Summary This is the first book volume ever to study the ?difficult' subject of congenital, intellectual disability in the ancient world. The contributions cover the Ancient Near East, Egypt and the Graeco-Roman world, up to the late ancient period, China, the rabbinic tradition, Byzantium, the Islamic world, and the Middle Ages in the Latin West. The engaging and thought-provoking chapters combine careful textual analysis with attention to the material evidence and comparative perspectives, not the least those offered by disability history for recent periods in history. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Hidden in Plain Sight or Simply Untraceable? The Challenge of Studying Intellectual Disability in the Ancient World (Christian Laes) ?Mad Bones': Tracing Mental Disability in the Bioarchaeological Record and its Possible Socio-Economic Implications in Past Societies (Chryssa Bourbou) Dagger of the Mind: Macedonian Kings and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) (Alexandra F. Morris) The Quest for Down Syndrome (and Other Symptoms) in Antiquity (Edgar Kellenberger) Excluded from the Kingdom or Leading the Revolution? M roi and the Question of Intellectual Disability in New Testament Writings (Dominika Kurek-Chomycz & Emma Swai) Brain Injury and Intellectual Disabilities in Early and Medieval China: Two Case Studies (Olivia Milburn) The Shoteh in Rabbinic Sources: Intellectual Disability or Mental Illness? (Lennart Lehmhaus) Searching for Intellectual Disability in Byzantium (Fotis Vasileiou) Fools in Arabic Medicine and Hospitals: Medical, Social and Economic Studies (Peter E. Pormann) Incapacitas mentis: Medieval Musings about Congenital Fools (Irina Metzler) Living Creatively with Intellectual Disabilities: A Father's Observations as an Opportunity for Historical Research (Edgar Kellenberger) Source Index General Index