Medicine in the Ancient Near East: Making Connections Across Disciplines
Mary Daley, Cassie Lecinski, and Nicole Wilczynski probably didn’t expect their coursework in Dr. Deirdre Dempsey’s Fall Digging the Bible class (THEO 4000) to have much in common with their majors in the medical and health sciences fields. But when they were given the opportunity to create a research project investigating an archaeological topic concerned with the Ancient Near East (ANE), they chose an issue related to their future career goals, the archaeological remains of medical practices in the time of the Bible Their research culminated in a sophisticated and interactive webpage called Medicine in the Ancient Near East.
The students used a digital tool called StoryMap JS from Northwestern University’s Knight Lab. The tool allows users to create timelines and interactive maps by creating slides and uploading content to them. It doesn’t require extensive prior technical or coding knowledge in order to create a professional-looking product, which makes it an excellent choice for beginner projects. And it doesn’t require any special equipment or software either.
They researched any examples of healing artifacts or medical texts in the material culture record of the period, as well as any theological implications that evidence of medical practices might suggest. Of course, the sheer volume of information that they uncovered was a little overwhelming. And so they narrowed it down to smaller categories of information that became the basis for their slides.
Visitors to the site travel across a modern map of what is known as the Ancient Near East, with each slide moving to a new location related to its content. One slide focuses on “Female Physicians in Egypt,” for example, while another includes an image and summary of the Edwin Smith Papyrus, as the students intermix more general information on medicine of the period with slides identifying specific archaeological artifacts. The slide featuring the Code of Hammurabi, for example, is linked to the modern-day city of Shush, Iran, also known as Susa and, in the Hebrew Bible, Shushan.
What is really great about story maps are their ability to help us see data spatially, especially something that might be obscure or foreign enough to our day-to-day experiences as the geography and history of biblical lands and peoples. As one of the creators, Nicole Wilczynski, said, a benefit of doing a digital project like this is the greater variety of ways someone can present their research. And, partner Mary Daley added, it allows the student or researcher to interact with their information and data in different ways than a traditional paper presentation, making the process of learning even more interactive and engaging.
If you’re interested in creating a digital project like this, or think a tool like StoryMapJS could be useful in your work, make sure to contact the Digital Scholarship Lab. We offer in-person consultations by appointment or walk-in tutor hours Monday through Friday 4pm-8pm.
