What Did Ancient Humans Do When They Got Sick?

Before antibiotics, before hospitals, before germ theory — what did ancient humans do when they got sick? This is the strange truth about prehistoric medicine: the ancient remedies, the plants, and the one thing that kept our species alive for 300,000 years.A woman lies in a shelter of branches on the African savanna with a fever and no doctor to call. What she does next reveals how early humans first learned to heal — from Neanderthals chewing medicinal herbs, to Ötzi the Iceman carrying his own parasite cure, to the first surgery ever performed on a living skull. Thank you for following along with this portrait series! If you're excited for the next episode and want to support the creator: USDT (TRC20) - TXB2Z6LMCx4Yj3sPkL9DA4sx55dSVBUKQu ⏱️ Chapters: 0:00 The Woman With No Doctor 0:46 Why the Worst Diseases Didn't Exist Yet 1:43 What Actually Killed Ancient Humans 2:10 The Neanderthals Who Treated Themselves 3:15 Ötzi's Medicine Belt 4:28 The First Pharmacy: Willow, Honey & Maggots 5:04 The Real Medicine Was Each Other 7:10 The Oldest Profession: The Shaman 7:39 Trepanation — The First Surgery 8:17 What We Built On Top of Them If you're curious about the strange questions you forgot to ask — about your brain, your past, and the weird species you belong to — subscribe. New video every week.▶ More from the "What Did Ancient Humans Do…?" series: What Did Ancient Humans Do With Their Dead? →    • What Did Ancient Humans Do With Their Dead?   What Did Ancient Humans Do When They Had a Baby? →    • What Did Ancient Humans Do When They Had a...   What Did Ancient Humans Do at Night? →    • Why We Stopped Sleeping Like Our Ancestors   Ancient Humans Had Zero Privacy. Here's What They Did →    • Ancient Humans Had Zero Privacy. Here's Wh...   #ancienthumans #prehistoricmedicine #humanevolution #ancientremedies #anthropology