Ancient Egyptian MedicineThe skills of the ancient Egyptians in preserving bodies through mummification are well known, but their expertise in the everyday medical practices needed to treat the living is less familiar and often misinterpreted. John F. Nunn draws on his own experience as an eminent doctor of medicine and an Egyptologist to reassess the evidence. He has translated and reviewed the original Egyptian medical papyri and has reconsidered other sources of information, including skeletons, mummies, statues, tomb paintings and coffins. Illustrations highlight symptoms of similar conditions in patients ancient and modern, and the criteria by which the Egyptian doctors made their diagnoses - many still valid today - are evaluated in the light of current medical knowledge. In addition, an appendix listing all known named doctors contains previously unpublished additions from newly translated texts. Spells and incantations and the relationship of magic and religion to medical practice are also explored. Incorporating the most recent insights of modern medicine and Egyptology, the result is the most comprehensive and authoritative general book to be published on this fascinating subject for many years. |
Contents
Preface | 6 |
The medical papyri | 24 |
The pattern of disease | 64 |
Magic and religion in medicine | 96 |
The healers | 113 |
Drug therapy | 136 |
Surgery trauma and dangerous animals | 163 |
Specialised branches of medicine | 191 |
Epilogue | 206 |
APPENDIX C | 215 |
| 227 | |
| 234 | |
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Common terms and phrases
18th Dynasty abscess Akhenaten ancient Egypt ancient Egyptians anus appears bandage beer belly Berlin blood body bone breast carob cause Chapter Chester Beatty contains Deir el-Medina described diagnosis disease doctors drugs Dynasty Ebbell Ebers papyrus Edwin Smith papyrus Egyptian medicine Egyptian word Elliot Smith embalmers evidence examine eye-paint Fifth Dynasty fracture Gardiner sign-list Ghaliounghui Gloss Greek Grundriss heart Herophilus Hesy-ra hieroglyphs honey Horus identified Imhotep incantations infection injury INTERMEDIATE PERIOD Isis Kahun kherep Khonsu king knife treatment known liver magic magician meaning medical papyri metu mouth mummy Museum natron Old Kingdom paragraphs patient pharaonic phrase physician Predynastic priest of Sekhmet probably Ptolemaic Period Ramesseum refer relief remedies role Saqqara Sauneron say concerning scorpion Sekhmet Serqet skull snake bite specific stela stomach suggested surgical swelling swnw Table tion tomb translated unidentified urine usually uterus vagina wab priest wekhedu Westendorf worms wound вс