INTRODUCTION CIVILIZATION rose to two great heights in ancient Greece, namely in the Bronze age and in the later Classical period. In the latter medicine advanced considerably and culminated in the work of Hippocrates. Knowledge of medicine in the Greek Bronze age depended on the study of Homer until this century, when work in the fields of archaeology and philology provided more facts. This wo...

New archaeological evidences of the so-called "Bactrian-Margiana Archaeological Complex" (= BMAC) has invited a change in our knowledge of the cultural relations between Oxus civilization and south-eastern Iran during the III-II millennium B.C. transition period. The new archaeological projects in southern and western Turkmenistan, as well as attested at Gonur Depe, have showed a wider and more...

Cereal grains play a pivotal role in the rise and character of the Indus civilization. Archaeologists have traditionally focused their attention on the large-grained crops of wheat and barley while often minimizing the importance of the smaller-grainedmillets. Both environmental and cultural variables influence crop selection in the past as well as today. This paper explores the role and signif...

Historical collapse of ancient states or civilizations has raised new awareness about its possible relevance to current issues of sustainability, in the context of global change. This Special Feature examines 12 case studies of societies under stress, of which seven suffered severe transformation. Outcomes were complex and unpredictable. Five others overcame breakdown through environmental, pol...

Analysis of the Greenland ice core covering the period from 3000 to 500 years ago-the Greek, Roman, Medieval and Renaissance times-shows that lead is present at concentrations four times as great as natural values from about 2500 to 1700 years ago (500 B.C. to 300 A.D.). These results show that Greek and Roman lead and silver mining and smelting activities polluted the middle troposphere of the...

I think it is a sad reflection on our civilization that while we can and do measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus we do not know what goes on inside our soufflés.

Several theoretical frameworks have been proposed to explain the physiological basis of pain, although none yet completely accounts for all aspects of pain perception. Here, we provide a historical overview of the major contributions, ideas, and competing theories of pain from ancient civilizations to Melzack and Wall's Gate Control Theory of Pain.

The concept of number and its generalization has played a central role in the development of mathematics over many centuries and many civilizations. Noteworthy milestones in this long and arduous process were the developments of the real and complex numbers which have achieved universal acceptance. Serious attempts have been made at further extensions, such as Hamiltons quaternions, Grassmann’s...

BACKGROUND Anthropological studies based on highly polymorphic HLA genes provide useful information for bone marrow donor registry, forensic medicine, disease association studies, as well as designing peptide vaccines against tumors, and infectious or autoimmune diseases. OBJECTIVE This study was designed to investigate the genetic relationship of Iranian Arabs and Jews using HLA-class II gen...