Ancient Egyptian medicine The search for immortality

Aims of this session By the end of this revision session you will Describe the main features of society and religion in Ancient Egypt Understand what we mean by natural and supernatural explanations of disease and give examples of each in Ancient Egypt Evaluate the medical progress made between prehistoric and Egyptian times

Ancient Egypt By 1500BC the Egyptians had established the first civilisation 1st to write things down – papyrus and hieroglyphics First form of Government – Pharaohs First to explore science First to farm as opposed to hunt

The afterlife The Egyptians were very religious and believed strongly in an afterlife They believed that you needed all your organs to be intact in order to progress to the afterlife To do this they preserved the body by embalming and mummification

Mummification All organs were removed from the body, embalmed and put in special jars – this meant that doctors could not dissect them The body was then wrapped in bandages to preserve it This is an example of how religious belief helped to promote and hold back medical progress

Egyptian religion and medicine Mummification gave the Egyptians a knowledge of anatomy Used charms and spells to cure disease and to keep the gods happy The Egyptians had gods of healing – Imhotep and Sehkmet – people made sacrifices to them

Egyptian anatomical knowledge As a result of mummification the ancient Egyptians could name and identify most of the organs of the body But as a result of dissection not being allowed they did not know how they worked They realised the importance of the heart but did not know what it did or how it worked

Egyptian doctors The Egyptians had a well developed medical profession They were respected and many Pharaohs has their own physicians The most famous of these – Imhotep – was made a god Many were loaned to foreign courts for their expertise

Egyptian doctors in action Egyptian doctors were the first to make notes on their patients – they were able to refer back to these They were the first doctors to use the method of observation, examination, diagnosis and treatment The first modern doctors but still used a mix of natural and supernatural ideas

The use of herbs and spices The Egyptians used herbs and spices from all over the world to treat illness They wrote the properties of these down This was a progression from prehistoric ideas Many of these herbs and spices are used in modern drugs