- Humans are a curious species and we have always been interested in how bodies have been formed and created. Anatomical structures, hyroglifics, and drawings that date back as early as 750000 BCE have been discovered in caves. These showed evidence that the primitive human had a relatively vast knowledge of the anatomy of the human body, despite the simplicity of the drawings of what was seen.
- It can also be confirmed that even late in the Paleolithic Period, humans had begun to perform small “medical” procedures. A small hole was made into the skull of a person who may have been suffering from mental diseases. Though the reasoning behind it was not always scientific, some of the persons who underwent these procedures survived and showed a breakthrough in this branch of medicine.
- Fast forward to the Ancient Romans who used treating their injured gladiators to gain more anatomical knowledge. However, this could only be done secretly as the dissection of human bodies was not allowed. Hence, the Romans depended on using animal anatomy and bodies to further compare and contrast their findings on humans. During this period, the researcher and experimentalist Galen became a practicing physician. He studied macroscopic anatomy of which most were dissections of animals. The findings he made would carry on for centuries to come.
- The Renaissance Period brought about the beginning of anatomy charts, sketches by great artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Rembrandt van Rijn. These artists brought about some of the cornerstones for the modern anatomical sketches and human body diagrams of the organ systems of the body. The artists worked in conjunction with scientists to draw anatomically accurate sketches after the dissection of parts of human bodies. This period also brought about the work of Andreas Vesalius who contributed extensively to anatomy by his constant study of dissected humans and his work on the first-ever book on human anatomy.
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