Statuette of king in the white crown offering two wine bowls. New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty Now in the Ashmolean Museum.

 

Ancient Egyptian Medicine.

Ancient Egyptian medicine provides us with some of the earliest written evidence of medical practice. Medicine was prescribed, surgery performed and ailments were diagnosed. Along the banks of the Nile, medicine began to develop, alongside innovations in Public Health. In Ancient Egypt there were sophisticated methods of treating some illnesses. There was surgery that seems hard to believe possible some 5000 years ago. There was a system of providing water and removing waste in many places. Perhaps most importantly for historians of the history of medicine, the ancient Egyptians began to write down their medicines and the way that they should be used.

Relief of farmer leading donkeys. Private funerary Mastaba of Mereruka. Old Kingdom, 6th Dynasty, ca. 2345 BC. Ancient Memphis, Saqqara.

Relief depicting king Amenhotep III on his horse chariot. New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, reign of Amenhotep III, ca. 1391-1353 BC. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

Gold dagger and sheath, from the Tomb of Tutankhamun.

 

Bullock among papyrus reeds (faience). Amarna Period, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1353-1336 BC. Now at the Louvre.

Selection of unguent vases made from breccia, diorite, blue marble and alabaster. Middle Kingdom, ca. 2030-1640 BC. Now at the Louvre.