From making fake toes out of leather, to treating infections with exorcisms,
the world of ancient Egyptian medicine is absolutely insane.
Let’s dive right into what surgery was actually like in ancient Egypt!
DENTISTRY
Nobody likes going to the dentist, but it’s a lot less painful today than it was for the
ancient Egyptians. Some sources believe that dentistry actually began in Egypt,
which would make them responsible for even our modern dental sciences. So why did they
get the idea to start pulling, cutting, and sawing teeth? It’s all thanks to their food.
See, the tools that the Egyptians used to grind their flour for bread and other foods
were rough and would leave tiny pieces of sand and stone in their food. These little particles
left behind in the food were incredibly bad for their teeth. Over time, they would scrape
and wear down the Egyptians’ teeth - which often led to them losing them at a young age.
The Egyptians had all kinds of strange ways to work on teeth. If you had a toothache, a dentist
might rub a mixture of onion, cumin, and incense on it. This probably wouldn’t help the pain at
all, plus it would taste disgusting. If you had a cavity, they might pour a bunch of resin into the
hole in your tooth and call it a day. They even used hand-cranked bone drills to drain abscesses
in jaws. What’s really weird is the fact that they almost never pulled teeth. In fact, they actually
had procedures to replace teeth that fell out. If you lost a tooth in ancient Egypt, your dentist
might reattach it using gold or silver wire - that is if you could afford the materials needed.
PROSTHETICS
If you lose an arm, leg, or hand these days, you might get a cool futuristic prosthetic
that actually works really well. But the history of fake limbs can be traced back all the way to
710 BCE in ancient Egypt. The oldest prosthetic ever found is a fake toe
made out of leather and wood - which was found on a female mummy in Luxor, Egypt.
Doctor Jacky Finch said in an interview: “Several experts have examined these
objects and had suggested that they were the earliest prosthetic devices in existence.
There are many instances of the ancient Egyptians creating false body parts for burial
but the wear plus their design both suggest they were used by people to help them to walk.”
You might think that a fake toe made out of wood and leather would be uncomfortable,
but researchers at the University of Manchester created a replica and asked people with missing
toes to try it out. They were amazed to discover that the Egyptian design was actually
very comfortable and functional, proving once again that they were way ahead of their time.
SURGICAL TOOLS
Egyptians aren’t the first people to use surgical tools, but they are the ones who began to perfect
them. We know that people in the stone age used knives made of stone to cut off damaged fingers,
but what the ancient Egyptians did was way more impressive.
After discovering the metal copper, the Egyptians immediately began using it to make more effective
tools. They designed pincers, forceps, saws, and surgical knives that are still in use today.
They even made specialized equipment to remove someone’s brain before they mummified them.
And not only that, but they also discovered how to
make incredibly effective bandages to patch people up after surgery.
CIRCUMCISION
An ancient Greek historian named Herodotus wrote in the fifth century BCE
that the Egyptians “practice circumcision for the sake of cleanliness, considering it better to be
cleanly than comely. They are the only people in the world… who use circumcision.” If Herodotus
is right, that means the Egyptians created one of the very first surgical procedures in the world.
Unlike modern male circumcision, the Egyptians didn’t perform it on infants. Instead,
it was used as a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood, although it wasn’t required for all men
to become circumcised. In fact, it’s completely unclear about who got circumcisions and why.
Some Egyptian kings had the surgery performed, but others didn’t - so it
wasn’t a case of it being a procedure reserved for only royalty. Regardless,
the fact that they were able to perform the surgery at all is impressive enough.
FEMALE DOCTORS
Unlike a lot of ancient civilizations, Egypt was actually pretty progressive
when it came to equal rights for men and women. Women were well respected,
and feminine icons and symbols can be traced all the way back to 2181 BCE.
And when it came to medicine, Egypt has the first recorded female doctors in history.
There is a famous tale from ancient Greece about a woman named Agnodice. Agnodice wanted to become a
doctor in Athens, but their laws at the time said that any woman who practised medicine would be put
to death. But Agnodice wasn’t going to give up, so she went to Alexandria to train as a doctor. After
becoming a doctor in Alexandria, Agnodice came back to Athens and practised medicine disguised
as a man. Eventually her secret was exposed and she was put on trial, but she managed to escape
the death penalty when a bunch of her patients stormed the courthouse and demanded her release.
The story of Agnodice is great and all, but keep in mind that by this point in Egypt,
women had been doctors for hundreds of years already. Merit--Ptah is the first woman doctor
whose name we know. She was the Egyptian royal court’s head surgeon around 2700 BCE.
There was even a medical school run by an unknown Egyptian woman in 3000 BCE.
DOCTORS WERE ALSO PRIESTS
While the doctors in ancient Egypt were definitely advanced for their time, they were still pretty
far from being medical experts. Physical injuries were easy enough to deal with. They bandaged
wounds and set broken bones using straightforward methods that aren’t too far from how we treat
people today. But when it came to treating disease, it was a totally different story.
To the Egyptians, sickness and disease was either a punishment handed down by the gods,
an attack by angry demons, or a trial you had to go through in order to learn a lesson.
So how did they treat these attacks? With spells,
magical rites, and incantations, obviously. Egyptologist Rosalie David writes:
“Doctors were specialized priests who had originally acted as religious mediators
between the god and the patient but, over the centuries, they acquired
detailed medical knowledge and experience… The medical profession appears to have been
highly organized and incorporated rational as well as magical treatment of patients.”
So there you have it. Ancient Egyptian doctors had two jobs: doctor and priest. Imagine if you
went to the doctor today and they started chanting and drawing symbols on the floor
with animal blood while they treated you. We’ve definitely come a long way since then.
DISINFECTANT
When you get operated on by modern surgeons, everything in the room is sterilized and
disinfected like crazy. Every piece of equipment is wiped down, the doctors and nurses have to
“scrub in” and make sure their clothing is completely clean, and the operating room
itself is sprayed down with germ-killing solutions. This is all done to prevent
you from becoming infected after the surgery. Unfortunately, the Egyptians weren’t nearly as
hygienic as we are now - but they did discover the first use of a natural disinfectant: honey.
Even though they were advanced for the time,
it would still be terrifying to get operated on by ancient Egyptian doctors.
The concept of handwashing and cleaning your tools after you used them on a patient weren’t
popular yet, so wounds got infected all of the time. Back then, an infection left untreated
could easily become a life-threatening matter. So the physicians of the day had to find a solution.
Eventually they discovered that applying honey to a wound would keep it from festering and
becoming infected. After surgery, the doctors would soak bandages in honey
and then wrap them around the patient. Honey is both an antibacterial and an anti-inflammatory;
this means that it could keep wounds clean and reduce swelling at the same time.
While it’s not as effective as modern medicine, it was definitely better than nothing. Plus,
it made patients smell nice and sweet, which is always a plus.
TRAVELING DOCTORS
Ancient Egyptian doctors were so famous and well respected that other countries would hire them to
become traveling physicians. This makes perfect sense when you think about it. No one else was
pushing the medical forward like the Egyptians were. They were developing new treatments and
surgeries left and right, so it’s only natural that other nations would want their help too.
The Greeks especially respected the Egyptian doctors and their skills.
Although they thought the magical aspects of their treatments were silly,
they still recognized their skill and expertise.
Aspiring doctors from other civilisations came from all over the world to study in
Egypt. This included the famous Roman physician Galen, who learned his skills in Alexandria.
Have you ever heard of the Hippocratic oath? It’s a code of ethics that every doctor,
even today, swears by. Well it’s named after Hippocrates, AKA the father of modern medicine.
And can you guess where Hippocrates learned how to be a doctor? That’s right,
ancient Egypt. Literally all of modern medicine can be traced back to this one civilization.
Ok guys that’s all for this video on what surgery was like in ancient Egypt.
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