An 18th-century cup promising universal healing conceals a deadly secret. Roman army medics display remarkable ancient care. And fragile bamboo scrolls hint at the origins of ancient Chinese medical traditions.

Grim discoveries aboard a sunken wreck reveal the horrors of pirate medicine at sea. The remains of ancient Peruvians bear the markings of strange surgical experimentation. And a drug-laced latrine leads us to a historic American foot trail.

A Roman incantation is wielded to ward off disease, unusual remedies carved in Chinese grottos provide ancient medical advice, and a fossilised squid in a medieval Polish grave reveals ancient medical magic.