Ancient Egyptian Surgical Heritage (original) (raw)
Gaceta Médica de Caracas, 2021
Knowledge of the medicine practiced in Ancient Egypt is found mainly in the so-called medical papyri, of which the oldest is the Lahun papyrus (c. 1800 b.C) which mainly reveals knowledge of gynecology and obstetrics, including methods of contraception. Surgical cases, most of them related to trauma, are dealt with in the Edwin Smith papyrus. Specific medical and anatomical terms, such as brain, fracture, and seizure, appear for the first time in this treatise.
The identity and work of the ancient Egyptian surgeon
That a well-developed and hierarchical medical profession existed in Pharaonic Egypt is without doubt. What is a matter of contention is the existence of a recognizable surgical profession, or even of the practice of surgery by medically qualified personnel. Palaeoarchaeological specimens that demonstrate some form of surgical procedure are rare. Medical papyri and the treatises of the historians of antiquity provide a far more reliable source of information on surgical practice. They have indicated possible titles for surgeons, and the types of instruments used.
Egyptian Medical Civilization from Dawn of History to Kasr Al Ainy School.
Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient Egypt: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient Egypt (Barcelona, October 25-26, 2018) edited by Rosa Dinarès Solà, Mikel Fernàndez Georges and Maria Rosa Guasch-Jané. Oxford: Archaeopress, , 2021
The science and art of medicine has always been an integral part of the history of Egypt. Medical practice in ancient Egypt was based on the most advanced knowledge compared to other regions. Muslim scholars helped in the transmission of medical practice through the medieval period from the decline of ancient teaching to the rise of modern learning. Kasr Al Ainy school of Medicine, established in 1827, continues the glory of medicine in Egypt as one of the biggest and oldest medical schools not only in Egypt but also in the world. Keywords: medicine, ancient Egypt, Kasr Al Ainy, paleopathology, mummies
Surgery before common era (B.C.E.)
Archive of Oncology, 2012
Based on skeleton examination, cave-paintings and mummies the study of prehistoric medicine tells that the surgical experience dated with skull trepanning, male circumcision and warfare wound healing. In prehistoric tribes, medicine was a mixture of magic, herbal remedy, and superstitious beliefs practiced by witch doctors. The practice of surgery was first recorded in clay tablets discovered in ancient rests of Mesopotamia, translation of which has nowadays been published in Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine. Some simple surgical procedures were performed like puncture and drainage, scraping and wound treatment. The liability of physicians who performed surgery was noted in a collection of legal decisions made by Hammurabi about the principles of relationship between doctors and patients. Other ancient cultures had also had surgical knowledge including India, China and countries in the Middle East. The part of ancient Indian ayurvedic system of medicine devoted to surgery Sushruta Samhita is a systematized experience of ancient surgical practice, recorded by Sushruta in 500 B.C.E. Ancient Indian surgeons were highly skilled and familiar with a lot of surgical procedures and had pioneered plastic surgery. In the ancient Egyptian Empire medicine and surgery developed mostly in temples: priests were also doctors or surgeons, well specialized and educated. The
A brief journey into medical care and disease in ancient Egypt
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.
The medicine of the ancient Egyptians. 1: Surgery, gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics. Eugene Strouhal, Břetislav Vachala, Hana Vymazalová; translated by Kateřina Millerová (The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo, 2014); pp. 228; $59.95; ISBN 978-977- 416-640-2.
Proto-surgery in ancient Egypt
This article investigates the evidence we have for the existence of proto-surgery in ancient Egypt during the Dynastic Period (c.3200 - 323 BC). Climate and chance have preserved medical literature as well as paleoarcheological specimens and these artefacts, along with extant Greek and Roman treatises appear to support the conclusion that protosurgery was practised in ancient Egypt (the prefix proto- designates an original or early form). Elements of proto-surgical development including analgesia and sedation, the incision, trephination, proto-surgery of trauma, mythical proto-surgery and antisepsis, drawing on primary sources, surviving artefacts and modern commentary are discussed. Where appropriate comparisons are made with proto-surgery in ancient Mesopotamia and the Bronze Age Aegean.
Poking into medicine in ancient Egypt
Beyond the surviving medical and magical papyri and art depictions, we must pay attention to contemporary Egypt; going there often enables an Egyptologist to see, to hear, to smell and to feel many of the habits Egyptians still have and perform towards any sign of disease or disruption of physical well-being.
Medicine and Otorhinolaryngology in Ancient Egypt
Meždunaroden bûletin po otorinolaringologiâ, 2014
M edicine has always been one of the most honorable professions throughout history and, it has been known since the beginning of the existence of mankind on Earth. It took different forms and types according to the needs in each time, related to magic, to religion, etc. Medicine was advanced and physicians acquired a highly respectable position in Ancient Egypt. Because the ancient Egyptians believed in the afterlife, they did every effort to preserve the human body in good condition by medical and surgical measures during life, and with mummification after death (Figure 1).
Before Hippocrates: healing practices in ancient Egypt
Before Hippocrates: Healing practices in ancient Egypt. In E. Gemi-Iordanou, S. Gordon, R. Matthew, E. McInnes and R. Pettitt (Ed.), Medicine, Healing and Performance. (pp. 25-41). Oxford & Philadelphia: Oxbow Books., 2014
"The scientific investigation of mummified and skeletal remains supplemented by an analysis of textual sources and artistic representations have yielded a wealth of information on health, disease and healing practices in ancient Egypt. Many diseases that the ancient Egyptians suffered from have now been identified, but their understanding of the origin of these ailments has, however, been interpreted according to patterns different from those of the modern west. The healing practices that were employed in ancient Egypt involved a combination of operative procedures, magical incantations, performative ritual, the utilisation of a wide range of medicaments and often the manipulation of ancillary objects. The suggestion that there was a distinction between empirico-rational therapy and the use of incantations and rites (‘magic’) in the treatment of disease in ancient Egypt is not valid. Such a distinction is not one the ancient Egyptians themselves would have recognised; they would not separate the sacred from the secular. Different elements of healing practices are complementary to one another rather than in conflict. The ancient Egyptian healer would not have actively distinguished between them when treating a sick member of the community. "
Traditional ancient Egyptian medicine: A review
Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences, 2021
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Systems of Classification in Premodern Medical Cultures: Sickness, Health, and Local Epistemologies, ed. U. Steinert, London: Routledge, 2020
He will only be able to drink water every three days, whereas it will taste rotten and salty. Finally his body is broken by diarrhoea. 2 This quotation is part of a text which was intended to promote the profession of the scribe over all other careers, but it also provides us with a vivid, albeit exaggerated, example of a soldier's life and his daily perils, of which diarrhoea was just one problem. We can only assume that internal ailments, caused by polluted water and parasites or by other pathogens, were quite common afflictions in ancient Egypt and therefore commonly dealt with in medical treatises. The textual sources, which could be compiled by their respective scribes from sources of varying age, can be differentiated into essentially two major types of texts. On the one hand, there are the so-called 'Fachbücher', specialised texts, which concentrate on one specific body part 3 or healing method. 4 On the other hand, we have so-called 'Sammelhandschriften', collections of many different recipes concerning a wide array of diseases affecting various body parts. 5 Furthermore, in both of these kinds of manuscripts, we are confronted with several major types of texts describing healing practices and knowledge; only two types will be of interest here. We will look at simple recipes, naming only the treated disease, the ingredients used and their application, and at more elaborate teaching texts, 6 which list symptoms, describe the patient's condition in detail and provide more detailed information on the treatment. 7 To illustrate the different levels of knowledge that we can derive from these types of medical texts, especially concerning renal and rectal diseases and their perception in ancient Egypt, a number of significant examples will be given later, beginning with the only two extant specialised texts on that topic, Papyrus Chester Beatty VI (henceforth Bt) and Papyrus Brooklyn 47.218.75+86 (henceforth Brk).
Orthopedic surgery in ancient Egypt
Acta orthopaedica, 2014
Ancient Egypt might be considered the cradle of medicine. The modern literature is, however, sometimes rather too enthusiastic regarding the procedures that are attributed an Egyptian origin. I briefly present and analyze the claims regarding orthopedic surgery in Egypt, what was actually done by the Egyptians, and what may have been incorrectly ascribed to them. I reviewed the original sources and also the modern literature regarding surgery in ancient Egypt, concentrating especially on orthopedic surgery. As is well known, both literary sources and the archaeological/osteological material bear witness to treatment of various fractures. The Egyptian painting, often claimed to depict the reduction of a dislocated shoulder according to Kocher's method, is, however, open to interpretation. Therapeutic amputations are never depicted or mentioned in the literary sources, while the specimens suggested to demonstrate such amputations are not convincing. The ancient Egyptians certainly...
Organization of medical care in Ancient Egypt
2019
Міністерство охорони здоров'я України Харківський національний медичний університет Надбання сучасної епідеміології та біостатистики як запорука покращання громадського здоров'я в Україні Матеріали науково-практичної конференції (з нагоди 120-річчя від дня народження З.А. Гуревича, видатного соціал-гігієніста, завідувача кафедри соціальної гігієни та організації охорони здоров'я ХМІ)
109. 2500-2000, Egyptian Medical Text.pdf
Joan, Eahr Amelia. Re-Genesis Encyclopedia: Synthesis of the Spiritual Dark– Motherline, Integral Research, Labyrinth Learning, and Eco–Thealogy. Part I. Revised Edition II, 2018. CIIS Library Database. (RGS.)
Theologian Clement of Alexandria (200 CE), apparently director of the Catechetical School of Alexandria, believed Egypt’s 42 medical books were the sum total of human knowledge. Six of these books pertain to medicine including one about women’s diseases, considered the first gynecological textbook in medical history. This medical papyrus was discovered in 1898 CE by Flinders Petrie at El-Lahun (Kahun) and became known as the Kahun Papyrus. Although this papyrus dates 1880 BCE, it is not the original but a copy of an older text. (WAE: 75-6; TES: Vol. 1.)
Ancient Egyptian Medical Texts: A Rhetorical Analysis of two of the Oldest Papyri
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 1990
The Edwin Smith Surgery Manual and the Ebers Manual are two of the oldest technical texts available for analysis; both illustrate the complex rhetorical dynamics characteristic of ancient Egypt. In both, the contents present or encourage substantive reformulation of medical practice and thinking within a strongly conservative, authoritarian culture. In both, we can see how ancient Egyptian rhetorical forms allowed for challenges to tradition, while simultaneously adhering to the value placed on tradition. Among the earliest technical texts available for rhetorical examination are ancient Egyptian medical writings dating from approximately 1950 B.C. These medical texts merit close rhetorical analysis for reasons that go far beyond just their age, since some of these texts offer or favor innovation in medical thinking within a culture noted for conservatism and authoritarianism. Thus, the rhetorical dynamics of these ancient texts involve complex factors, well worthy of study. THE MEDICAL TEXTS OF ANCIENT EGYPT About a dozen texts exist to offer a glimpse of the medical knowledge and medical discourse of ancient Egypt [l, p. 111. Some of these are very short or fragmented, illegible or derivative. Two are quite extensive and show care in their construction: the Edwin Smith Papyrus and the Ebers Papyrus. Most discussions of pharaonic medicine focus attention on these; I will examine them here as well.
Oncology and Infectious Diseases in Ancient Egypt
This work focuses on pathogenic elements found in the Ebers papyrus: a series of prescriptions that are believed to be the remains of a ?book of tumours? which deals with what appear to have been benign ganglionic masses, polyps, sebaceous cysts, varicose veins and aneurysms. Discussion of this Treatise on Tumours (paragraphs 857-877) includes the previous probable identification of a disease, the analysis carried out to date by several Egyptologists, and my own interpretation which combines the linguistic approach adopted by these scholars in the past, and the medical observations of scientists in more recent years: in total we have descriptions of neoplasias versus swellings. This work also includes some references to the plants mentioned as treatments for the illnesses described in the 21 paragraphs of the Papyrus? last section on tumours (what it is now thought to be oncological concerns) taking into account the problem of translation, since some plants are still unidentified today.References are made to material evidence found in Egyptian mummies in several sites revealing the presence of a tumour.
Origin and development of forensic medicine in Egypt
Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, 2011
Egyptians are one of the first civilisations to practice the removal and examination of internal organs of humans. Their practices ranged from embalming to faith healing to surgery and autopsy. Modern radiological studies, together with various forensic techniques, allowed scientists unique glimpses of the state of health in Egypt 4000 years ago and discovered one of the earliest applications of autopsy, the main element of forensic medicine practice today.