Ancient Egyptian Medicinal Practices Part 3: The Human Body According to the Ancient Egyptians
The Human Body According to the Ancient Egyptians
There was a wealth of illnesses within the ancient Egyptian culture that can date to at least the Old Kingdom, if not earlier. While the ancient Egyptian civilization did not become a strong force until the unification between Upper and Lower Egypt in the late Pre-dynastic period, the entirety of Egypt was populated, including the Oases. There are a number of sources from which hypotheses can be made about the diseases suffered by the ancient Egyptians including art, both in everyday life and in tombs, numerous papyri, both common papyri and medical papyri, and the studies of the physical remains of ancient Egyptians. To understand the diseases the ancient Egyptians suffered and to comprehend their thoughts regarding those diseases, an understanding of human anatomy from the viewpoint of the ancient Egyptians is needed.
The ancient Egyptians had an excellent knowledge of the human body due to their custom of mummifying their dead. The mummification process allowed the ancient Egyptians to have an intimate knowledge of the different parts of the human body and how those parts might have worked. This anatomical knowledge consisted mostly of the external parts of the human body (Nunn: 1996, 42). While the knowledge of the external parts of the human body were well known and well documented, it is clear, also, that there was a good deal of knowledge consisting of the internal organs and their functions. The names of these organs are referenced in a number of medical papyri, including the Edwin-Smith papyrus and the Berlin papyrus, which could be referencing an even earlier source attributed in antiquity to Djer, a first dynasty pharaoh/physician, although none of his medical works are known to have survived (Nunn: 1996, 42-44). Many of the ancient Egyptian words and symbols used in medical texts to define aspects of external anatomy consist of pictures of human anatomy. However, once anatomy turns internal, the hieroglyphs become those of animal anatomy (Reeves: 2001, 26). This may suggest the ancient Egyptians did not practice human dissection, but there is evidence to the contrary in the Old Kingdom Edwin-Smith papyrus that mentions, in great detail, the internal human anatomy, knowledge that could only be gained from some form of dissection (Reeves: 2001, 26).
Within the Ebers and the Berlin papyri, there exists a list that describes the connections of the metu. There is no direct translation of the plural word metu or it’s singular form, met (Nunn: 1996, 44). The abstract idea behind the word met is vessel, pertaining to the human body. The determinate symbol of this word is the male genitalia, one of the most prominent features of a “vessel” seen on the human body (Allen: 2000, 460). Considering this, the word metu must refer to the human body’s vessels in general, but in context may also refer to tendons, muscles and possibly even an abstract thought pertaining to the nervous system. There is no clear evidence that the ancient Egyptians had any idea of the existence of the nervous system (Nunn: 1996, 44). These vessels in the ancient Egyptian mind circulate all bodily fluids through the human body, traveling through a person’s heart and arriving at the desired location (Nunn: 1996, 48).
Other bodily functions are mentioned in medical papyri as well. To return to the nervous system, there is no reference to such a system in any ancient Egyptian papyrus, but there is incredible weight placed upon the spinal column and the information that travels down the spinal cord to the body’s extremities. In the Edwin-Smith papyrus, an injury to the upper portion of the spinal cord is described, citing that the one wounded “is not knowing his two arms and his two legs because of it [the injury]” (Nunn: 1996, 55).
Furthermore, there is a minimal understanding, within ancient Egypt, as to the respiratory system. Known as the “breath of life” to ancient Egyptians, a human is thought to breathe in from the right side of the body and exhale from the left side. This is an interesting thought process because of the association between right and west and left and east. The west is thought to be the land of the dead while the east is the land of the living. Considering this, it is strange that a human would receive the life-giving breath from the west side of the body while exhaling toward the east side of the body (Nunn: 1996, 55). Perhaps this is a reference to life after death and that the continuing life is given even unto the living through air.
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