page_title: Massage
section_title: Ancient times
hierarchical_section_title: Massage / History / Ancient times
caption_attribution_description: English: Description: It is a wall painting found in the tomb of the highest official after the Pharaoh - Ankhmahor. The tomb is also known as the physicians tomb. Therefore it suggests that what the people in the painting is doing must be somewhat related to health, therefore it is suspected that they are practising the early version of reflexology. This wall painting is dated back to 2330 B.C. Source: Copy from Here
context_page_description: Massage is the manipulation of the body's soft tissues. Massage techniques are commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet, or a device. The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pain. A person who was professionally trained to give massages was traditionally known as a masseur or a masseuse, but those titles are outmoded, and carry some negative connotations. In the United States, the title massage therapist has been recognized as a business norm for those who have been professionally trained to give massages.
  In professional settings, clients are treated while lying on a massage table, sitting in a massage chair, or lying on a mat on the floor. In amateur settings, a general purpose surface like a bed or the floor is more common. Aquatic massage and bodywork is performed with recipients submersed or floating in a warm-water therapy pool.
context_section_description: Archaeological evidence of massage has been found in many ancient civilizations including China, India, Japan, Korea, Egypt, Rome, Greece, and Mesopotamia.
  BC 2330: The Tomb of Akmanthor (also known as "The Tomb of the Physician") in Saqqara, Egypt, depicts two men having work done on their feet and hands, possibly massage.
  BC 2000: The word muššu'u ("massage") is written for the first time, and its use is described, in some Sumerian and Akkadian texts found at the beginning of the 21st century in ancient Mesopotamia.
  BC 722-481: Huangdi Neijing is composed during the Chinese Spring and Autumn period. The Nei-jing is a compilation of medical knowledge known up to that date, and is the foundation of traditional Chinese medicine. Massage is referred to in 30 different chapters of the Nei Jing. It specifies the use of different massage techniques and how they should be used in the treatment of specific ailments, and injuries. Also known as "The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon", the text refers to previous medical knowledge from the time of the Yellow Emperor (approx 2700 BC), misleading some into believing the text itself was written during the time of the Yellow Emperor (which would predate written history).
  BC 762 "In the Iliad and the Odyssey the massage with oils and aromatic substances is mentioned as a means to relax the tired limbs of warriors and a way to help the treatment of wounds,"
  BC 700 Bian Que, the earliest known Chinese physician uses massage in medical practice.
  BC 500 Jīvaka Komarabhācca. According to the Pāli Buddhist Canon, Jivaka was Shakyamuni Buddha's physician. Jivaka is mistakenly credited with founding and developing a style of massage that led to the type of massage practiced in current-day Thailand. He was a doctor and a surgeon, but not a massage therapist. 
  BC 493: A possible biblical reference documents daily "treatments" with oil of myrrh as a part of the beauty regimen of the wives of Xerxes (Esther, 2:12).
  BC 460: Hippocrates wrote "The physician must be experienced in many things, but assuredly in rubbing".
  BC 300 Charaka Samhita believed to be the oldest of the three ancient treatises of Ayurvedic medicine, including massage. Sanskrit records indicate that massage had been practiced in India long before the beginning of recorded history.
  AD 581: Dr Sun Si Miao introduces ten new massage techniques and systematized the treatment of childhood diseases using massage therapy.
  AD 581: China establishes a department of massage therapy within the Office of Imperial Physicians.
caption: Akmanthor
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