Medicine Timeline

• 6500 BCE
  First evidence of the surgical procedure of trephination found in France.
• 5000 BCE
  Evidence of the surgical procedure of trephination found in China.
• 2667 BCE - 2648 BCE
  Imhotep in Egypt writes medical texts describing diagnosis and treatment of 100 diseases and 48 injuries.
• c. 1800 BCE
  The Kahun Gynecological Papyrus deals with women's health and contraception.
• c. 1500 BCE
  Saffron used as medicine on the Aegaean island of Thera.
• c. 1050 BCE
  Babylonian "Diagnostic Handbook" is written by the physician Esagil-kin-apli of Borsippa.
• 950 BCE - 1400 BCE
  Evidence of the surgical procedure of trephination found in Mesoamerica.
• 800 BCE - 700 BCE
  Homer's Iliad is composed with mention of medical treatment in Greek warfare.
• 700 BCE
  First Greek medical school opens in Cnidus.
• c. 600 BCE
  Charaka and Sushruta found two schools of Ayurveda.
• c. 460 BCE - c. 370 BCE
  Traditional dates for the life of Hippocrates in Greece, the "father of medicine" and inventor of the Hippocratic Oath for physicians.
• 431 BCE
  The temple to Apollo Medicus is built in Rome.
• 325 BCE - 280 BCE
  Life of Herophilus of Chalcedon, who studied the brain and the nervous system, attributing intelligence to the brain.
• 292 BCE
  The Romans adopt the Greek god of medicine Asclepius by stealing his sacred snake from Epidaurus and setting up a temple on the Tiber Island.
• 219 BCE
  The physician Archagathus of Sparta arrives in Rome.
• c. 1 CE - 50 CE
  Life of Roman physician Scribonius Largus.
• 43 CE
  The physician Scribonius Largus travels to Britain with the entourage of Claudius.
• c. 60 CE - 130 CE
  Life of the physician Soranus of Ephesos.
• 129 CE - c. 216 CE
  Life of the physician Galen of Pergamon.
• c. 830 CE - c. 870 CE
  Hunayn ibn Ishaq translates Galen's works into Arabic.
• c. 1030 CE
  Avicenna writes the Book of Healing and the Canon of Medicine, based on earlier works.
• 1895 CE
  X-rays discovered by Wilhelm Röntgen.