Clinical anatomy and medical education. The role of hellenistic terracotta figurines of Smyrna

Abstract

There has been a great controversy whether the terracotta figurines representing figures with the characteristics of disease found in Smyrna and dated at the Hellenistic period were used as models of clinical anatomy in the nearby famous in the antiquity medical school or were grotesque representations. In order to answer this problem we propose the examination of these figurines using special criteria. Every figurine should be examined separately to decide if it was a medical model, an apotropaic symbol or a portrait.