Overview

The willingness to care for those who are in some way disabled is widely regarded as one of the characteristics that define what it is to be human (Gould 1988; Green 2003). Experience of disease is a constant of our existence, and the provision of health-related care appears to be such a universal and well-established response that some have even claimed an evolved genetic component for this practice (Fabrega 1997, 2011; Hill et al 2009; Sugiyama 2004a). In archaeology, healthcare provision is inferred from physical evidence in a set of human remains indicating survival with, or recovery from, a disabling pathology in circumstances where, without such support, the individual may not have survived to actual age at death. However, while there is a rich literature documenting individual examples of serious pathology, including reports in which the likelihood of care is explicitly acknowledged, although not elaborated ( see, for example, Dickel and Doran 1989; Hawkey 1998; Luna et al 2008; Trinkaus and Zimmerman 1982), and exploring interactions between the evolution of disease, social and environmental variables, and population health status (e.g. Larsen 2000; Roberts and Manchester 2005; Steckel and Rose 2002a, b ), archaeology has largely overlooked health-related caregiving as a specific focus of analysis.

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