Ebers papyrus is an ancient Egyptian scroll believed to be one of the world’s oldest known medical writings. It is named after the German Egyptologist Georg Ebers, who purchased it in Egypt around 1872, sometime after it was discovered in a tomb in Thebes . Ebers took the scroll to Germany, where it is kept in the library at the University of Leipzig. The medical information recorded on the Ebers papyrus provides historians with an important understanding of ancient Egyptian medicine .
General description.
Historians date the Ebers papyrus to about 1550 B.C. However, they believe that it describes medical concepts from sources that are much older. The scroll is 68 feet (21 meters) long and about 12 inches (30 centimeters) wide, with 110 columns of text that form pages. The text is written in hieratic, a cursive writing script that developed from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics . The text is difficult to translate because of its many antiquated expressions and obscure Egyptian terms for medicines and diseases.
Topics.
The Ebers papyrus covers a variety of topics, from treatment of disease to domestic advice, such as how to stop a pigeon hawk from stealing. It describes ailments affecting almost every part of the body. Many of the diseases described in the Ebers papyrus are known in modern medicine. They include polyuria (frequent urination), alopecia (baldness), scabies (infestation of mites), tapeworms, diarrhea, burns, gangrene, enlarged prostate, and cataracts. The text describes diagnostic procedures and even some forms of surgery . The minor surgeries described are primarily directed toward lesions (skin eruptions) and wounds.
The Ebers papyrus preserves much information about ancient Egyptian medicines. Many of the entries provide the ingredients, measurements, and methods of administering the medications. The medications range from simple drugs made of a single ingredient to compound drugs made up of 6 to 37 ingredients derived from minerals, plants, and animals. The text also describes cosmetic treatments for removing wrinkles and smoothing the skin of the face.
Most of the treatments in the Ebers papyrus make no mention of the gods. However, magical and religious elements can be found scattered among the medical treatments described in this text. The text begins with an invocation (opening prayer) to the Egyptian god Isis . There is an incantation (spoken or chanted words) to the god Horus to heal a burn. A number of the medicines described in the papyrus are said to be composed by the Egyptian gods Re and Isis.
The Ebers papyrus shows that ancient Egyptian doctors had a rough knowledge of human anatomy. The text discusses the function for the heart and the location of vessels in the body. The description of the heart reveals that the ancient Egyptians believe that the heart had both psychological and physiological functions. This conception of the heart’s function is similar to later ones found in ancient Greek medical writings attributed to Hippocrates .
