicine and Public Orator of the University of Birmingham.