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32-676: The Ebers Papyrus , also known as Papyrus Ebers , is an Egyptian medical papyrus of herbal knowledge dating to c.  1550 BC (the late Second Intermediate Period or early New Kingdom ). Among the oldest and most important medical papyri of Ancient Egypt , it was purchased at Luxor in the winter of 1873–1874 by the German Egyptologist Georg Ebers . It is currently kept at the Leipzig University Library in Germany . The papyrus

64-513: A dealer called Mustapha Aga at Luxor . Smith's knowledge of hieratic was not sufficient to enable him to translate the papyrus, a task which was undertaken by James Henry Breasted , aided by Arno B. Luckhardt , a professor of physiology, and led to the publication of the translation in 1930. Some two months after he purchased the Edwin Smith Papyrus, he was sold a forged papyrus made by gluing miscellaneous papyrus fragments onto

96-671: A direct-to-English translation of the Ebers Papyrus. Ebers retired from his chair of Egyptology at Leipzig on a pension and the papyrus remained in the University of Leipzig library. An English translation of the papyrus was published by Paul Ghalioungui . The papyrus was published and translated by different researchers. The Ebers Papyrus is available online, at a dedicated website, with translations in English and German. Egyptian medical papyri Early Egyptian medicine

128-408: A precursor of ancient Greek humeral pathology and the subsequently established theory of humorism , providing a historical connection between ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and medieval medicine. Examples of remedies in the Ebers Papyrus include: One of the more common remedies described in the papyrus is ochre , or medicinal clay . It is prescribed for intestinal and eye complaints. Yellow ochre

160-525: Is also described as a remedy for urological complaints. The use of animal and insect repellents derived from plants and other organisms found in nature is known from the time of the Ebers Papyrus. Several examples of such repellents can be found in the text. In the time of Amenhotep I a calendar table was written on the verso side of the papyrus. Since 1906 we have a transcript by Kurt Sethe. Some rate this table to be "the most valuable chronological tool from Egypt that we are ever likely to possess". Like

192-404: Is efficiently divided into three different sections. These sections are there to provide a guideline on the interaction between patient and physician. The first being what are the symptoms, the second being how the physician should consult the patient along with diagnoses, and lastly a treatment is offered or advised. The Ramesseum medical papyri consist of 17 individual papyri that were found in

224-815: Is the focus of the Edwin Smith Papyrus . Dated to circa 1800 BCE, the Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus is the oldest known medical text in Egypt. It was found at El-Lahun by Flinders Petrie in 1889, first translated by F. Ll. Griffith in 1893, and published in The Petrie Papyri: Hieratic Papyri from Kahun and Gurob . The papyrus contains 35 separate paragraphs relating to women's health , such as gynaecological diseases, fertility, pregnancy, and contraception. It does not describe surgery. Kahun papyri

256-411: Is unknown. The Ebers Papyrus is written in hieratic Egyptian writing and represents the most extensive and best-preserved record of ancient Egyptian medicine known. The scroll contains some 700 magical formulas and folk remedies. It contains many incantations meant to turn away disease-causing demons and there is also evidence of a long tradition of empiricism . The papyrus contains a "treatise on

288-781: The Berlin Museum , the Greater Berlin Papyrus was translated into German in 1909. The Carlsberg Papyrus VIII is the property of the Carlsberg Foundation . The papyrus covers diseases of the eye and pregnancy. While similar to the Kahun and Berlin Papyrus, the Carlsburg papyrus goes into much more detail on pregnancy, covering methods such as determining whether or not a woman will give birth through

320-667: The Brugsch Papyrus ( c.  1300 BCE ), and the London Medical Papyrus ( c.  1300 BCE ), the Ebers Papyrus is among the oldest preserved medical documents. The Brugsch and the London Medical papyri share some of the same information as the Ebers Papyrus. One side of another document, the Carlsberg papyrus VIII , is identical to the Ebers Papyrus, though the provenance of the former

352-607: The Edwin Smith Papyrus , the Ebers Papyrus came into the possession of Edwin Smith in 1862. The source of the papyrus is unknown, but it was said to have been found between the legs of a mummy in the El-Assasif district of the Theban necropolis . The papyrus remained in the collection of Edwin Smith until at least 1869, when there appeared—in the catalog of an antiquities dealer—an advertisement for "a large medical papyrus in

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384-466: The Hearst Papyrus was published by G.A. Reisner. Subsequently, the publication of these papyri inspired Walter Wreszinski to attempt a production of overviews of medicine in ancient Egypt. He first published his first of three parts in 1909, Die Medizin der Alten Aegypter , and the following two publications in 1912 and 1913. These were primarily translations with some commentary overviewing

416-617: The Brooklyn Papyrus speaks of remedial methods for poisons obtained from snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas. The Brooklyn Papyrus currently resides in the Brooklyn Museum . Edwin Smith (Egyptologist) Edwin Smith (1822 – April 27, 1906) was an American dealer and collector of antiquities who gave his name to an Ancient Egyptian medical papyrus , the Edwin Smith Papyrus . Smith

448-455: The Egyptian archaeologist Edwin Smith , who purchased it in the 1860s. The most detailed and sophisticated of the extant medical papyri, it is also the world's oldest surgical text. Written in the hieratic script of the ancient Egyptian language , it is thought to be based on material from a thousand years earlier. The document consists of 22 pages (17 pages on the recto, and 5 pages on

480-411: The Egyptian medical processes. It wasn't until 1932 that when Warren R Dawson first published an analytical breakdown of medical texts and confusing words and phrases therein that it was discovered some things had been incorrectly translated. Dawson first starts to challenge the previous findings of Reisner and comes to some many conclusions about the meanings of multiple words, and discovers that some of

512-698: The context in the Hearst Papyrus has also been similarly found in the Ebers Papyrus and repeated in the Berlin Papyrus. The London Medical Papyrus is located in the British Museum and dates back to Tutankhamun . Although in poor condition, study of it has found it to focus on magical spells as remedy for disease. The focus of the London Medical Papyrus is holistically spiritual and relies heavily on spells that deal with

544-667: The great temple of the Ramesseum . The Papyri was buried under a brick magazine discovered by Flinders Petrie and James Quibell in 1895. They concentrate on the eyes , gynecology , paediatrics , muscles and tendons . Dated to circa 1600 BCE, the Edwin Smith Papyrus is the only surviving copy of part of an ancient Egyptian textbook on trauma surgery . The Edwin Smith papyri is of a great deal of importance because it changed medical practices, people were now learning that they could do surgery, whereas before they relied on more religious healing practices. The papyrus takes its name from

576-629: The heart". It notes that the heart is the centre of the blood supply, with vessels attached for every member of the body. The ancient Egyptians seem to have known little about the kidneys and made the heart the meeting point of a number of vessels which carried all the fluids of the body—blood, tears, urine and semen. Mental disorders are detailed in a chapter of the papyrus called the Book of Hearts. Disorders such as depression and dementia are covered. The descriptions of these disorders suggest that Egyptians conceived of mental and physical diseases in much

608-430: The meanings had been wrong, and corrects them. There is curiosity as to whether or not the medical papyri was more progressive for the world of medicine at the time because of the reliance on non-physical treatments they still relied on. Spells were the earliest forms of medical treatments and believed to be effective before other methods were revealed. With this information it seems logical that physicians and those in

640-420: The medical field who practiced medicine before surgery and prescription treatments were found effective could not completely abandon the earliest forms of treatments, such as spiritual or magical, but this does not entail a regressive approach to medicine. Some treatments did not require the assistance of alternative methods because they were found to be treated with only physical treatments, such as surgery, which

672-578: The most important findings of this papyrus are the references to migraines which shows the condition dates back to this time. The Hearst Papyrus was offered in 1901 to the Hearst Expedition in Egypt. It is dated around the 18th dynasty some time during the reign of Thutmose III , though doubts subsist about its authenticity. It concentrated on treatments for problems dealing with the urinary system, blood, hair, and bites. It has been extensively studied since its publication in 1905. Some of

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704-506: The possession of Edwin Smith, an American farmer of Luxor ." The papyrus was purchased in 1872 by the German Egyptologist and novelist, Georg Ebers , after whom it is named. In 1875, Ebers published a facsimile with an English-Latin vocabulary and introduction. It was not until 1890, however, that it was translated by H. Joachim. In the early 1900s, Dr. Carl H. von Klein, alongside his daughter Edith Zitelmann, created

736-519: The same way. The papyrus contains chapters on contraception, diagnosis of pregnancy and other gynecological matters, intestinal disease and parasites, eye and skin problems, dentistry, the surgical treatment of abscesses and tumors, bone-setting, and burns. The "channel theory" was prevalent at the time of writing of the Ebers papyrus; it suggested that unimpeded flow of bodily fluids is a prerequisite for good health. The Ebers papyrus may be considered

768-619: The supernatural. Instructions are given on driving out demons and raising people from the dead. All of the ideas expressed in the London Papyrus are meant to cure people of their ailments using supernatural methods. The Greater Berlin Papyrus, also known as the Brugsch Papyrus (Pap. Berl. 3038) was discovered by Giuseppe Passalacqua . It consists of 24 pages and is very similar to the Ebers Papyrus. Later sold to Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia with other objects in 1827 for

800-548: The use of hippopotamus excrement. The Carlsberg Papyrus sheds light on how women will conceive and whether or not they will conceive, using garlic. This garlic is used as an indicator once properly placed in the body of a woman. The Chester Beatty Medical Papyrus is named after Sir Alfred Chester Beatty who donated 19 papyri to the British Museum . The remedies in these texts are generally related to magic and focus on conditions that involve headaches and anorectal ailments . The Brooklyn Papyrus – Focusing mainly on snakebites,

832-479: The verso). 48 cases of trauma are examined, each with a description of the physical examination , diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. An important aspect of the text is that it shows that the heart, liver, spleen , kidneys, ureters , and bladder were all known to the Egyptians, along with the fact that the blood vessels were connected to the heart. The entire translation is available online. The Ebers Papyrus

864-647: The world. The first papyri to be discovered would be the Berlin Papyrus , discovered and subsequently published by Heinrich Brugsch in 1863. Brugsch was the first to study this papyrus, and a translation did not become available until 1909, published by Walter Wreszinski . In 1875, the Ebers Papyrus , covering a broad concept of general pathology was published. Some 20 years later, the Kahun Papyri were published by F.L. Griffith in 1898, and this

896-466: Was also purchased by Edwin Smith in 1862. It takes its name from Georg Ebers who purchased the papyrus in 1872. The papyrus dates to around 1550BC and covers 110 pages, making it the lengthiest of the medical papyri. The papyrus covers many different topics including; dermatology , digestive diseases , traumatic diseases , dentistry and gynecological conditions . It makes many references to treating ailments with spells or religious techniques. One of

928-555: Was based mostly on a mixture of magic and religious spells. Most commonly "cured" by use of amulets or magical spells, the illnesses were thought to be caused by spiteful behavior or actions. Afterwards, doctors performed various medical treatments if necessary. The instructions for these medical rituals were later inscribed on papyrus scrolls by the priests performing the actions. These ancient Egyptian texts were written long before their discovery and publication, and many are now owned either privately or preserved at universities all over

960-536: Was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut , and lived in Egypt during the latter half of the 19th century. In 1862 he came temporarily into possession of a medical papyrus which was sold by its Egyptian owner to Georg Ebers in 1873 and published by Ebers in 1875. It was thus best known as the Ebers Papyrus . In 1862 he also purchased the papyrus which came to bear his name, the Edwin Smith Papyrus , from

992-467: Was the first published papyri about the practice of gynecology . The Ramesseum Papyrus was discovered in the year 1898 at the bottom of a tomb-shaft, and was then left untouched until a few years later. In 1900, Percy Newberry started the process of unrolling and preserving the Ramesseum Papyri so that it can be further studied and stored without threat of further wear and tear. In 1905,

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1024-638: Was written in Ancient Egypt in c.  1550 BCE , during the late Second Intermediate Period or early New Kingdom , but it is believed to have been copied from earlier Egyptian texts. The Ebers Papyrus is a 110-page scroll, which is about 20 meters long. Along with the Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus ( c.  1800 BCE ), the Edwin Smith Papyrus ( c.  1600 BCE ), the Hearst papyrus ( c.  1600 BCE ),

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