An important part of anatomical research in antiquity was carried out through the dissection of animal specimens, and the knowledge thus acquired was often extrapolated to the humans. As a result, ancient medical ideas about the body were strongly influenced by the observation and manipulation of other species.
Through the re-enactment of ancient dissections, we attempt to reproduce in a modern wet lab–as closely as we possibly can–the procedures that the ancients performed in these investigations. The aim is not only to visualize a similar reality to the one described in the ancient texts, but also to become aware of important aspects that are not explicit in such records and are only accessible through actual experience. This ‘gestural knowledge’ can provide scientific evidence useful for better understanding the texts, as well as some hints about the context in which they were produced and circulated, the audience that they were aimed at, and some fresh perspectives about their authors’ anatomical thinking.
Our website presents the findings of these endeavors in a multidimensional digital platform, where we have collated the ancient text, our translation –hence interpretation of it– the step-by-step protocol that we followed to perform the dissection and the visual footage obtained during the procedure, thereby offering the viewer a comprehensive guide to navigate the ancient material.
Two Kinds of Dissection
Our research involves two kinds of dissections. First, research dissections in which we dissect and observe the body in order to attempt to answer research questions or ambiguities arising from the text concernign particular anatomicald details described by our authors. For instance, passages in the cardiac septum, a cavity between the windpipe and the heart, or similarity between human and canine/porcine digestive parts. A second type of dissection is re-enactments of Galen’s dissections according to his detailed instructions in his treatise “Anatomical Procedures”.
For the research dissections, the anatomy experts write the dissection manual for the lab observations together with the classicists according to the interpretive questions arising from the ancient texts and bearing in mind the practical approach to different parts (e.g. order of cutting parts so as not distort required evidence). The manual includes, for example, instructions for exposing and observing parts, indication of pauses for posing and answering explicit interpretive and observational questions with textual references included and room for notes. You can see an excerpt of our unique interdisciplinary manual by clicking the link below.
We have performed a dissection of the thorax and abdomen of a medium-size dog to explore Aristotle’s ideas of the chest cavity and respiratory and digestive organs as well as the ideas of Aristotle’s, Galen’s and of the Hippocratic author of “Heart” concerning the heart. This work helped us answer open questions on these ideas. We documented our findings by numbered images and video footage and by recorded audio notes. We used portable 3D scanners to document organs in 3D. We have incorporated some of these insights into the models and model pages of the atlas, and discuss them too in forthcoming articles.
We are currently preparing manuals for re-enactments of Galen’s dissections, which we will perform on pigs. The first will be of the abdominal muscles and peritoneum (Galen, Anatomical Procedures, V.7, VI.5-7) and the second of the hindlilmb (Galen, Anatomical Procedures II.4-10). For these the classicists and anatomy experts are working together to decipher and rewrite Galen’s instructions into a practical manual.
The research plan and methods have been approved by the strict ethical screening of the European Research Council
| Excerpt from manual.pdf | 122 KB |