A brief journey into medical care and disease in ancient Egypt
Richard Sullivan
J R Soc Med, 1995;88:141-145
Abstract
Ancient Egypt was one of the greatest civilizations to have arisen, becoming the cradle of scientific enquiry and social development over 3 millennia; undoubtedly its knowledge of medicine has been vastly underestimated. Few artefacts survive which describe the medical organization, but from the extent of the diseases afflicting that ancient populus there would have been much to study. Evidence from papyri, tomb bas reliefs and the writings of historians of antiquity tell of an intense interest in the sciences, humanities and medicine born of an educated society which had overcome the superstitions of its nomadic ancestors.
Evidence of medical organization in ancient Egypt is of two kinds, the literary and the archaeological. Of the former, clasic writers, notably Herodotust, who may never have visited the area except around the Greek trading centre at Naukratis in 400 BC,relied heavily upon reports of previous travelers such as Hecataeus of Miletus. There are further brief accounts of medical practice within the Old Testament, Hitite state records and state archives of Babylonia and Asyria.The later group contains by far the most important and exact body of knowledge. Two of the most important works so far discovered have been the Ebers and Edwin Smith papyri.
Richard Sullivan
J R Soc Med, 1995;88:141-145
Abstract
Ancient Egypt was one of the greatest civilizations to have arisen, becoming the cradle of scientific enquiry and social development over 3 millennia; undoubtedly its knowledge of medicine has been vastly underestimated. Few artefacts survive which describe the medical organization, but from the extent of the diseases afflicting that ancient populus there would have been much to study. Evidence from papyri, tomb bas reliefs and the writings of historians of antiquity tell of an intense interest in the sciences, humanities and medicine born of an educated society which had overcome the superstitions of its nomadic ancestors.
Evidence of medical organization in ancient Egypt is of two kinds, the literary and the archaeological. Of the former, clasic writers, notably Herodotust, who may never have visited the area except around the Greek trading centre at Naukratis in 400 BC,relied heavily upon reports of previous travelers such as Hecataeus of Miletus. There are further brief accounts of medical practice within the Old Testament, Hitite state records and state archives of Babylonia and Asyria.The later group contains by far the most important and exact body of knowledge. Two of the most important works so far discovered have been the Ebers and Edwin Smith papyri.
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