Medical therapeutics and the place of healing in early medieval Culmen in Poland

Matczak, MD ORCID: 0000-0003-2934-0036 and Chudziak, W (2018) Medical therapeutics and the place of healing in early medieval Culmen in Poland World Archaeology, 50 (3). pp. 434-460. ISSN 0043-8243, 1470-1375

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Abstract

This article presents examples of medical therapeutics based on artefacts, paleobotanical and osteological materials from early medieval (tenth– thirteenth-century) Culmen, as well as historical and ethnographic sources from Poland. Culmen comprised a stronghold, settlement and cemetery and was an important place for the early Piast state. In the eleventh century it was a centre of Piast power and in the twelfth century it became a castellany. The inhabitants of Culmen developed healthcare and healing practices which involved the use of objects: knives, sickles, belemnites; plants: elderflower, willow, narrow-leaf plantain, knot-grass, water-lily, guelder rose and hazels; as well as the bones of cats, dogs, horses and cattle. Special prayers and incantations also played an important role in healing practices. Feature 4/98, which is interpreted as a stone altar, was a designated place of magic and religious rituals connected with healing in Culmen.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Medicine, health, care, Middle Ages, Poland
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	06 Nov 2018 16:21
Last Modified:	01 Mar 2026 11:40
DOI:	10.1080/00438243.2018.1516565
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3028481
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