Even the Greeks planned access to many of their sanctuaries for the disabled or the elderly. Stone ramps that were found at many temples dedicated to healing, as an archaeologist is now showing, testify to this. There were particularly often such handicapped-accessible entrances to the sanctuaries, which promised a cure for lameness and other complaints of the legs and feet.
Nowadays, when building public buildings, particular care is taken to create access for people with disabilities – this was not a matter of course for a long time. For centuries, stairs and other obstacles ensured that people with walking disabilities or older people with restricted mobility were excluded from many social events and public places.
Injuries and disabilities were common in ancient times
But how was that in ancient times? It seems clear that disabilities were actually more common back then than they are today, as many written records bear witness to. “The Hippocratic Corpus, a collection of writings by anonymous medical professionals from the late fifth and fourth centuries BC, describes limitations and deformities that affected people from all walks of life,” explains Debby Sneed of California State University in Long Beach. The spectrum ranges from war injuries and the effects of infectious diseases to congenital malformations. Images on Greek vases and examinations of bones also suggest that many elderly people at that time suffered from arthritis and were therefore restricted in their mobility.
“We can therefore assume that the majority of adults in ancient Greece – whether men or women, citizens, slaves or strangers – either suffered from disabilities themselves or at least knew someone in their household or community,” says Sneed. At the same time, people with clubfoot or leg injuries, for example, were not excluded or shamefully locked away, but were evidently a natural part of society: “They were generals and kings, were worshiped as gods, depicted on works of art and treated together with other patients in their sanctuaries”, so the archaeologist. “The city of Athens even paid some kind of daily disability pension to disabled people who could not support themselves.”
Ramps for easier access
This attitude of ancient inclusion is also reflected in the architecture of many shrines in ancient Greece, as the researcher explains. Because at many temples there are stone ramps that guarantee access to the interior of these sanctuaries, which is otherwise only accessible via stairs. “It is unlikely that these ramps were intended for the transport of sacrificial animals, as these were mostly sacrificed on altars in front of the temples,” explains Sneed. A function in the construction of the building is also not plausible, since such ramps would then also have to be present on other large buildings such as treasure houses.
Also noticeable: Such ramps can be found particularly often at certain temples that promised their visitors a cure from ailments. An example of this is the Asclepius sanctuary in Epidaurus, one of the most important healing temples in ancient Greece, Sneed explains. This facility has eleven ramps that provide access to its inner areas. The smaller Temple of Asclepius in Corinth also has several such ramps. Both have in common that they were apparently visited by a particularly large number of patients with foot and leg problems: “The votive offerings obtained there represent a large number of body parts, including a particularly large number of legs and feet of men and women,” reports the archaeologist. In addition, more than 70 surviving texts testify that people with paralysis, carried on crutches or carried in litters, visited these temples. According to the researcher, this suggests that these shrines were also architecturally adapted to these visitors – the temples were built to be handicapped accessible from the start.
“Similar to the way sports venues were equipped with stadiums and high schools, temples dedicated to the healing arts offered their visitors structures that made it easier for them to access ritual activities,” says Sneed. Even if the ancient Greeks were neither particularly progressive nor had special anti-discrimination laws, they obviously took this form of inclusion for granted. “If the Greeks showed this consideration for their handicapped fellow citizens, then we should practice it all the more”, the archaeologist states.
Source: Antiquity, doi: 10.15184 / aqy.2020.123