Hi all! We recently took a trip to the lovely city of Paphos. There we visited the Paphos Archaeological Museum, which was simple, small and truly wonderful! My favorite artifacts there were the clay hot water bottles, which were excavated from a building near the center of Nea Paphos. The building, though not completely excavated, is thought to have been a medical center due to medical tools being found in tombs, inscriptions relating to doctors, and the clay water bottles in the shape of specific human body parts. The clay vessels date to the early Roman period (roughly 1 c. BC – 1 c. AD) and are particularly unique finds. The vessels are in the shape of the body part they would have been used to heal, and include ears, the chest, elbows, hands, groin, thighs, knees, shins, and feet.

The vessels which were constructed to be very thin (only about 3 mm) would have been filled with either hot water or oil and then applied to the body part in need of healing. Paphos during the Roman period was a well-known and vibrant medical center, so I think it is very cool to find possible evidence of what may have been a rather lush medical treatment at this time. Similar vessels have also been found in areas of metropolitan Greece, and heat patches made of cloth are mentioned in ancient texts for the use of treating rheumatism. I think they must have also had some form of spiritual healing aspect due to being in the shape of the body part they were intended to heal and show evidence of the strong association between belief and medicine. These were really cool to see in person and added a truly unique aspect to the museum!  

-Grace Simonsen