Everyday Knowledge and Apothecary Craft: Pharmacopoeias of Ancient Northwestern Honduras

Abstract

Medicinal practices were critical in ancient societies, yet we have limited insight into these practices outside references found in ancient texts. Meanwhile, historic and ethnographic resources have documented how a number of plants, from across the landscape, are assembled into pharmacopoeias and transformed into materia medica. These documentary resources attest to diverse healthcare practices that incorporate botanical elements, while residues in the archaeological record (seeds, phytoliths and starch grains) point to a variety of activities, some of them therapeutic in nature. Focusing on four pre-Hispanic communities in northwestern Honduras, I draw upon ethnobotanical and ethnobiological knowledge to infer medical practices potentially represented by ancient plant residues. Comparing these findings with prior investigations, I address the limits of dividing taxa into mutually exclusive categories such as ‘food’, ‘fuel’ and ‘medicine’. I consider the importance of apothecary craft in past lifeways, as well as the persistence of many traditions in contemporary medical practice.

Health Care in the Marketplace: Exploring Maya Medicinal Plants and Practices at Piedras Negras, Guatemala

“…However, medical practice remains largely understudied in the archaeological record of the Maya area, especially in the identification of materia medica , the artefactual and biological residues of health care materials. Given the importance of health care to contemporary people—preventative and therapeutic; physical and spiritual—identifying the loci and components of such practices is critical for a more holistic understanding of the past (Morell-Hart 2021). Here, we present archaeological evidence for medical practices in the central marketplace of Piedras Negras, a major Classic period ( a.d. 350–900) Maya dynastic center in Guatemala (Figure 1; Coe 1959; Proskouriakoff 1960; Weeks et al 2005).…”

“…To what extent were these plants sought by visitors to the marketplace because they were widely known to have curative properties? To what extent were these plants prepared and prescribed by medical practitioners who might have possessed specialized knowledge and managed the physical and spiritual health of the community (Morell-Hart 2021)?…”