Disease in ancient Egypt
The evidence for sickness in ancient Egypt may be divided into three categories:
- skeletal and mummified remains
- depictions of healing in formal art (rare)
- manuscripts written in cursive hieroglyphs or in hieratic (a still more
cursive script derived from hieroglyphs)
From the primary sources (the human remains) and the secondary or mediated
sources (depictions and writings, mainly manuscripts), a range of diseases is
known from ancient Egypt (Filer
1995; Nunn 1996):
- eye diseases: prominent in healing manuscripts, as to be expected from the
sand and dust of Saharan climate, but not detectable in depictions (note that
the blind harpist may be an Egyptological concoction: images of singers with
eyes closed may represent closing of eyes during singing, rather than permanent
blindness)
- illness caused by bites of scorpions or serpents: prominent in healing manuscripts,
as to be expected in the Sahara; in the first millennium BC Horus stelae were
produced to protect against the threat of such creatures
- diseases affecting internal organs: difficult to detect even in well-preserved
bodies
- other internal diseases: kidney stones have been reported from examination
of mummified remains
- tuberculosis: several instances of spinal tuberculosis have been reported
from human remains from Egypt, see Morse/Brothwell/Ucko
1964 (note that depictions of hump-backed individuals may be result of
bad posture, or a disease other than spinal tuberculosis)
- polio: an Amarna Period stela shows a man named Rema with emaciated leg,
and leaning on a staff, and this is the principal evidence for the occurrence
of polio (poliomyelitis), and Nunn suggests that this may also be the condition
causing the abnormalities in the body of king Siptah
of Dynasty 19
- parasitic diseases: bilharzia (schistosomiasis), guinea-worm, roundworm,
tapeworm
Some diseases leave no trace even in well-preserved bodies, and some may not
have entered Egyptian vocabulary: in combination this creates a gap in the record.
Leprosy is not attested in ancient Egypt: a sixth century AD Christian burial
in Nubia may be the earliest reported instance.
Plague may be the disease called in Egyptian healing manuscripts tA-nt-aAmw
'the Asiatic (disease)', but this is disputed; written sources also preserve
the terms rnpt iAdt 'year of pestilence' connected with Sekhmet, the goddess
who was the incarnation of divine anger. Roman Period manuscripts refer to measures
taken by a member of temple staff, the priest of Sekhmet, to check meat and
livestock, and to protect against contagion (Osing/Rosati
1998, cf Quack 2000).
References
See too the bibliography for recent studies of populations from grouped human
remains carefully excavated.
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