Born in Copenhagen in 1788, Christian Jürgensen Thomsen immersed himself in numismatics and antiquities at a young age. His interest in organizing ancient coins and artifacts led to his role in 1819 as the first curator at what would become Denmark’s National Museum. In this role, he recognized the need for systematic organization—not for aesthetic or thematic appeal, but for chronological clarity. His Three‑Age System, detailed in an 1836 guide to the Copenhagen Museum, argued that societies progressed through stages defined by the dominant material technology—stone, then bronze, then iron. His reasoning was that once metal tools existed, societies would no longer rely on stone. This logic helped create an intuitive, comparative framework that revolutionized prehistoric chronology.

Thomsen inspired later scholars to apply such schemes to medical history with an emphasis on systematic division. Michel Foucault’s Birth of the Clinic (1975) analyzes how medical perception evolved through distinct epistemic “orders.” Though Foucault does not cite Thomsen directly, his method echoes the temporal segmentation pioneered by Thomsen. Historians of medicine have adopted archaeological taxonomy—arranging shifting disease patterns, diagnostic tools, and treatment styles into historically coherent sequences, much like Thomsen’s ages. For example, classifications of pre‑industrial disease often frame narratives around dominant therapies (herbalism), evolving into early scientific medicine, and later into modern pathology, mirroring Thomsen’s tripartite periodization.

Thomsen’s approach underscored the significance of artifacts as evidence of societal practices. Just as he himself classified axes and jewelry, medical historians cataloged surgical instruments, mortars, and early diagnostic artifacts to trace the development of clinical practice, from Galenic humoral instruments in the Middle Ages, to Renaissance anatomical tools, to sterile surgical kits in the 19th century, and beyond. He valued restrictive yet comprehensive classification. This stance influenced the development of medical taxonomic systems. His life’s work encourages interdisciplinary collaboration between archaeologists, historians of medicine, and healthcare providers. His periodization taught scholars to see medicine as historically progressive, adapting diagnostic and therapeutic techniques over time. His introduction of the Three‑Age System established principles of classification, chronology, and material analysis. His methods—ordering time, interpreting artifacts, and systematizing collections—influenced how we analyze knowledge across centuries. Today, historians, curators, and medical professionals still draw on Thomsen’s insights to structure our understanding of healthcare’s past.