3rd century B.C.
The first documented scientific dissections on the human body are carried out as early as the third century B.C. in Alexandria. At that time, anatomists explore anatomy through dissections of animals, primarily pigs and monkeys.
Who illegally dissected bodies?
Leonardo da Vinci, who lived from 1452-1519, is well known for his anatomical sketches of the human body. He would dissect dead human remains and then draw what he saw. Dissection was completely illegal unless one was a physician, which da Vinci was not.
Was dissection allowed in the Middle Ages?
Dissection and studies of anatomy were banned in the Middle Ages out of the belief that it desecrated a person's body and prevented them from entering...
