Surgical instruments
Bronze
AD 100

Here is a collection of some of the surgical instruments used in the Roman era: scalpels with spear-shaped blades, hooks, spatulas, cauterizing irons and probes. Thanks to a book called Dearte medica, written by Celsus, a first-century Roman doctor who has been called the Cicero of medicine, we have full descriptions of surgical operations along with explanations of the medical instruments used for them. Although this work is our best-written source of information on ancient surgical instruments, the descriptions given by Celsus tend to be fairly brief and vague, and they cannot be used to identify the specific purpose of every such instrument found. Archaeological sites dating from this time yield great quantities of these objects.

Southern Syria
National Museum, Damascus
7265, 7263, 9499, 13965, 9498, 12722 and 10337


_{© Musée de la civilisation, 1999}