History

From Bronze Age healing cult to Panhellenic sanctuary to Byzantine church to UNESCO site (the most precisely EpidaurusGreece single Bronze Age 1400 1100 BCE Mycenaean healing cult preexisting religion at site Maleas or Apollo Maleatas Apollo pre-dated Asclepius at site early 6th century BCE Asclepius cult established Epidaurus Asclepius becomes major god replacing Apollo Maleatas 5th 4th century BCE Panhellenic period Epidaurus major healing sanctuary known throughout Greek world rival Pergamon Kos healing cult sanctuaries abaton incubation sleeping hall patients sleep await divine dream vision prescription from Asclepius Epidaurus healing site major construction civic building programme 4th century BCE 370s 330s BCE monumental building programme tholos rotunda 350 BCE circular rotunda Polykleitos Younger finest circular building Greek world Theatre 350 BCE agora stoa temple Asclepius gymnasium stadium Hotel of the Pilgrims hospital 160 rooms largest ancient Greek building complex 5th century BCE Peloponnesian War history Epidaurus Battle of Epidaurus 419 BCE Alcibiades Athenians attacked Spartan allied Epidaurus 146 BCE Roman conquest Greece Mummius Lucius Mummius conquered Corinth Epidaurus 4th century CE Christianity Theodosius I 426 CE Theodosius II closed all pagan sanctuaries Asclepion closed converted churches Epidaurus 585 CE earthquake damaged most structures medieval medieval obscurity 1879 CE Greek Archaeological Society first systematic excavation Panagiotis Kavvadias 1877 1899 1988 CE UNESCO UNESCO heritage: the stelae of Epidaurus (the earliest medical case histories in the world): in the 4th century BCE, the priests of the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus inscribed approximately 70 healing case histories on large stone stelae (the Epidaurus stelae; currently in the Epidaurus Museum); the stelae describe patients’ ailments (blindness, lameness, paralysis, skin disease, infertility, tapeworms) and their miraculous cures after sleeping in the sanctuary (incubation); the cures are attributed to Asclepius appearing in dreams; the case histories are the earliest surviving medical records in the ancient world — predating the Hippocratic case histories from Kos by approximately 50 years; the stelae are the primary evidence for incubation healing (the practice of sleeping in a temple to receive divine medical visions) and for the medical knowledge of the 4th century BCE Epidaurus priesthood)) — the most precisely EpidaurusGreece single Bronze Age Mycenaean Apollo Maleatas pre-dated Asclepius 5th 4th century BCE Panhellenic sanctuary abaton incubation sleeping hall divine dream 4th century BCE 370s 330s BCE tholos 350 BCE Theatre 350 BCE 160-room Hotel Pilgrims largest ancient Greek building 146 BCE Roman 426 CE Theodosius II closed 1879 CE Kavvadias systematic excavation 4th century BCE 70 case histories stelae earliest medical records ancient world predates Hippocratic Kos 50 years 1988 CE UNESCO heritage in any UNESCO world heritage site)).