Bizarre Cures from Ancient Civilizations: Strange Remedies that Shaped Medical History

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Imagine being sick thousands of years ago—no pharmacies, no doctors in lab coats, and no MRI scans. Instead, your local healer might drill a hole in your skull to release evil spirits or prescribe a potion made of crushed mummies. Welcome to the world of bizarre cures from ancient civilizations—a blend of genius, guesswork, and gross-out moments that laid the groundwork for modern medicine.

In this journey through time, we’ll explore the strangest ancient medical practices and unusual historical treatments from across cultures. From bloodletting and trepanation to urine therapy and mummified organs, you’ll see how the human quest for healing has always walked the fine line between miraculous and macabre.

1. Ancient Egypt: The Land of Mummies and Honey

The Egyptians are famed for their architectural wonders and obsession with the afterlife, but their healing methods were just as elaborate—and at times, downright grotesque.

Cure: Moldy Bread, Mummified Flesh & Animal Dung

Yes, the ancient Egyptian medicine chest included:

  • Moldy bread applied to wounds, potentially one of the earliest forms of antibiotic use, as mold contains natural bacteria-fighting compounds.
  • Crocodile dung suppositories, used as a form of birth control, believed to block or neutralize male seed due to its “divine” origins.
  • Ground-up mummies mixed with honey, ingested as a tonic for strength, stamina, or even immortality. This grisly ingredient was prized for its supposed spiritual power.

Illness in ancient Egypt was often attributed to spiritual imbalance or divine punishment. Treatments involved ritual chants, protective amulets, and the invocation of gods like Thoth and Sekhmet, the deity of healing and plague. Their natural apothecaries, detailed in texts like the Ebers Papyrus, contained over 700 remedies—including lizard blood, crushed minerals, honey, and even dead mice—meticulously applied depending on the condition.

Medical knowledge was advanced for the time, yet rooted in deep mythological and symbolic beliefs, making Egyptian medicine one of the strangest yet most influential traditions in the ancient world.

2. Trepanation: Drilling Holes in Heads Across Cultures

bizarre medicines

Long before brain scans and neurosurgery, trepanation was practiced as a cure-all for ailments of the mind and spirit. One of the oldest known primitive surgery techniques, it involved drilling or scraping a hole into the skull—without modern tools or anesthesia.

Reason?

Cultures spanning from Neolithic Europe to the Incan Empire believed that trepanation could:

  • Release evil spirits causing madness
  • Treat epilepsy, migraines, or demonic possession
  • Relieve intracranial pressure from injuries

Evidence from unearthed skulls shows that not only did patients survive, but in many cases, bone regrowth occurred—proving that ancient healers weren’t as reckless as they may seem. Tools used included flint knives, obsidian blades, and even sharpened shells.

While it might seem horrifying today, trepanation represented a bold step into surgical experimentation, driven by a blend of spiritual belief and crude anatomical knowledge.

3. Ayurveda: Healing with Fire, Leeches, and Cow Urine

In ancient India, Ayurvedic medicine wasn’t just about soothing oils or herbal infusions—it was a complete system of mind-body-spirit healing developed over thousands of years. And while many of its practices have gained global acceptance today, some of its ancient treatments are undeniably bizarre by modern standards.

🪱 Bizarre Ayurvedic Cures:

  • Leech therapy (Jalauka Avacharana) was commonly used for blood purification and to treat skin diseases, inflammation, and even high blood pressure. Leeches were considered living surgical tools.
  • Swarna Bhasma, a preparation of purified gold ash mixed with herbal extracts, was believed to enhance vitality, intelligence, and immunity. It was even administered to children to boost longevity and spiritual clarity.
  • Urine therapy (Gomutra chikitsa), especially involving cow urine, was hailed as a divine remedy. It was thought to have detoxifying powers, balance bodily energies, and cure ailments ranging from indigestion to leprosy.
  • Kshara Sutra, an ingenious method involving a medicated alkaline thread, was used to cut off hemorrhoids or fistulas slowly and precisely, without invasive surgery—a technique still recognized by some modern practitioners.

These cures were grounded in the holistic Ayurvedic philosophy, which emphasized the balance of the three doshas—Vata (air and ether), Pitta (fire and water), and Kapha (earth and water). Disease was seen as an imbalance in these energies, and treatment sought to realign the body’s internal harmony.

Ancient Ayurvedic texts like the Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita detail thousands of such therapies, combining spiritual rituals, plant-based medicine, surgical techniques, and dietary prescriptions. While some methods raise eyebrows today, Ayurveda’s legacy proves that ancient Indian healers had a sophisticated, if unconventional, grasp of health and longevity.

4. Traditional Chinese Medicine: Mercury & Ground Seahorses

bizarre medicines

China’s healing history stretches back over 2,000 years, deeply rooted in philosophy, spirituality, and observation of nature. While Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is globally respected for its herbal remedies and acupuncture, its ancient roots contain some truly bizarre and dangerous practices that once aimed to balance the yin and yang or restore the flow of qi (life energy).

Strange & Risky Cures from Ancient China:

  • Mercury treatments were shockingly common among emperors and nobles. Mercury, believed to promote immortality and rejuvenation, was used in pills and elixirs. Ironically, it often led to organ failure, madness, or early death. Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the man behind the Terracotta Army, is thought to have died from mercury poisoning in his quest for eternal life.
  • Ground seahorses, tiger bones, rhino horn, and other exotic animal parts were used in traditional tonics, believed to enhance male vitality, strength, and virility. These were mixed with wine or teas and consumed as part of yang-enhancing treatments.
  • Moxibustion, the practice of burning mugwort (a medicinal herb) on or near the skin, was used to stimulate healing and energy flow in targeted acupuncture points. It often left burn scars, but was believed to cure everything from colds to digestive problems.
  • Dried centipedes, scorpion venom, and toad skin also featured in some formulas, meant to expel internal “poisons” or treat convulsions and skin diseases.

Underlying all these practices was a belief that the body, emotions, and environment were connected, and illness arose from imbalance, not germs. Treatments focused on restoring harmony, whether through herbs, massage, cupping, or—sometimes—hazardous potions.

While modern TCM has evolved, its ancient form reminds us that supernatural beliefs and symbolic thinking once guided even the most respected healing traditions. And in the case of mercury elixirs, the pursuit of longevity often came at a deadly cost.

5. Medieval Europe: Plague Beaks, Leeches & Exorcisms

The Middle Ages were a time of chaos, superstition, and spiritual fear—and nowhere was this more apparent than in the medical practices of the era. Lacking scientific understanding of infection or hygiene, Europeans relied on a blend of alchemy, folklore, astrology, and religious doctrine to explain disease. When the Black Death ravaged the continent in the 14th century, wiping out nearly a third of the population, treatments became as bizarre as they were desperate.

Peculiar Plague Cures:

  • Bloodletting with leeches was a standard remedy based on the humoral theory, which claimed that health depended on the balance of four bodily fluids—blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. An excess of any one was thought to cause illness, so doctors used leeches or blades to drain “bad” blood.
  • Plague masks—those iconic beaked headpieces worn by plague doctors—weren’t just for theatrics. The beaks were stuffed with aromatic herbs, flowers, or vinegar-soaked cloths to protect the wearer from “miasma,” or bad air, believed to carry disease.
  • Some patients were instructed to drink mercury, or apply it externally along with raw onions, in hopes of drawing the “poison” out of their bodies. Needless to say, mercury often worsened their condition—or ended it altogether.
  • Self-flagellation was practiced by religious zealots called the Flagellants, who paraded through towns whipping themselves in public to atone for humanity’s sins. They believed the plague was God’s punishment and hoped their suffering might appease His wrath.
  • Perhaps most disturbingly, exorcism rituals were used to treat what we now know as mental illness or neurological disorders. Priests and monks attempted to cast out demons through prayer, holy water, and violent restraint—often with tragic consequences.

In this dark period, the line between medicine and religion was deeply blurred. Physicians were as likely to consult the stars as they were to examine symptoms. Hospitals were often run by monasteries, where patients received last rites more often than actual cures.

While some medieval remedies—like herbal poultices and vinegar washes—had minor antimicrobial effects, most were guided by fear, myth, and divine punishment rather than science. It wasn’t until the Renaissance that Europe began inching back toward rational medical inquiry.

6. Sumerian & Babylonian Remedies: Clay Tablets and Cosmic Illness

bizarre medicines

In the heart of Mesopotamia, where cities like Uruk and Babylon rose from the fertile plains between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, medicine took its first written form. The Sumerians and later the Babylonians are credited with some of the oldest recorded medical knowledge, inscribed meticulously on clay tablets in cuneiform script.

But their approach to health and healing was far from scientific by modern standards. Instead, it was a complex blend of spiritual belief, astrology, and ritual magic. Illness was rarely seen as a physical malfunction—it was a cosmic message, a punishment from gods, or the result of demonic possession.

Cure Beliefs:

  • Disease was interpreted as divine retribution or the work of malevolent spirits. Each illness had a mythological or celestial association, and specific gods like Gula (the goddess of healing) or Ea (the god of magic and wisdom) were invoked during rituals.
  • Healing was a dual practice involving both ashipu (exorcist-priests) and asu (herbal healers). The ashipu performed incantations, sacrificial offerings, and exorcisms to rid the body of invading demons, while the asu administered herbal poultices, salves, and natural tonics.
  • Common ingredients included crushed snake skin, burnt turtle shells, and powdered gemstones. These were mixed into river mud poultices, or formed into pills and pastes that were applied to wounds or ingested with ritual chants.
  • Healing amulets, worn around the neck or tied to the wrist, were inscribed with protective spells. It was believed these talismans could shield the wearer from future illness or attract the favor of the gods.

The clay tablets of this era—like the Diagnostic Handbook of Esagil-kin-apli—offered surprisingly detailed symptom-based treatments, categorizing diseases, predicting outcomes, and linking symptoms to supernatural causes. They were the ancient world’s first attempt at systematized medicine, albeit through a magico-religious lens.

Although primitive, the Sumerian and Babylonian systems laid the foundation for future healing traditions, merging natural apothecaries with sacred rituals, and proving that from the very beginning, humans turned to both earth and sky in search of health.

7. Greek and Roman Oddities: Goat Livers & Humoral Theory

The ancient Greeks and Romans are often celebrated for their contributions to science, philosophy, and medicine. Giants like Hippocrates, the so-called “Father of Medicine,” and Galen, a Roman physician and philosopher, helped lay the foundations of modern medical thinking. Yet even these early pioneers relied on a surprising number of strange, symbolic, and sometimes grisly remedies.

Their medical worldview was dominated by the humoral theory, which proposed that the body contained four vital fluids—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Health depended on the delicate balance of these humors, and disease was the result of imbalance. This led to treatments that were more about restoring equilibrium than targeting disease itself.

Weirdest Cures from the Classical World:

  • Drinking goat urine or eating raw goat liver was a popular treatment for epilepsy, which they believed was a sacred or spiritual affliction. Goat organs were thought to possess cleansing or stabilizing properties.
  • Even more disturbing, gladiator blood was consumed by the upper class as a form of “vital essence”. The belief was that the strength, bravery, and energy of a dying warrior could be absorbed by drinking his freshly spilled blood—especially to treat epilepsy or increase virility.
  • Animal fat poultices—made from pigs, goats, or oxen—were applied to wounds, sprains, or infections. Combined with herbal salves or wine, they were thought to draw out impurities or “rebalance” the body.
  • Following the humoral theory, physicians regularly prescribed:
    • Emetics (to induce vomiting),
    • Enemas (to cleanse the bowels), and
    • Bloodletting, sometimes through leeches or direct incision.

These weren’t occasional remedies—they were routine practices, often repeated until the patient was visibly weakened, under the impression that the disease was leaving the body.

Despite their eccentricities, Greek and Roman medicine was remarkably advanced for its time. Surgical tools were invented, cataract surgeries were performed, and medical ethics (like the Hippocratic Oath) were formalized. However, these cultures remained deeply influenced by symbolism, astrology, and philosophical theory, blending rational thought with mysticism in every prescription.

So while their legacy is enormous, it’s clear that even the most brilliant minds of the ancient world weren’t immune to a bit of bizarre medicine.

8. African and Indigenous Medicine: Rituals and Roots

Long before the rise of modern hospitals and pharmaceutical labs, indigenous cultures across Africa, the Americas, and Australia developed intricate medical systems rooted in nature, ancestral wisdom, and spiritual belief. These healing practices weren’t just about treating the body—they aimed to restore balance between the mind, spirit, community, and environment.

Unlike the compartmentalized approach of modern medicine, indigenous healing viewed illness as a disruption of harmony—with nature, ancestors, or even the soul itself.

Cures and Customs That Might Shock You:

  • Burning sacred herbs, such as sage or frankincense, was used in spirit cleansing ceremonies, especially during illness or after trauma. These rituals were believed to drive away malevolent forces or ancestral curses.
  • Bone setting techniques—often performed without anesthesia—used natural tools like bamboo splints, palm bark, or vines. Some communities even employed rhythmic chants or drum beats during the process to calm the patient’s spirit.
  • In several African and Amazonian cultures, animal parts like bat wings, lion hair, or lizard tails were used in rituals to transfer strength, speed, or protection from the animal to the patient. Sometimes these parts were worn as charms, while others were burned, buried, or consumed in symbolic acts.
  • Ingesting clay, charcoal, or ash was a method to “purge” illness—a physical and spiritual detox. Some communities believed these elements could absorb evil energies or internal poisons and carry them out of the body.

At the heart of these systems were tribal shamans, healers, or medicine men/women, who served as both doctors and priests. Their knowledge was passed down orally through generations, and they often underwent years of spiritual initiation before being trusted with healing responsibilities.

These healers used a mix of:

  • Herbal concoctions, made from bark, leaves, and roots.
  • Divination techniques, using bones, shells, or visions.
  • Ceremonial rituals, which might involve dancing, drumming, or trance states.

Despite being labeled “primitive” by early colonizers, many of these remedies have since been validated by modern science—like the use of willow bark (a precursor to aspirin) or rosy periwinkle (used in chemotherapy drugs).

These traditions reflect a deep connection to nature, a reverence for ancestors, and a holistic view of health that continues to inspire alternative medicine today.

Final Thoughts: Are We So Different?

Looking back at these bizarre cures from ancient civilizations, we may chuckle or cringe. But they were all born from the same instinct we still have today: to heal, to survive, and to make sense of suffering.

Today, science leads the way. But many old methods—herbalism, acupuncture, and holistic healing—still echo through modern medicine. Perhaps the line between madness and medicine isn’t so wide after all.

Key Takeaways:

  • Ancient medicine was often spiritual, symbolic, and experimental.
  • Trepanation, bloodletting, mercury treatments, and urine therapy were once seen as valid.
  • Many bizarre treatments were precursors to real science (like moldy bread = antibiotics).
  • Cultural belief systems greatly influenced what was seen as “healing.”

📚 References

Read More

Britannica. (n.d.). Ebers Papyrus. In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved September 28, 2025, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ebers-papyrus

Britannica. (n.d.). What unusual substance was used as a contraceptive in ancient Egypt? In One Good Fact. Retrieved September 28, 2025, from https://www.britannica.com/one-good-fact/what-unusual-substance-was-used-as-a-contraceptive-in-ancient-egypt

History.com Editors. (2023, January 3). How Ancient Egypt advanced medicine. History.com. Retrieved September 28, 2025, from https://www.history.com/articles/ancient-egyptian-medicine-cancer-treatment

Gorman, A. (2022, March 22). Why did people start eating Egyptian mummies? The weird and wild ways “mummy fever” swept through Europe. The Conversation. Retrieved September 28, 2025, from https://theconversation.com/why-did-people-start-eating-egyptian-mummies-the-weird-and-wild-ways-mummy-fever-swept-through-europe-177551

National Geographic. (2020, October 23). Egyptian mummies in European culture. National Geographic History Magazine. Retrieved September 28, 2025, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/egyptian-mummies-in-european-culture

Britannica. (n.d.). Trepanning. In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved September 28, 2025, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/trepanning

Verano, J. W. (2016). Survival following trepanation: A review of the evidence from prehistoric skulls. International Journal of Paleopathology, 13, 44–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2015.10.002

Papagrigorakis, M. J., Kousoulis, A. A., Synodinos, P. N., & Karamesinis, K. (2013). Neurosurgery during the Bronze Age: A skull trepanation in Greece. World Neurosurgery, 79(2), 404.e13–404.e17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2012.12.005

Sharma, R., & Singh, B. (2015). Cow urine: An elixir according to Ayurveda. Innovare Journal of Ayurvedic Sciences, 3(3), 10–14. Retrieved from https://journals.innovareacademics.in/index.php/ijas/article/view/633

Britannica. (n.d.). Traditional Chinese medicine and endangered animals. In Saving Earth – Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved September 28, 2025, from https://explore.britannica.com/explore/savingearth/traditional-chinese-medicine-and-endangered-animals

Greek & Roman Oddities — Gladiator Blood, Goat Liver, Humoral Theory

Medieval Europe & Plague Cures — Plague Doctors, Leeches, Masks, Exorcisms

FAQs

Q: Did any bizarre ancient cures actually work?


Yes! Some treatments, like honey for wounds or herbal remedies, had real antimicrobial or soothing effects.

Q: Why did people use such strange substances?


People worked with what they had and were influenced by religious, spiritual, and cultural beliefs. Trial and error shaped many traditions.

Q: Are any of these still used today?


Yes. Leech therapy, herbal medicine, and Ayurvedic rituals are still practiced, though under regulated conditions.

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