Prosthetics in Antiquity
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2022
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Prosthetics - an artificial feature or body part commonly used to either help restore functions of lost limbs, or change a person's appearance. Today, advancements in technology mean prosthetics can sense touch and be controlled by the mind - a far cry from their origins in antiquity as ivory embellished arms or hair extensions made out of plant fibres.
In this episode, Tristan is joined by Dr Jane Draycott from University of Glasgow to talk about the brilliant uses of prosthetics in ancient societies, where the concept originated from, and how sources like Pliny the Elder and excavated wigs can tell us how their functions have changed across millennia.
For more Ancients content, subscribe to our Ancients newsletter here. If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's the ancient's on history hit. I'm Tristan Fuse your host and in today's podcast |
| 0:17.1 | we're talking all about prosthetics, artificial body parts, in Greece and Rome, in the ancient |
| 0:24.0 | Mediterranean. This is such an interesting area of antiquity to look at because it's often |
| 0:29.2 | overlooked but you do see time and time again in the sources that we have surviving references |
| 0:35.4 | to these figures who are missing a body part for one reason or another. So what is the |
| 0:41.4 | archaeology and the literature therefore revealed about the importance, the prevalence, the |
| 0:46.3 | prominence of prosthetics in ancient Greek and Roman societies? What to explain all, |
| 0:52.6 | we were delighted to get on the podcast Dr. Jane Draikot from the University of Glasgow. |
| 0:58.1 | Jane, she's done a lot of work around this topic. We were incredibly grateful for her giving up |
| 1:02.4 | some of her very busy schedule to talk all about this topic with us and stay tuned because |
| 1:07.8 | Jane will be back in the near future for another podcast about another area that she's done |
| 1:12.4 | a lot of work around which is the story of the famous Cleopatra's daughter. But without |
| 1:18.4 | further ado to talk all about prosthetics in ancient Greece and Rome is Jane. |
| 1:28.1 | Jane, it is great to have you on the podcast today. No thank you for having me. You're very |
| 1:35.2 | welcome. This is such a cool topic. So prosthetics and prostheses, this stretches back all the way |
| 1:41.8 | back to classical antiquity. Further than that really but classical antiquity is the first |
| 1:46.8 | time that we actually have sustained literary and archaeological evidence for the practice. |
| 1:52.8 | Okay well you've sent me on the tangent straight away then. I mean do we have any idea |
| 1:56.2 | therefore how far back this potentially goes? Well all the way back into the prehistoric period |
| 2:02.0 | really. We have archaeological evidence of the use of not exactly functional prosthetics but |
| 2:10.4 | probably primarily cosmetic ones being used both during life and after death in skeletal |
| 2:20.2 | remains from around the world. Well fair enough then. Well I mean let's delve into the Greco |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.