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You are here: Home / Library / RBINS Staff Publications / The medicinal use of plants during the middle ages and early modern times evidence from archaeobotany and the early herbal literature

Julian Wiethold and Sidonie Preiss (2014)

The medicinal use of plants during the middle ages and early modern times evidence from archaeobotany and the early herbal literature

In: 20th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, abstracts, ed. by Archaeology & Art Publication, Istanbul, pp. 342.

During the Middle Ages and early modern times plants species of different families were not only appreciated as aromatic plants and spices in culinary preparations, but also used treating various health problems and illnesses. They were applied in form of teas and other preparations, treating stomach and intestinal problems, inflammations and eye-illnesses. Various plants were used against intestinal parasites. Some of these species are well known garden plants, most probably cultivated as spices and for their medicinal properties. In contrast to the medicinal use of aromatic plants cultivated in gardens, the use of collected wild plants for medical treatment is still less considered and the archaeobotanical records are less frequently interpreted as evidence of medicinal use. We are comparing the written evidence of the use of wild plants in early medicinal tracts, herbals and spice books with archaeobotanical records from medieval and early modern plant assemblages. Which of the wild plants were used according to the written sources and which criteria should be applied while suggesting that plants in the archaeobotanical record may have been used?
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