ABSTRACT

Anatolia... Asia’s extended arm towards the west. A bridge connecting Asia to Europe. A prized territory with a millennia old history of human habitation. The homeland of an unbroken series of civilizations... This presentation is as a sort of sightseeing tour crossing the ages for a survey of Anatolia’s legacy of preserving health and fighting disease. Not an easy task if you consider the time expanse involved, for human settlement in Anatolia dates back to as long ago as the Ninth or Tenth Millennium B.C. A tale covering merely the last few centuries would have been so much easier to recount, but I must take you through the progression of 12 thousand years, no less. Rest assured though, I will only touch upon the fundamentals, the turning points and the milestones of the story.