myths are reflective of human concerns and needs during ancient times. by reviewing them, it turns out that many human problems today, have a historical background. among the main themes of ancient mythologies, fertility and reproduction have various representations in ancient civilizations. the purpose of this paper was to review myths and common symbols of fertility and reproduction in ancien...

although ancient greek physicians studied a great number of ocular diseases in their medical texts such as glaucoma, cataract, trachoma, chalazion, trichiasis, entropion, ectropion and pterygion, in ancient greek art there were only few examples which represent ophthalmic diseases. these examples are found especially in portraits, and the ophthalmological disease is an important feature of the ...

Although the issue of consent in medical practice has grown immensely in recent years, and it is generally believed that historical cases are unknown, our research amongst original ancient Greek and Byzantine historical sources reveals that it is a very old subject which ancient philosophers and physicians have addressed. Plato, in ancient Greece, connected consent with the quality of a free pe...

Research on ancient DNA (aDNA) has the potential to enable molecular biologists and archeologists to decipher certain aspects of history by direct looking into the past. However, several major problems in this field limit the applicability of aDNA studies, most importantly contamination with modern DNA and postmortem DNA degradation. In this study we extracted and analyzed aDNA obtained from ~3...