1.
Ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
Ancient Egypt
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The
Great Sphinx and the
pyramids of Giza are among the most recognizable symbols of the civilization of ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt
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A typical Naqada II jar decorated with gazelles. (Predynastic Period)
Ancient Egypt
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The
Narmer Palette depicts the unification of the Two Lands.
2.
Egyptian medical papyri
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Egyptian medical papyri are ancient Egyptian texts written on papyrus which permit a glimpse at medical procedures and practices in ancient Egypt. The papyri give details on disease, diagnosis, and remedies of disease, which include herbal remedies, surgery and it is thought there were more medical papyri, but many have been lost due to grave robbing. The largest study of the papyri to date has been undertaken by Berlin University and was titled Medizin der alten Ägypter. Early Egyptian medicine was based mostly on a mixture of magic, most commonly cured by use of amulets or magical spells, the illnesses were thought to be caused by spiteful behavior or actions. Afterwards, doctors performed various medical treatments if necessary, the instructions for these medical rituals were later inscribed on papyrus scrolls by the priests performing the actions. Dated to circa 1800 BCE, the Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus is the oldest known medical text and it was found at El-Lahun by Flinders Petrie in 1889, first translated by F. Ll. Griffith in 1893, and published in The Petrie Papyri, Hieratic Papyri from Kahun, the papyrus contains 35 separate paragraphs relating to womens health, such as gynaecological diseases, fertility, pregnancy, and contraception. The Ramesseum Papyri – These consist of 17 individual papyri that were found in the temple of the Ramesseum. They concentrate on the eyes, gynecology, paediatrics, muscles, dated to circa 1600 BCE, the Edwin Smith Papyrus is the only surviving copy of part of an Ancient Egyptian textbook on trauma surgery. The papyrus takes its name from the Egyptian archaeologist Edwin Smith, the most detailed and sophisticated of the extant medical papyri, it is also the worlds oldest surgical text. Written in the script of the ancient Egyptian language, it is thought to be based on material from a thousand years earlier. The document consists of 22 pages,48 cases of trauma are examined, each with a description of the physical examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. The entire translation is available online, the Ebers Papyrus was also purchased by Edwin Smith in 1862. It takes its name from Georg Ebers who purchased the papyrus in 1872, the papyrus dates to around 1550BC and covers 110 pages, making it the lengthiest of the medical papyri. The papyrus covers many different topics including, dermatology, digestive diseases, traumatic diseases, dentistry and it makes many references to treating ailments with spells or religious techniques. One of the most important findings of this papyrus are the references to migraines which shows the dates back to this time. The Hearst Papyrus was offered in 1901 to the Hearst Expedition in Egypt and it is dated around 2000 BC, though doubts subsist about its authenticity. It concentrated on treatments for problems dealing with the system, blood, hair
Egyptian medical papyri
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Ancient medical instruments,
Temple of Kom Ombo.
Egyptian medical papyri
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Plates vi & vii of the
Edwin Smith Papyrus (around the 17th century BC), among the earliest medical texts
Egyptian medical papyri
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Londonpapyrus EA 10059
3.
Herbal
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Herbals were often illustrated to assist plant identification. Herbals were among the first literature produced in Ancient Egypt, China, India, herbals were also among the first books to be printed in both China and Europe. In Western Europe herbals flourished for two following the introduction of moveable type. In the late 17th century, the rise of modern chemistry, herbals have seen a modest revival in the western world since the last decades of the 20th century, as herbalism and related disciplines became popular forms of alternative medicine. Much of the found in printed herbals arose out of traditional medicine. Before the advent of printing, herbals were produced as manuscripts, early handwritten herbals were often illustrated with paintings and drawings. Like other manuscript books, herbals were published through repeated copying by hand, in the process of making a copy, the copyist would often translate, expand, adapt, or reorder the content. Most of the original herbals have been lost, many have survived only as later copies, as printing became available, it was promptly used to publish herbals, the first printed matter being known as incunabula. In Europe, the first printed herbal with woodcut illustrations, the Puch der Natur of Konrad of Megenberg, metal-engraved plates were first used in about 1580. China is renowned for its traditional herbal medicines that date back thousands of years and it survives as a copy made c.500 CE and describes about 365 herbs. In 1406 Ming dynasty prince Zhu Xiao published the Jiuhuang Bencao illustrated herbal for famine foods and it contained high quality woodcuts and descriptions of 414 species of plants of which 276 were described for the first time, the book pre-dating the first European printed book by 69 years. Other herbals include Bencao Fahui in 1450 by Xu Yong and Bencao Gangmu of Li Shizhen in 1590. Traditional herbal medicine of India, known as Ayurveda, possibly back to the second millennium BCE tracing its origins to the holy Hindu Vedas and, in particular. One authentic compilation of teachings is by the surgeon Sushruta, available in a treatise called Sushruta Samhita and this contains 184 chapters and description of 1120 illnesses,700 medicinal plants,64 preparations from mineral sources and 57 preparations based on animal sources. Other early works of Ayurveda include the Charaka Samhita, attributed to Charaka and this tradition, however is mostly oral. The earliest surviving written material which contains the works of Sushruta is the Bower Manuscript—dated to the 4th century CE, an illustrated herbal published in Mexico in 1552, Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis, is written in the Aztec Nauhuatl language by a native physician, Martín Cruz. In 1570 Francisco Hernández was sent from Spain to study the natural resources of New Spain, here he drew on indigenous sources, including the extensive botanical gardens that had been established by the Aztecs, to record c.1200 plants in his Rerum Medicarum of 1615. Nicolás Monardes’ Dos Libros contains the first published illustration of tobacco, by about 2000 BCE, medical papyri in ancient Egypt included medical prescriptions based on plant matter and made reference to the herbalists combination of medicines and magic for healing
Herbal
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Dioscorides'
De Materia Medica,
Byzantium, 15th-century manuscript, by which time the text had been in circulation for about 1500 years
Herbal
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Statue of
Theophrastus c. 371 – c. 287 BCE,
Orto botanico di Palermo
Herbal
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A page from the
Ebers Papyrus, the most complete and extensive of surviving ancient herbals
Herbal
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Arabic Book of Simple Drugs (c. 1334) from Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica.
British Museum
4.
Luxor
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Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. The population numbers 487,896, with an area of approximately 416 square kilometres, immediately opposite, across the River Nile, lie the monuments, temples and tombs of the West Bank Necropolis, which includes the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Thousands of tourists from all around the world arrive annually to visit these monuments, the name Luxor comes from the Arabic al-ʾuqṣur, lit. the palaces, from the collective pl. of qaṣr, which may be a loanword from the Latin castrum fortified camp. Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes, the capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom. Montuhotep II who united Egypt after the troubles of the first intermediate period brought stability to the lands as the city grew in stature. The city attracted peoples such as the Babylonians, the Mitanni, the Hittites of Anatolia, the Canaanites of Ugarit, the Phoenicians of Byblos and Tyre, a Hittite prince from Anatolia even came to marry with the widow of Tutankhamun, Ankhesenamun. However, as the city of the god Amon-Ra, Thebes remained the capital of Egypt until the Greek period. The main god of the city was Amon, who was worshipped together with his wife, the Goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu, the God of the moon. With the rise of Thebes as the foremost city of Egypt and his great temple, at Karnak just north of Thebes, was the most important temple of Egypt right until the end of antiquity. Later, the city was attacked by Assyrian emperor Assurbanipal who installed the Libyan prince on the throne, the city of Thebes was in ruins and fell in significance. However, Alexander the Great did arrive at the temple of Amun, where the statue of the god was transferred from Karnak during the Opet Festival, Aswan and Luxor have the hottest summer days of any other city in Egypt. Aswan and Luxor have nearly the same climate, Luxor is one of the hottest, sunniest and driest cities in the world. Average high temperatures are above 40 °C during summer while average low temperatures remain above 22 °C, during the coldest month of the year, average high temperatures remain above 22.0 °C while average low temperatures remain above 5 °C. The climate of Luxor has precipitation levels lower than even most other places in the Sahara, the desert city is one of the driest ones in the world, and rainfall does not occur every year. The air is dry in Luxor but much more humid than in Aswan. There is a relative humidity of 39. 9%, with a maximum mean of 57% during winter. In addition, Luxor, Minya, Sohag, Qena and Asyut have the widest difference of temperatures between days and nights of any city in Egypt, with almost 16 °C difference. The hottest temperature recorded was on May 15,1991 which was 50 °C, the Coptic Catholic minority established on November 26,1895 an Eparchy of Luqsor alias Thebes, on territory split off from the Apostolic Vicariate of Egypt
Luxor
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Top: First pylon in Precinct of Amun-Re, 2nd left: Night view in Luxor Temple, 2nd right: Colossi of Memnon Statue, Middle left: Pillars of Great Hypostyle Hall ancient site, Middle right: Hatshepsut Temple in Deir el-Bchari, 4th left: Statue of Ramses Ⅱ in Karnak Temple, 4th right: Needle Monument in Karnak Temple, Bottom: View of Pillars of Great Hypostyle Hall ancient site
Luxor
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Luxor Temple
Luxor
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Streets of Luxor in 2004
Luxor
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Luxor
souq
5.
Thebes (Egypt)
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Thebes, known to the ancient Egyptians as Waset, was an ancient Egyptian city located east of the Nile about 800 kilometers south of the Mediterranean. Its ruins lie within the modern Egyptian city of Luxor, Thebes was the main city of the fourth Upper Egyptian nome. It was close to Nubia and the desert, with their valuable mineral resources. It was a center and the wealthiest city of ancient Egypt at its heyday. The Ancient Egyptians originally knew Thebes as Wose or Wase A was was the scepter of the pharaohs, a staff with an animals head. Thebes is the Latinized form of the Greek Thebai, the form of the Demotic Egyptian Ta-pe. This was the name not for the city itself but for the Karnak temple complex on the northern east bank of the city. As early as Homers Iliad, the Greeks distinguished the Egyptian Thebes as Thebes of the Hundred Gates, as opposed to the Thebes of the Seven Gates in Boeotia, from the end of the New Kingdom, Thebes was known in Egyptian as Niwt-Imn, the City of Amun. Amun was the chief of the Theban Triad of gods whose other members were Mut and this name appears in the Bible as the Nōʼ ʼĀmôn of the Book of Nahum and probably also as the No mentioned in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. In the interpretatio graeca, Amun was seen as a form of Zeus, the name was therefore translated into Greek as Diospolis, the City of Zeus. To distinguish it from the other cities by this name. The Greek names came into use after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great. Thebes was located along the banks of the Nile River in the part of Upper Egypt about 800 km from the Delta. It was built largely on the plains of the Nile Valley which follows a great bend of the Nile. As a natural consequence, the city was laid in a northeast-southwest axis parallel to the river channel. Thebes had an area of 93 km2 which included parts of the Theban Hills in the west that culminates at the sacred 420-meter al-Qurn, in the east lies the mountainous Eastern Desert with its wadis draining into the valley. Significant of these wadis is Wadi Hammamat near Thebes and it was used as an overland trade route going to the Red Sea coast. In the fourth Upper Egyptian nome, Thebes was found to have neighboring towns such as Per-Hathor, Madu, Djerty, Iuny, Sumenu, according to George Modelski, Thebes had about 40,000 inhabitants in 2000 BC
Thebes (Egypt)
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Egypt - Temple of Seti, east entrance, Thebes. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection
Thebes (Egypt)
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Luxor Temple
Thebes (Egypt)
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The Theban Necropolis
6.
Georg Ebers
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Georg Moritz Ebers, German Egyptologist and novelist, discovered the Egyptian medical papyrus, of ca.1550 BCE, named for him at Luxor in the winter of 1873–74. Now in the Library of the University of Leipzig, the Ebers Papyrus is among the most important ancient Egyptian medical papyri and it is one of two of the oldest preserved medical documents anywhere—the other being the Edwin Smith Papyrus. At Göttingen he studied jurisprudence, and at Berlin Oriental languages, having made a special study of Egyptology, he became in 1865 Dozent in Egyptian language and antiquities at Jena, becoming professor in 1868. In 1870 he was appointed professor in subjects at Leipzig. He had made two journeys to Egypt, and his first work of importance, Ägypten und die Bücher Moses. In 1874 he edited the celebrated medical papyrus which he had discovered in Thebes, Ebers early conceived the idea of popularizing Egyptian lore by means of historical romances. Eine ägyptische Königstochter was published in 1864 and obtained great success, Ebers also turned his attention to other fields of historical fiction—especially the 16th century —without, however, attaining the success of his Egyptian novels. In 1889, the state of his health led him to retire from his chair at Leipzig on a pension, eberss Collected Works appeared in 25 volumes at Stuttgart. Many of his books have been translated into English, for his life, see his Die Geschichte meines Lebens, also R. Gosche, G. Ebers, der Forscher und Dichter. Reynolds, Francis J. ed. Ebers, Georg Moritz and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Ebers, Georg Moritz
Georg Ebers
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Georg Ebers
Georg Ebers
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Ebers medical papyrus, giving treatment for cancer
7.
Leipzig University Library
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Leipzig University Library, known also as Bibliotheca Albertina, is the central library of the University of Leipzig. It is one of the oldest German university libraries, bombing in 1943-1945 destroyed two-thirds of the magnificent Neo-Renaissance Bibliotheca Albertina building. The ruins were evacuated and a fraction of the books escaped destruction. Currently some are found in collections of Russian libraries, three famous librarians worked at the institution, Joachim Feller, Christian Gottlieb Jöcher, and Ernst Gotthelf Gersdorf. Since 2005 Ulrich Johannes Schneider has been director of the library, the library houses over 5 million volumes, with 8,700 manuscripts and 3,600 incunabula, and some 25,000 prints dating from the 16th century. The special collections of the manuscripts comprise 5,000 papyri,1,600 ostraka,2,500 medieval manuscripts and 2,000 more recent manuscripts, the library housed 43 leaves of the Codex Sinaiticus, brought from Sinai in 1843 by Constantin von Tischendorf. Papyrus Ebers is the longest and oldest surviving manuscript from ancient Egypt. The Leipzig University Library purchased a group of about 55 Arabic, Persian, the most important part of the collection is Kitāb al-Zīna written by the Ismaīlī Dā’ī Abū Hātim al-Rāzī, which is one of the oldest known Islamic manuscripts in the world. It also contains one of the complete Gutenberg Bibles, Codex Tischendorfianus I Minuscule 564 Lectionary 178 Ekkehard Henschke, ed. Festschrift zum Abschluss des Wiederaufbaus im Jahre 2002, wiederaufbau und Erweiterung der Bibliotheca Albertina in Leipzig
Leipzig University Library
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Main building of Bibliotheca Albertina
Leipzig University Library
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Main building inside
8.
University of Leipzig
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Leipzig University, in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the worlds oldest universities and the second-oldest university in Germany. Famous alumni include Leibniz, Goethe, Ranke, Nietzsche, Wagner, Angela Merkel, Raila Odinga, Tycho Brahe, and nine Nobel laureates are associated with the university. The university was founded on December 2,1409 by Frederick I, Elector of Saxony and his brother William II, Margrave of Meissen, since its inception, the university has engaged in teaching and research for over 600 years without interruption. The university was modelled on the University of Prague, from which the German-speaking faculty members withdrew to Leipzig after the Jan Hus crisis, the Alma mater Lipsiensis opened in 1409, after it had been officially endorsed by Pope Alexander V in his Bull of Acknowledgment on. Its first rector was Johann von Münsterberg, from its foundation, the Paulinerkirche served as the university church. After the Reformation, the church and the buildings were donated to the university in 1544. As many European universities, the university of Leipzig was structured into colleges responsible for organising accommodation, among the colleges of Leipzig were the Small College, the Large College, the Red College, the College of our Lady and the Pauliner-College. There were also private residential halls, the colleges had jurisdiction over their members. The college structure was abandoned later and today only the names survive, during the first centuries, the university grew slowly and was a rather regional institution. This changed, however, during the 19th century when the university became an institution of higher education. At the end of the 19th century, important scholars such as Bernhard Windscheid, Leipzig University was one of the first German universities to allow women to register as guest students. At its general assembly in 1873, the Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein thanked the University of Leipzig and this was the year that the first woman in Germany obtained her JD, Johanna von Evreinov. Many of the alumni became important scientists. Under Nazi rule many Jews degrees were cancelled, some were reinstated as Karl-Marx University degrees by the GDR. The university was open throughout World War II, even after the destruction of its buildings. After the destruction of most of the buildings and the majority of its libraries and this is what must be preserved as the great repository of value in the university. By the end of the war 60 per cent of the buildings and 70 per cent of its books had been destroyed. The university reopened after the war on February 5,1946, in 1948 the freely elected student council was disbanded and replaced by Free German Youth members
University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
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Leipzig University
University of Leipzig
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New main building of Leipzig University (since summer 2012), the
Augusteum at
Augustusplatz. It is home to the
Auditorium Maximum with 800 seats.
University of Leipzig
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Former main building (
City Highrise) and the newly built
Paulinum church.
9.
Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus
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The Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus is the oldest known medical text of any kind. Dated to c.1800 BCE, it deals with womens health—gynaecological diseases, fertility, pregnancy, contraception and it was found at El-Lahun by Flinders Petrie in 1889 and first translated by F. Ll. Griffith in 1893 and published in The Petrie Papyri, Hieratic Papyri from Kahun and it is kept in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology of the University College London. The later Berlin Papyrus and the Ramesseum Papyrus IV cover much of the same ground, the text is divided into thirty-four sections, each section dealing with a specific problem and containing diagnosis and treatment, no prognosis is suggested. Treatments are non-surgical, comprising applying medicines to the body part or swallowing them. Kahun Papyri ODowd, Michael J. Philipp, Elliot E, the History of Obstetrics and Gynecology. An introduction to the history and culture of Pharaonic Egypt
Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus
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Kahun papyrus
10.
Edwin Smith papyrus
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The Edwin Smith Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian medical text, named after the dealer who bought it in 1862, and the oldest known surgical treatise on trauma. This document, which may have been a manual of surgery, describes 48 cases of injuries, fractures, wounds, dislocations. It dates to Dynasties 16–17 of the Second Intermediate Period in ancient Egypt, the Edwin Smith papyrus is unique among the four principal medical papyri in existence that survive today. Magic would be more prevalent had the cases of illness been mysterious, the Edwin Smith papyrus is a scroll 4.68 meters or 15.3 feet in length. The recto has 377 lines in 17 columns, while the verso has 92 lines in five columns, aside from the fragmentary outer column of the scroll, the remainder of the papyrus is intact, although it was cut into one-column pages some time in the 20th century. It is written right-to-left in hieratic, the Egyptian cursive form of hieroglyphs, the vast majority of the papyrus is concerned with trauma and surgery, with short sections on gynaecology and cosmetics on the verso. On the recto side, there are 48 cases of injury, each case details the type of the injury, examination of the patient, diagnosis and prognosis, and treatment. The verso side consists of eight magic spells and five prescriptions, the spells of the verso side and two incidents in Case 8 and Case 9 are the exceptions to the practical nature of this medical text. Generic spells and incantations may have used as a last resort in terminal cases. Authorship of the Edwin Smith Papyrus is debated, the majority of the papyrus was written by one scribe, with only small sections copied by a second scribe. The papyrus ends abruptly in the middle of a line, without any inclusion of an author and it is believed that the papyrus is an incomplete copy of an older reference manuscript from the Old Kingdom, evidenced by archaic grammar, terminology, form and commentary. The text is attributed by some to Imhotep, an architect, high priest, the rational and practical nature of the papyrus is illustrated in 48 case histories, which are listed according to each organ. Presented cases are typical, not individual, the title of each case details the nature of trauma, such as “Practices for a gaping wound in his head, which has penetrated to the bone and split the skull”. The objective examination process included visual and olfactory clues, palpation, in many of the cases, explanations of trauma are included to provide further clarity. Among the treatments are closing wounds with sutures, bandaging, splints, poultices, preventing and curing infection with honey, immobilization is advised for head and spinal cord injuries, as well as other lower body fractures. The papyrus also describes realistic anatomical, physiological and pathological observations and it contains the first known descriptions of the cranial structures, the meninges, the external surface of the brain, the cerebrospinal fluid, and the intracranial pulsations. Here, the word ‘brain’ appears for the first time in any language, the procedures of this papyrus demonstrate an Egyptian level of knowledge of medicines that surpassed that of Hippocrates, who lived 1000 years later. The influence of brain injuries on parts of the body is recognized, the relationship between the location of a cranial injury and the side of the body affected is also recorded, while crushing injuries of vertebrae were noted to impair motor and sensory functions
Edwin Smith papyrus
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Plates vi & vii of the Edwin Smith Papyrus at the Rare Book Room,
New York Academy of Medicine
11.
Hearst papyrus
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The Hearst Papyrus, also called the Hearst Medical Papyrus, is one of the medical papyri of ancient Egypt. It was named after Phoebe Hearst, the papyrus contains 18 pages of medical prescriptions written in hieratic Egyptian writing, concentrating on treatments for problems dealing with the urinary system, blood, hair, and bites. It is dated to the first half of the 2nd millennium BC and it is considered an important manuscript, but some doubts persist about its authenticity. It was later named after Phoebe Hearst who funded much of that carried out by the University of California. The papyrus has been dated to the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, the text is believed to have been composed earlier, during the Middle Kingdom, around 2000 BC. As of 2007, it is kept in the Bancroft Library, University of California, in later years, some doubts have been raised about its authenticity. The contents of the papyrus have been studied extensively from the published plates, as its curator explained in 2003, the papyrus is in surprisingly good condition. It is almost too good to be true, on the other hand, Reisner had no doubts, writing in 1905, The roll had not been opened since antiquity as was manifest in the set of the turns, the fine dust, and the casts of insects. To settle the matter, the Bancroft Library has expressed its intention to have the papyrus examined at some point in the future to establish whether it is indeed real or an almost perfect fake. The Hearst Papyrus is one of the papyri of ancient Egypt. Most papyri also included a section on incantations and magic spells that would be performed on the patient before, during, the Hearst Papyrus contains 260 paragraphs on 18 columns of medical prescriptions, written in hieratic Egyptian writing. The topics range from a tooth which falls out to remedy for treatment of the lung, but concentrates on treatments for problems dealing with the system, blood, hair. One incantation deals with the Canaanite illness, when the body is coal-black with charcoal spots, probably tularemia, ancient Egyptian medicine History of medicine Hearst Medical Papyrus. Foundations of Anthropology at the University of California, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Hearst papyrus
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Hearst papyrus
12.
Brugsch Papyrus
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The Brugsch Papyrus, also known as the Greater Berlin Papyrus, or simply Berlin Papyrus is an important ancient Egyptian medical papyrus. It was discovered by Giuseppe Passalacqua in Saqqara, Egypt, friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia acquired it in 1827 for the Berlin Museum, where it is still housed. The style of writing is that of the 19th dynasty, the papyrus was studied initially by Heinrich Karl Brugsch, but was translated and published by Walter Wreszinski in 1909. Only a German translation is available, the papyrus contains twenty-four pages of writing. Much of it is parallel to the Ebers Papyrus, some of the contents deals with contraception and fertility tests. Some historians believe that this papyrus was used by Galen in his writings, der grosse medizinische Papyrus des Berliner Museums
Brugsch Papyrus
–
Heinrich Brugsch
13.
London Medical Papyrus
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The London Medical Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian papyrus in the British Museum, London, England. The writings of this papyrus are of 61 recipes, of which 25 are classified as medical the remainder are of magic, the medical foci of the writing are skin complaints, eye complaints, bleeding and burns. The papyrus was first published in 1912 in Leipzig by Walter Wreszinski, the papyrus is also known as BM EA10059. The papyrus is linked to fallout from the Bronze Age Santorini volcanic eruption, also referred to as the Minoan eruption, ebers Papyrus Edwin Smith Papyrus List of ancient Egyptian papyri London Medical Papyrus, New Kingdom, c.1325 BC. Archived from the original on 2011-12-27, a caution on reading the Ancient Egyptian writings on health
London Medical Papyrus
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London Medical Papyrus
14.
Herb
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In general use, herbs are any plants used for food, flavoring, medicine, or fragrances for their savory or aromatic properties. Culinary use typically distinguishes herbs from spices, Herbs refers to the leafy green or flowering parts of a plant, while spices are produced from other parts of the plant, including seeds, berries, bark, roots and fruits. In botanical English, the herb is also used as a synonym of herbaceous plant. Herbs have a variety of uses including culinary, medicinal, and in some cases, general usage of the term herb differs between culinary herbs and medicinal herbs. In medicinal or spiritual use any of the parts of the plant might be considered herbs, including leaves, roots, flowers, seeds, root bark, inner bark, resin and pericarp. The word herb is pronounced /ˈhɜːrb/ in the UK, but /ˈɜːrb/ is common among North American speakers, as far back as 5000 BCE, Sumerians used herbs in medicine. Ancient Egyptians used fennel, coriander and thyme around 1555 BCE, in ancient Greece, in 162 CE, a physician by the name of Galen was known for concocting complicated herbal remedies that contained up to 100 ingredients. Culinary herbs are distinguished from vegetables in that, like spices, they are used in small amounts, Herbs can be perennials such as thyme or lavender, biennials such as parsley, or annuals like basil. Perennial herbs can be such as rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis, or trees such as bay laurel, Laurus nobilis – this contrasts with botanical herbs. Some plants are used as herbs and spices, such as dill weed and dill seed or coriander leaves and seeds. Also, there are some such as those in the mint family that are used for both culinary and medicinal purposes. Some plants contain phytochemicals that have effects on the body, there may be some effects when consumed in the small levels that typify culinary spicing, and some herbs are toxic in larger quantities. For instance, some types of herbal extract, such as the extract of St. Johns-wort or of kava can be used for purposes to relieve depression. However, large amounts of these herbs may lead to toxic overload that may involve complications, some of a serious nature, Herbs have long been used as the basis of traditional Chinese herbal medicine, with usage dating as far back as the first century CE and far before. In India, the Ayurveda medicinal system is based on herbs, medicinal use of herbs in Western cultures has its roots in the Hippocratic elemental healing system, based on a quaternary elemental healing metaphor. Famous herbalist of the Western tradition include Avicenna, Galen, Paracelsus, Culpepper, the indigenous peoples of Australia developed herbal medicine based on plants that were readily available to them. The isolation of the people meant the remedies developed were for far less serious diseases. Herbs such as mint, wattle and eucalyptus were used for coughs, diarrhea, fever
Herb
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Basil and
green onions, common culinary herbs
Herb
–
A bundle of
thyme
15.
Hieratic
–
Hieratic is a cursive writing system used in the provenance of the pharaohs in Egypt and Nubia. It developed alongside cursive hieroglyphs, from which it is separate yet intimately related and it was primarily written in ink with a reed brush on papyrus, allowing scribes to write quickly without resorting to the time-consuming hieroglyphs. In the 2nd century AD, the term hieratic was first used by Saint Clement of Alexandria. It derives from the Greek phrase γράμματα ἱερατικά, as at time, hieratic was used only for religious texts, as had been the case for the previous eight. Hieratic can also be an adjective meaning f or associated with sacred persons or offices, in the Proto-Dynastic Period of Egypt, hieratic first appeared and developed alongside the more formal hieroglyphic script. It is an error to view hieratic as a derivative of hieroglyphic writing, indeed, the earliest texts from Egypt are produced with ink and brush, with no indication their signs are descendants of hieroglyphs. True monumental hieroglyphs carved in stone did not appear until the 1st Dynasty, the two writing systems, therefore, are related, parallel developments, rather than a single linear one. Hieratic was used throughout the period and into the Graeco-Roman Period. Around 660 BC, the Demotic script replaced hieratic in most secular writing, through most of its long history, hieratic was used for writing administrative documents, accounts, legal texts, and letters, as well as mathematical, medical, literary, and religious texts. During the Græco-Roman period, when Demotic had become the chief administrative script, in general, hieratic was much more important than hieroglyphs throughout Egypts history, being the script used in daily life. It was also the system first taught to students, knowledge of hieroglyphs being limited to a small minority who were given additional training. In fact, it is possible to detect errors in hieroglyphic texts that came about due to a misunderstanding of an original hieratic text. Most often, hieratic script was written in ink with a brush on papyrus, wood. Thousands of limestone ostraca have been found at the site of Deir al-Madinah, besides papyrus, stone, ceramic shards, and wood, there are hieratic texts on leather rolls, though few have survived. There are also hieratic texts written on cloth, especially on linen used in mummification, there are some hieratic texts inscribed on stone, a variety known as lapidary hieratic, these are particularly common on stelae from the 22nd Dynasty. During the late 6th Dynasty, hieratic was sometimes incised into mud tablets with a stylus, similar to cuneiform. About five hundred of these tablets have been discovered in the palace at Ayn Asil. At the time the tablets were made, Dakhla was located far from centers of papyrus production and these tablets record inventories, name lists, accounts, and approximately fifty letters
Hieratic
–
One of four official letters to
vizier Khay copied onto fragments of limestone (an
ostracon).
Hieratic
–
Hieratic
Hieratic
–
Exercise tablet with hieratic excerpt from
The Instructions of Amenemhat.
Dynasty XVIII, reign of
Amenhotep I, c. 1514–1493 BC. Text reads: "Be on your guard against all who are subordinate to you... Trust no brother, know no friend, make no intimates."
16.
Egyptians
–
Egyptians are an ethnic group and the citizens native to Egypt sharing a common culture and a variety of Egyptian Arabic. Egyptian identity is tied to geography. This unique geography has been the basis of the development of Egyptian society since antiquity, the daily language of the Egyptians is the local variety of Arabic, known as Egyptian Arabic or Masri. Additionally, a minority of Egyptians living in Upper Egypt speak Saidi Arabic. Egyptians are predominantly adherents of Sunni Islam with a Shia minority, Egyptians receive or have received several names, Egyptians, from Greek Αἰγύπτιοι, Aiguptioi, from Αἴγυπτος, Aiguptos Egypt. The Greek name is derived from Late Egyptian Hikuptah Memphis, a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hat-ka-Ptah, meaning home of the ka of Ptah, the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis. Strabo provided a folk etymology according to which Αἴγυπτος had evolved as a compound from Aἰγαίου ὑπτίως Aegaeou huptiōs, in English, the noun Egyptians appears in the 14th century, in Wycliffs Bible, as Egipcions. Copts, also a derivative of the Greek word Αἰγύπτιος, Aiguptios, maṣreyyīn, the modern Egyptian name, which comes from the ancient Semitic name for Egypt and originally connoted civilization or metropolis. Classical Arabic Miṣr is directly cognate with the Biblical Hebrew Mitsráyīm, edward William Lane writing in the 1820s, said that Egyptians commonly called themselves El-Maṣreyyīn the Egyptians, Ewlad Maṣr the Children of Egypt and Ahl Maṣr the People of Egypt. He added that the Turks stigmatized the Egyptians with the name Ahl-Farūn or the People of the Pharaoh,
Egyptians
–
A view of Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. The
Cairo Opera House (bottom-right) is the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital.
Egyptians
–
A map of Egypt's population density.
Egyptians
–
Egyptian donkey herders (At the start of the British occupation of Egypt, circa.1860s.
Egyptians
–
A
Luxor school teacher lecturing on
Eastern Arabic numerals.
17.
Gynaecology
–
Gynaecology or gynecology is the medical practice dealing with the health of the female reproductive systems and the breasts. Literally, outside medicine, the means the science of women. Its counterpart is andrology, which deals with issues specific to the male reproductive system. Almost all modern gynaecologists are also obstetricians, in many areas, the specialities of gynaecology and obstetrics overlap. The word gynaecology comes from the Greek γυνή, woman, and -logia, the Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus is the oldest known medical text of any kind. Dated to about 1800 BC, it deals with womens complaints—gynaecological diseases, fertility, pregnancy, contraception, the text is divided into thirty-four sections, each section dealing with a specific problem and containing diagnosis and treatment, no prognosis is suggested. Treatments are non surgical, comprising applying medicines to the body part or swallowing them. The womb is at times seen as the source of complaints manifesting themselves in other body parts, the Hippocratic Corpus contains several gynaecological treatises dating to the 5th/4th centuries BC. Aristotle is another source for medical texts from 4th century BC with his descriptions of biology primarily found in History of Animals, Parts of Animals. The gynaecological treatise Gynaikeia by Soranus of Ephesus is extant and he was the chief representative of the school of physicians known as the Methodists. J. Marion Sims is widely considered the father of modern gynaecology, Now criticized for the short comings. Now criticized for the short comings. He developed some of his techniques by operating on slaves, many of whom were not given anaesthesia, in some countries, women must first see a general practitioner prior to seeing a gynaecologist. If their condition requires training, knowledge, surgical procedure, or equipment unavailable to the GP, in the United States, however, law and many health insurance plans allow gynaecologists to provide primary care in addition to aspects of their own specialty. With this option available, some women opt to see a surgeon for non-gynaecological problems without another physicians referral. As in all of medicine, the tools of diagnosis are clinical history. Gynaecological examination is quite intimate, more so than a physical exam. It also requires unique instrumentation such as the speculum, Gynaecologists typically do a bimanual examination to palpate the cervix, uterus, ovaries and bony pelvis. It is not uncommon to do a rectovaginal examination for complete evaluation of the pelvis, male gynaecologists may have a female chaperone for their examination
Gynaecology
–
The historic taboo associated with the examination of
female genitalia has long inhibited the science of gynaecology. This 1822 drawing by Jacques-Pierre Maygnier shows a "compromise" procedure, in which the
physician is kneeling before the woman but cannot see her genitalia. Modern gynaecology no longer uses such a position.
18.
Pessary
–
A pessary is a medical device inserted into the vagina, either to provide structural support, or as a method of delivering medication. A therapeutic pessary is a device similar to the outer ring of a diaphragm. Therapeutic pessaries are used to support the uterus, vagina, bladder, Pessaries are a treatment option for pelvic organ prolapse. A pessary is most commonly used to treat prolapse of the uterus and it is also used to treat stress urinary incontinence, a retroverted uterus, cystocele and rectocele. Historically, pessaries may have used to perform abortions. The Cerclage Pessary is used to treat pregnant women with cervical incompetence in order to support the cervix and it may be indicated in pregnancies with a history of premature labor, multiple pregnancies or mothers who are exposed to physical strain. It may also be indicated in pregnant women suffering from prolapse of the genital organs, the pessary can be placed temporarily or permanently, and must be fitted by a physician, physician assistant, midwife, or advanced practice nurse. Some pessaries can be worn during intercourse, Pessaries were used as birth control in ancient times. An occlusive pessary is generally used in combination with spermicide as a contraceptive, the stem pessary, a type of occlusive pessary, was an early form of the cervical cap. Shaped like a dome, it covered the cervix, and a rod or stem entered the uterus through the os. Side effects that are shared among most different types of pessaries are risks of increased vaginal discharge, vaginal irritation, ulceration, bleeding, one Package of Japanese Pessaries Suppository
Pessary
–
An assortment of pessaries
19.
Elderberry
–
Sambucus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae. The various species are commonly called elder or elderberry, the genus was formerly placed in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, but was reclassified due to genetic and morphological comparisons to Adoxa. In Sambucus, there are between 5 and 30 species of shrubs, small trees and herbaceous perennial plants. The genus occurs in temperate to subtropical regions of the world, more widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, its Southern Hemisphere occurrence is restricted to parts of Australasia and South America. Many species are cultivated for their ornamental leaves, flowers. The leaves are pinnate with 5–9 leaflets, each leaf is 5–30 cm long, and the leaflets have serrated margins. They bear large clusters of white or cream-colored flowers in late spring. Sambucus australis Sambucus canadensis Sambucus cerulea, western North America, dark blue-black berries with glaucous bloom on surface, Sambucus javanica Sambucus nigra This is the species most often used medicinally. The flowers are in rounded panicles, but the berries are black, it is a small shrub, some botanists include it in the red-berried elder group. The flowers are in rounded panicles, and the berries are red, they are smaller shrubs. The flowers are in rounded panicles, and the white or yellow. Sambucus adnata Sambucus ebulus Other species, Sambucus melanocarpa Gray Sambucus neomexicana Wooton Sambucus velutina Dur, ornamental varieties of Sambucus are grown in gardens for their showy flowers, fruits and lacy foliage. Native species of elderberry are often planted by people wishing to support native butterfly, elderberry fruit or flowers are used as dietary supplements for minor diseases such as flu, colds, constipation, and other conditions, often served as a tea, extract, or in a capsule. There is insufficient research to know its effectiveness for such uses or its safety profile, raw elderberries are 80% water, 18% carbohydrates, and less than 1% each of protein and fat. In a 100 gram amount, elderberries supply 73 calories and are a source of vitamin C. Elderberries also have moderate contents of vitamin B6 and iron, with no other nutrients in significant content, the French, Austrians and Central Europeans produce elderflower syrup, commonly made from an extract of elderflower blossoms, which is added to Palatschinken filling instead of blueberries. People throughout much of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe use a method to make a syrup which is diluted with water. In Germany, yoghurt desserts are made both the berries and the flowers
Elderberry
–
Sambucus
Elderberry
–
Sambucus berries
Elderberry
–
Sambucus canadensis showing the complex branching of the inflorescence
Elderberry
–
Sambucus canadensis showing the inflorescence
20.
Milk
–
Milk is a pale liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the source of nutrition for infant mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mothers antibodies to its young and it contains many other nutrients including protein and lactose. As an agricultural product, milk is extracted from non-human mammals during or soon after pregnancy, Dairy farms produced about 730 million tonnes of milk in 2011, from 260 million dairy cows. India is the worlds largest producer of milk, and is the leading exporter of skimmed milk powder, the ever increasing rise in domestic demand for dairy products and a large demand-supply gap could lead to India being a net importer of dairy products in the future. The United States, India, China and Brazil are the worlds largest exporters of milk and milk products, China and Russia were the worlds largest importers of milk and milk products until 2016 when both countries became self-sufficient, contributing to a worldwide glut of milk. Throughout the world, there are more than six billion consumers of milk and milk products, over 750 million people live in dairy farming households. The term milk comes from Old English meoluc, milc, from Proto-Germanic *meluks milk, there are two distinct types of milk consumption, a natural source of nutrition for all infant mammals and a food product for humans of all ages that is derived from other animals. In almost all mammals, milk is fed to infants through breastfeeding, the early milk from mammals is called colostrum. Colostrum contains antibodies that provide protection to the baby as well as nutrients. The makeup of the colostrum and the period of secretion varies from species to species, for humans, the World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months and breastfeeding in addition to other food for at least two years. In some cultures it is common to breastfeed children for three to five years, and the period may be longer, fresh goats milk is sometimes substituted for breast milk. This introduces the risk of the child developing electrolyte imbalances, metabolic acidosis, megaloblastic anemia, in many cultures of the world, especially the West, humans continue to consume milk beyond infancy, using the milk of other animals as a food product. Initially, the ability to digest milk was limited to children as adults did not produce lactase, Milk was therefore converted to curd, cheese and other products to reduce the levels of lactose. Thousands of years ago, a chance mutation spread in human populations in Europe that enabled the production of lactase in adulthood and this allowed milk to be used as a new source of nutrition which could sustain populations when other food sources failed. Milk is processed into a variety of products such as cream, butter, yogurt, kefir, ice cream. Modern industrial processes use milk to produce casein, whey protein, lactose, condensed milk, powdered milk, whole milk, butter and cream have high levels of saturated fat. The sugar lactose is found only in milk, forsythia flowers, the enzyme needed to digest lactose, lactase, reaches its highest levels in the small intestine after birth and then begins a slow decline unless milk is consumed regularly
Milk
–
A glass of
pasteurized cow's milk
Milk
–
A human baby feeding on its mother's milk
Milk
–
A
goat kid feeding on its mother's milk
Milk
–
Holstein cattle, the dominant breed in industrialized dairying today
21.
Date (fruit)
–
Phoenix dactylifera, commonly known as date or date palm, is a flowering plant species in the palm family, Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit. Although its place of origin is unknown because of long cultivation, the species is widely cultivated and is naturalized in many tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. Date trees typically reach about 21–23 metres in height, growing singly or forming a clump with stems from a single root system. The leaves are 4–6 metres long, with spines on the petiole, the leaflets are 30 cm long and 2 cm wide. The full span of the ranges from 6–10 m. The species name dactylifera date-bearing comes from the Greek words daktylos, which date, and fero. Dates have been a food of the Middle East and the Indus Valley for thousands of years. There is archaeological evidence of cultivation in eastern Arabia between 5530 and 5320 calBC. They are believed to have originated around what is now Iraq, the Ancient Egyptians used the fruits to make date wine, and ate them at harvest. There is also evidence of date cultivation in Mehrgarh around 7000 BCE. Evidence of cultivation is found throughout later civilizations in the Indus Valley. In later times, traders spread dates around South West Asia, northern Africa, dates were introduced into Mexico and California by the Spaniards in 1765, around Mission San Ignacio. A date palm cultivar, known as Judean date palm is renowned for its long-lived orthodox seed and this particular seed is presently reputed to be the oldest viable seed, but the upper survival time limit of properly stored seeds remains unknown. Fossil records show that the palm has existed for at least 50 million years. The fruit is known as a date, the fruits English name, as well as the Latin species name dactylifera, both come from the Greek word for finger, dáktulos, because of the fruits elongated shape. Dates are oval-cylindrical, 3–7 cm long, and 2–3 cm diameter, dates contain a single stone about 2–2.5 cm long and 6–8 mm thick. Three main cultivar groups of date exist, soft, semi-dry, the type of fruit depends on the glucose, fructose, and sucrose content. The date palm is dioecious, having male and female plants
Date (fruit)
–
Date palm
Date (fruit)
–
Dates
Date (fruit)
–
Young date palm
Date (fruit)
–
Fresh dates, clockwise from top right: crunchy, crunchy opened, soft out of skin, soft.
22.
Ochre
–
Ochre (/ˈoʊkər/ OH-kər, from Greek, ὠχρός, ōkhrós, or ocher, is a natural earth pigment containing hydrated iron oxide, which ranges in color from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the produced by this pigment. A variant of ochre containing an amount of hematite, or dehydrated iron oxide, has a reddish tint known as red ochre. Ochre is a family of pigments, which includes yellow ochre, red ochre, purple ochre, sienna. The major ingredient of all the ochres is iron oxide-hydroxide, known as limonite, which gives them a yellow color. Yellow ochre, FeO·nH 2O, is a hydrated iron hydroxide also called gold ochre Red ochre, Fe 2O3, takes its color from the mineral hematite. Purple ochre, is identical to red ochre chemically but of a different hue caused by different light diffraction properties associated with an average particle size. Brown ochre, also FeO, is a hydrated iron oxide. Sienna contains both limonite and an amount of manganese oxide, which makes it darker than ochre. Umber pigments contain a proportion of manganese which make them a dark brown. When natural sienna and umber pigments are heated, they are dehydrated and some of the limonite is transformed into hematite, giving them more reddish colors, called burnt sienna and burnt umber. Ochres are non-toxic, and can be used to make an oil paint that dries quickly, modern ochre pigments often are made using synthetic iron oxide. Pigments which use natural ochre pigments indicate it with the name PY-43 on the label, pieces of ochre engraved with abstract designs have been found at the site of the Blombos Cave in South Africa, dated to around 75,000 years ago. In Wales, the paleolithic burial called the Red Lady of Paviland from its coating of red ochre has been dated to around 33,000 years before present. Paintings of animals made with red and yellow ochre pigments have been found in sites at Pech Merle in France. The cave of Lascaux has an image of a horse colored with yellow estimated to be 17,300 years old. In Ancient Egypt, yellow was associated with gold, which was considered to be eternal, the skin and bones of the gods were believed to be made of gold. The Egyptians used yellow extensively in tomb painting, though occasionally they used orpiment
Ochre
–
Ochre- pigment
Ochre
Ochre
–
Yellow ochre (Goldochre)- pigment
Ochre
–
Limonite, a mineraloid containing iron hydroxide, is the main ingredient of all the ochre pigments.
23.
Medicinal clay
–
The use of medicinal clay in folk medicine goes back to prehistoric times. Indigenous peoples around the world still use clay widely, which is related to geophagy, the first recorded use of medicinal clay goes back to ancient Mesopotamia. A wide variety of clays are used for medicinal purposes—primarily for external applications, among the clays most commonly used are kaolin and the smectite clays such as bentonite, montmorillonite, and Fullers earth. There are considerable problems with the nomenclature of various clays. No clay deposit is exactly the same and, typically, mineral clays are mixed in various proportions, the overwhelming majority of clay mined commercially is for industrial uses, such as construction and oil drilling. Thus, the classification and chemical composition of these clays are somewhat secondary to their intended use. Bentonite clay, montmorillonite clay, and Fullers earth are similar, sodium bentonite/calcium bentonite are the most commonly used medicinal clays today, although there is no precise definition of what this term means. In fact, typically, bentonite refers to a spectrum of clays with a wide array of properties. In alternative medicine, often this is used as more or less a catch-all term for medicinal clays, another such term is montmorillonite, which is often interchangeable with bentonite. Bentonite is included in the United States Pharmacopeia, and the USP-grade bentonite is used in various pharmaceutical. It is not entirely clear where the source of USP-grade bentonite is located, most of the nomenclature currently used is discussed in a 2005 World Health Organization report BENTONITE, KAOLIN, AND. SELECTED CLAY MINERALS, as well as a section of the USGS website Minerals Information. This type of geophagy has been documented in species of mammals, birds, reptiles, butterflies and isopods. In particular, in Peru, Amazonian rainforest parrots of some 21 species gather at sites on cliff faces where bare soil is exposed. The soil they eat is specific, since they focus on a narrow band of exposed soil. What they eat is mostly clay that is less than 0.2 millimetre in particle diameter, some scholars believe that prehistoric ancestors such as Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis used ochres to cure wounds as well as paint caves. Ochres are a mixture of clay and iron hydroxides, the oldest evidence of geophagy practiced by humans comes from the prehistoric site at Kalambo Falls on the border between Zambia and Tanzania. Here, a white clay was found alongside the bones of Homo habilis
Medicinal clay
–
German medicinal clay (
Luvos Heilerde) consisting of
loess, i.e. a mixture of sand, clay, and silt
Medicinal clay
–
Clay being processed by a manufacturer.
Medicinal clay
–
Scanning electron microscope photograph of smectite clay from Tuckup Canyon - U.S. Geological Survey - magnification 23,500.
Medicinal clay
–
Child playing with clay
24.
Edwin Smith Papyrus
–
The Edwin Smith Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian medical text, named after the dealer who bought it in 1862, and the oldest known surgical treatise on trauma. This document, which may have been a manual of surgery, describes 48 cases of injuries, fractures, wounds, dislocations. It dates to Dynasties 16–17 of the Second Intermediate Period in ancient Egypt, the Edwin Smith papyrus is unique among the four principal medical papyri in existence that survive today. Magic would be more prevalent had the cases of illness been mysterious, the Edwin Smith papyrus is a scroll 4.68 meters or 15.3 feet in length. The recto has 377 lines in 17 columns, while the verso has 92 lines in five columns, aside from the fragmentary outer column of the scroll, the remainder of the papyrus is intact, although it was cut into one-column pages some time in the 20th century. It is written right-to-left in hieratic, the Egyptian cursive form of hieroglyphs, the vast majority of the papyrus is concerned with trauma and surgery, with short sections on gynaecology and cosmetics on the verso. On the recto side, there are 48 cases of injury, each case details the type of the injury, examination of the patient, diagnosis and prognosis, and treatment. The verso side consists of eight magic spells and five prescriptions, the spells of the verso side and two incidents in Case 8 and Case 9 are the exceptions to the practical nature of this medical text. Generic spells and incantations may have used as a last resort in terminal cases. Authorship of the Edwin Smith Papyrus is debated, the majority of the papyrus was written by one scribe, with only small sections copied by a second scribe. The papyrus ends abruptly in the middle of a line, without any inclusion of an author and it is believed that the papyrus is an incomplete copy of an older reference manuscript from the Old Kingdom, evidenced by archaic grammar, terminology, form and commentary. The text is attributed by some to Imhotep, an architect, high priest, the rational and practical nature of the papyrus is illustrated in 48 case histories, which are listed according to each organ. Presented cases are typical, not individual, the title of each case details the nature of trauma, such as “Practices for a gaping wound in his head, which has penetrated to the bone and split the skull”. The objective examination process included visual and olfactory clues, palpation, in many of the cases, explanations of trauma are included to provide further clarity. Among the treatments are closing wounds with sutures, bandaging, splints, poultices, preventing and curing infection with honey, immobilization is advised for head and spinal cord injuries, as well as other lower body fractures. The papyrus also describes realistic anatomical, physiological and pathological observations and it contains the first known descriptions of the cranial structures, the meninges, the external surface of the brain, the cerebrospinal fluid, and the intracranial pulsations. Here, the word ‘brain’ appears for the first time in any language, the procedures of this papyrus demonstrate an Egyptian level of knowledge of medicines that surpassed that of Hippocrates, who lived 1000 years later. The influence of brain injuries on parts of the body is recognized, the relationship between the location of a cranial injury and the side of the body affected is also recorded, while crushing injuries of vertebrae were noted to impair motor and sensory functions
Edwin Smith Papyrus
–
Plates vi & vii of the Edwin Smith Papyrus at the Rare Book Room,
New York Academy of Medicine
25.
Mummy
–
Some authorities restrict the use of the term to bodies deliberately embalmed with chemicals, but the use of the word to cover accidentally desiccated bodies goes back to at least 1615 CE. Mummies of humans and other animals have found on every continent. Over one million animal mummies have been found in Egypt, many of which are cats, in addition to the well-known mummies of ancient Egypt, deliberate mummification was a feature of several ancient cultures in areas of America and Asia with very dry climates. The Spirit Cave mummies of Fallon, Nevada in North America were accurately dated at more than 9,400 years old. Before this discovery, the oldest known deliberate mummy was a child, one of the Chinchorro mummies found in the Camarones Valley, Chile, which dates around 5050 BCE. The oldest known naturally mummified corpse is a severed head dated as 6,000 years old. These substances were defined as mummia, the OED defines a mummy as the body of a human being or animal embalmed as a preparation for burial, citing sources from 1615 CE onward. However, Chambers Cyclopædia and the Victorian zoologist Francis Trevelyan Buckland define a mummy as follows, also applied to the frozen carcase of an animal imbedded in prehistoric snow. Wasps of the genus Aleiodes are known as mummy wasps because they wrap their prey as mummies. While interest in the study of mummies dates as far back as Ptolemaic Greece, prior to this, many rediscovered mummies were sold as curiosities or for use in pseudoscientific novelties such as mummia. The first modern scientific examinations of mummies began in 1901, conducted by professors at the English-language Government School of Medicine in Cairo, Egypt. The first X-ray of a mummy came in 1903, when professors Grafton Elliot Smith, British chemist Alfred Lucas applied chemical analyses to Egyptian mummies during this same period, which returned many results about the types of substances used in embalming. Lucas also made significant contributions to the analysis of Tutankhamun in 1922, pathological study of mummies saw varying levels of popularity throughout the 20th century. In 1992, the First World Congress on Mummy Studies was held in Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, more than 300 scientists attended the Congress to share nearly 100 years of collected data on mummies. This was not possible prior to the Congress due to the unique, in more recent years, CT scanning has become an invaluable tool in the study of mummification by allowing researchers to digitally unwrap mummies without risking damage to the body. The level of detail in such scans is so intricate that small linens used in areas such as the nostrils can be digitally reconstructed in 3-D. Such modelling has been utilized to perform autopsies on mummies to determine cause of death and lifestyle. Mummies are typically divided into one of two categories, anthropogenic or spontaneous
Mummy
–
Howard Carter opens the innermost shrine of King Tutankhamen's tomb near Luxor, Egypt.
Mummy
–
Tori Randall prepares a 550-year-old Peruvian child mummy for a CT scan at Naval Medical Center San Diego.
Mummy
–
Mummy in the British Museum
Mummy
–
Painted mummy bandage
26.
Thebes, Egypt
–
Thebes, known to the ancient Egyptians as Waset, was an ancient Egyptian city located east of the Nile about 800 kilometers south of the Mediterranean. Its ruins lie within the modern Egyptian city of Luxor, Thebes was the main city of the fourth Upper Egyptian nome. It was close to Nubia and the desert, with their valuable mineral resources. It was a center and the wealthiest city of ancient Egypt at its heyday. The Ancient Egyptians originally knew Thebes as Wose or Wase A was was the scepter of the pharaohs, a staff with an animals head. Thebes is the Latinized form of the Greek Thebai, the form of the Demotic Egyptian Ta-pe. This was the name not for the city itself but for the Karnak temple complex on the northern east bank of the city. As early as Homers Iliad, the Greeks distinguished the Egyptian Thebes as Thebes of the Hundred Gates, as opposed to the Thebes of the Seven Gates in Boeotia, from the end of the New Kingdom, Thebes was known in Egyptian as Niwt-Imn, the City of Amun. Amun was the chief of the Theban Triad of gods whose other members were Mut and this name appears in the Bible as the Nōʼ ʼĀmôn of the Book of Nahum and probably also as the No mentioned in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. In the interpretatio graeca, Amun was seen as a form of Zeus, the name was therefore translated into Greek as Diospolis, the City of Zeus. To distinguish it from the other cities by this name. The Greek names came into use after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great. Thebes was located along the banks of the Nile River in the part of Upper Egypt about 800 km from the Delta. It was built largely on the plains of the Nile Valley which follows a great bend of the Nile. As a natural consequence, the city was laid in a northeast-southwest axis parallel to the river channel. Thebes had an area of 93 km2 which included parts of the Theban Hills in the west that culminates at the sacred 420-meter al-Qurn, in the east lies the mountainous Eastern Desert with its wadis draining into the valley. Significant of these wadis is Wadi Hammamat near Thebes and it was used as an overland trade route going to the Red Sea coast. In the fourth Upper Egyptian nome, Thebes was found to have neighboring towns such as Per-Hathor, Madu, Djerty, Iuny, Sumenu, according to George Modelski, Thebes had about 40,000 inhabitants in 2000 BC
Thebes, Egypt
–
Egypt - Temple of Seti, east entrance, Thebes. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection
Thebes, Egypt
–
Luxor Temple
Thebes, Egypt
–
The Theban Necropolis
27.
Necropolis
–
A necropolis is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek νεκρόπολις nekropolis, literally meaning city of the dead, the term usually implies a separate burial site at a distance from a city, as opposed to tombs within cities, which were common in various places and periods of history. They are different from fields, which did not have remains above the ground. While the word is most commonly used for ancient sites, the name was revived in the early 19th century and applied to planned city cemeteries, such as the Glasgow Necropolis. Aside from the pyramids which were reserved for the burial of Pharaohs the Egyptian necropoleis included mastabas, naqsh-e Rustam is an ancient necropolis located about 12 km northwest of Persepolis, in Fars Province, Iran. The oldest relief at Naqsh-i Rustam dates to c.1000 BC, though it is severely damaged, it depicts a faint image of a man with unusual head-gear and is thought to be Elamite in origin. The depiction is part of an image, most of which was removed at the command of Bahram II. Four tombs belonging to Achaemenid kings are carved out of the face at a considerable height above the ground. The tombs are known locally as the Persian crosses, after the shape of the facades of the tombs, later, Sassanian kings added a series of rock reliefs below the tombs. In the Mycenean Greek period pre-dating ancient Greece burials could be performed inside the city, in Mycenae for example the royal tombs were located in a precinct within the city walls. This changed during the ancient Greek period when necropoleis usually lined the roads outside a city, there existed some degree of variation within the ancient Greek world however. Sparta was notable for continuing the practice of burial within the city, the Etruscans took the concept of a city of the dead quite literally. The typical tomb at the Banditaccia necropolis at Cerveteri consists of a tumulus which covers one or more rock-cut subterranean tombs and these tombs had multiple chambers and were elaborately decorated like contemporary houses. The arrangement of the tumuli in a grid of streets gave it a similar to the cities of the living. The art historian Nigel Spivey considers the name cemetery inadequate and argues that only the term necropolis can do justice to these burial sites. Etruscan necropoleis were located on hills or slopes of hills. In ancient Rome families originally buried deceased relatives in their own homes because of the Roman practice of ancestor worship, the enactment of the Twelve Tables in 449 BC forbade this, which made the Romans adopt the practice of burial in necropoleis. List of necropoleis Funerary art Catacombs
Necropolis
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Mastabas in the
Giza Necropolis with the
Pyramid of Khafre in the background.
Necropolis
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Naqsh-e Rustam. The order of the tombs in Naqshe-e Rustam, from left to right is:
Darius II,
Artaxerxes I,
Darius I,
Xerxes I.
Necropolis
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Tumuli are placed along a street in the Banditaccia necropolis of
Cerveteri.
28.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
Germany
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The
Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.
Germany
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Flag
Germany
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Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the
Protestant Reformation.
Germany
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Foundation of the
German Empire in
Versailles, 1871.
Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.
29.
Egyptologist
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A practitioner of the discipline is an Egyptologist. In Europe, particularly on the Continent, Egyptology is primarily regarded as being a philological discipline, the first explorers were the ancient Egyptians themselves. Thutmose IV restored the Sphinx and had the dream that inspired his restoration carved on the famous Dream Stele, less than two centuries later, Prince Khaemweset, fourth son of Ramesses II, is famed for identifying and restoring historic buildings, tombs and temples including the pyramid. The Ptolemies were much interested in the work of the ancient Egyptians, the Romans too carried out restoration work in this most ancient of lands. A number of their accounts have survived and offer insights as to conditions in their time periods. Abdul Latif al-Baghdadi, a teacher at Cairos Al-Azhar University in the 13th century, similarly, the 15th-century Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi wrote detailed accounts of Egyptian antiquities. In the early 17th century, John Greaves measured the pyramids, having inspected the broken Obelisk of Domitian in Rome, then destined for the Earl of Arundels collection in London. In the late 18th century, with Napoleons scholars recording of Egyptian flora, fauna and history, the British captured Egypt from the French and gained the Rosetta Stone. Modern Egyptology is generally perceived as beginning about 1822, egyptologys modern history begins with the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte. The subsequent publication of Description de lÉgypte between 1809 and 1829 made numerous ancient Egyptian source materials available to Europeans for the first time, jean-François Champollion, Thomas Young and Ippolito Rosellini were some of the first Egyptologists of wide acclaim. The German Karl Richard Lepsius was a participant in the investigations of Egypt, mapping, excavating. Champollion announced his general decipherment of the system of Egyptian hieroglyphics for the first time, the Stones decipherment was a very important development of Egyptology. Egyptology became more professional via work of William Matthew Flinders Petrie, Petrie introduced techniques of field preservation, recording, and excavating. Howard Carters expedition brought much acclaim to the field of Egyptology, a tradition of collecting objets-orientales Egyptologists Electronic Forum, version 64. List shows Egyptology societies and Institutes Egyptology at DMOZ Egyptology Books, the University of Memphis Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology. Hawass, Zahi, Brock, Lyla Pinch, eds, Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists. Rare Books and Special Collections Digital Library Underwood & Underwood Egypt Stereoviews Collection, czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague
Egyptologist
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The
Great Sphinx of Giza against
Khafre's Pyramid at the
Giza pyramid complex
Egyptologist
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Hieroglyphs and depictions transcribed by
Ippolito Rosellini in 1832
Egyptologist
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A section of the
Papyrus of Ani showing
cursive hieroglyphs
