Austin Anne. Healthmaking in Ancient Egypt: The Social Determinants of Health at Deir el-Medina

Brill, 2024. — 278 p. — (Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 138).This book explores the health of ancient Egyptians living in the New Kingdom village of Deir el-Medina. Through an interdisciplinary approach that combines skeletal analysis with textual evidence, the book examines how social factors, such as social support, healthcare access, and economic stability, played crucial roles in buffering individuals from stress and promoting good health. This is the first, comprehensive book on the bioarchaeology of Deir el-Medina including data from human remains spanning the site’s New Kingdom occupation. This book highlights how the Social Determinants of Health can be used to explain how past people maintained their health.Anne E. Austin, Ph.D. (2014), University of California - Los Angeles, is an Assistant Professor of History in the University of Missouri - St. Louis. Her research combines textual and osteological data to inform about daily life in ancient Egypt including topics covering medicine, health, and tattooing.