The composition of Roman medical instrumentaria as an indicator of medical practice: a provisional assessment.

Archaeological evidence, in the form of sets of instruments and doctors' tombstones, can provide pointers towards the varied roles of Greco-Roman medical personnel. A number of recent discoveries have prompted a consideration of the range of instruments in those instrumentaria which are believed to be complete. The variety of instruments, and the presence, absence and relative numbers of certain types can shed light particularly on the range of medical and surgical interventions that could have been attempted. Thus, while the composition of most of the complete instrumentaria implies that their users encompassed all three branches into which medicine was traditionally divided--dietetics, drugs and surgery--the composition of other sets suggests that they were used by practitioners who specialised in a single operation or a restricted range of treatments, as, for example, dentistry, lithotomy and eye diseases.