CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN

HEALTH AND MEDICINE IN ETRURIA

Jean MacIntosh Turfa with Marshall J. Becker

ETRUSCAN HEALTH

H

ealth and conditions of nutrition and safety were a constant concern for the ancient

world. Diodorus Siculus (5.40.2) says that the Etruscans “perfected writing and

the study of nature (φυσιολογία) and theology,” but if Etruria had an equivalent of

Hippokrates (and there is no evidence for this), his or her works have not survived. Much

of our information derives from religious sources such as votive cult or divination. Varro

(De re rustica 1.2.27) recorded a charm for foot pain that he attributed to Etruscan wisdom,

perhaps to one “Tarquenna,” a form of incantation to be delivered while spitting on the

ground: ego tui memini, medere meis pedibus, terra pestem teneto, salus hic maneto in meis pedibus

(“I am mindful of you, cure my feet, let earth hold the affl iction, let health stay here in

my feet”). Many excavations and museum fi nds, textual analyses and medical studies have

appeared since Mario Tabanelli published La Medicina nel mondo degli Etruschi in 1963,

but we have not yet acquired suffi cient data to comprehensively assess the state of medical

practice or the average health of the Etruscans. Life in Etruria can be rated according to

environmental conditions of food supply, climate, pollution and occupational hazards,

but evidence for actual treatment, training in or understanding of health conditions

remains scarce.

Environment: general health, nutrition and environmental safety

Ancient authors knew that Etruria was well-off in terms of climate, agriculture and the

use of natural resources, from timber and fi sh to metals (Diodorus 5.40; see Chapter 1):

what has become apparent through archaeological evidence is that many Etruscans paid

for affl uence in compromised health from environmental causes, or from an affl iction of

plenty, such as dental troubles due to the presence of complex-carbohydrate foods in their

diet. Any estimate of health in Etruria must take all this into account.

Food and famine

Nutrition is a key aspect of human health and welfare, and Greek and Latin literature

furnishes us with examples of people’s concerns over assuring an adequate food supply. Not