Egyptian Medicine, Remedies and Healthcare

Egyptian records name healing roles from the Old Kingdom (about 2686–2181 BC) through the Late Period (about 700–332 BC). Medical papyri, written rolls made from sheets of the papyrus plant, preserve detailed instructions especially from the Middle Kingdom (about 2025–1700 BC) and New Kingdom (about 1550–1069 BC). They describe examination, remedies, women’s health and protective speech. Objects and human remains add evidence of care beyond written prescriptions.

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Healers and written knowledge

Egyptian titles describe several kinds of healer. A swnw, commonly translated as physician, treated visible injuries such as wounds. Other titles named a pure priest of the goddess Sekhmet or an exorciser of the goddess Serqet, linking healing with divine protection. A chief physician could oversee a group of healers. The texts associated with these titles include diagnosis and prognosis, recipes and spoken incantations; the same manuscripts could be used by people with different healing titles.

Medical writing could serve as a reference or learning aid. The Kahun Medical Papyrus, copied in the late Middle Kingdom (about 1850–1700 BC), was found at a town near modern Lahun. The Edwin Smith and Ebers papyri were copied around 1550 BC, near the start of the New Kingdom. Edwin Smith groups its injury cases by region, beginning at the head, while Ebers contains hundreds of prescriptions.

Preparing and using remedies

The Ebers Papyrus records recipes that specify ingredients and actions. One entry for dental abscesses and stimulating gum flesh names several plants, ripe sycamore fruit, honey, frankincense and water. It instructs the user to leave the mixture overnight, then rinse it. The translation leaves some plant names in Egyptian, but the sequence is clear: combine the materials, allow the mixture to stand, and use it as a rinse.

The Kahun manuscript shows how a healer might question a patient before treatment. In one passage, the patient is asked what she smells; she answers that it smells like roasting, and the instruction is to fumigate her with whatever material she smelled. Fumigation means exposing someone to smoke or fumes. The following diagnosis is translated tentatively as “wrappings (?) of the womb”; the word for “wrappings” is uncertain and appears only here with that qualification. The text preserves the question and the prescribed action without naming a modern medical condition.

Childbirth and women’s health

A Middle Kingdom birth brick excavated by the Penn Museum at South Abydos supported a mother during labor. Egyptologists interpret birth bricks as props placed beneath a woman squatting to give birth. The brick’s painted scene shows a mother holding her newborn, attended by midwives and protective figures. It connects physical support during delivery with protection for mother and child.

Examining and treating injuries

The Edwin Smith Papyrus, copied around 1550 BC, contains 48 cases of externally inflicted injuries, grouped by injured region beginning with the head. A typical entry describes an examination, names the injury, and gives a prognosis, an estimate of its likely course, before stating what the healer should do. The healer sometimes classifies a wound as treatable, doubtful or beyond treatment.

For a gaping throat wound, the text asks whether a man chokes when drinking and whether water escapes through the wound. The instructions first call for a bandage. If the healer judges the wound treatable, he pads it with fresh meat on the first day, then applies oil, honey and lint daily. If fever continues, he places dry lint in the wound and orders the patient to rest lying down. The passage moves from observed signs to an immediate action, ongoing dressing and a second examination.

Another case concerns a broken humerus, the bone of the upper arm. The papyrus tells the healer to lay the patient down with folded material between the shoulder blades, then pull the arms to lengthen the upper arm until the break falls into place. The arm is bound with two strips of cloth and alum, a mineral salt, and the bandage is changed each day while honey is applied. A healed humerus from about 1400 BC was found at Qau, an Upper Egyptian village on the Nile about 45 kilometres south of Asyut. The bone shows that the fracture healed, while the papyrus preserves a recommended method of setting and dressing such an injury.

Protective speech and material evidence

Protective words could also be used through an inscribed object. The Metternich Stela, an upright inscribed stone slab made during the reign of Nectanebo II (360–343 BC), shows the child Horus subduing dangerous animals and carries spells against snakebite and scorpion stings. The Metropolitan Museum records two ways the texts could be activated: reciting them aloud or drinking water poured over the carved stone. The Ebers Papyrus likewise opens with words to recite while applying a remedy.