Ancient Egyptian medicine employed advanced surgical practices, while the prevention and treatment of diseases relied mostly on natural remedies and magical incantations. In the first of three volumes, The Medicine of the Ancient Egyptians explores these two different aspects, using textual sources and physical evidence to cast light on the state of ancient medical knowledge and practice and the hardships of everyday life experienced by the inhabitants of the land on the Nile. The first part of the book focuses on ancient Egyptian surgery, drawing mainly on cases described in the Edwin Smith papyrus, which details a number of injuries listed by type and severity. These demonstrate the rational approach employed by ancient physicians in the treatment of injured patients. Additional surgical cases are drawn from the Ebers papyrus. The chapters that follow cover gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatric cases, with translations from the Kahun gynecological papyrus and other medical texts, illustrating a wide range of ailments that women and young children suffered in antiquity, and how they were treated. Illustrated with more than sixty photographs and line drawings, The Medicine of the Ancient Egyptians is highly recommended reading for scholars of ancient Egyptian medicine and magic, as well as for paleopathologists, medical historians, and physical anthropologists.

The first part of a comprehensive survey of medical knowledge and practice in ancient Egypt, by leading authorities on the topic, new in paperback.

About the Author
Eugen Strouhal (1931-2016) was a physician, anthropologist, and archaeologist, one of the founders of the field of paleopathology. From 1961 he collaborated with a number of archaeological expeditions in Egypt. He was the author of sixteen books and 350 articles. Bretislav Vachala is an Egyptologist and archaeologist at Charles University in Prague. Since 1979 he has participated in archaeological expeditions of the Czech Institute of Egyptology to Egypt. Hana Vymazalova studied Egyptology and logic at Charles University in Prague. She is a member of the Czech Institute of Egyptology and since 2006 has participated in archaeological expeditions to Egypt.


Book Information
ISBN 9789774169960
Author Bretislav Vachala
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint The American University in Cairo Press
Publisher The American University in Cairo Press