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Ebers Papyrus

The Ebers Papyrus, also known as Papyrus Ebers, is an Egyptian medical papyrus of herbal knowledge dating to c. 1550 BC (the late Second Intermediate Period or early New Kingdom). Among the oldest and most important medical papyri of Ancient Egypt, it was purchased at Luxor in the winter of 1873–1874 by the German Egyptologist Georg Ebers. It is currently kept at the Leipzig University Library in Germany.

Ebers Papyrus

length: c. 20 meters

c. 1550 BCE

Egypt

Leipzig, Saxony, Germany

Manuscript[edit]

The papyrus was written in Ancient Egypt in c. 1550 BCE, during the late Second Intermediate Period or early New Kingdom, but it is believed to have been copied from earlier Egyptian texts. The Ebers Papyrus is a 110-page scroll, which is about 20 meters long.[1]


Along with the Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus (c. 1800 BCE), the Edwin Smith Papyrus (c. 1600 BCE), the Hearst papyrus (c. 1600 BCE), the Brugsch Papyrus (c. 1300 BCE), and the London Medical Papyrus (c. 1300 BCE), the Ebers Papyrus is among the oldest preserved medical documents. The Brugsch and the London Medical papyri share some of the same information as the Ebers Papyrus.[2]


One side of another document, the Carlsberg papyrus VIII, is identical to the Ebers Papyrus, though the provenance of the former is unknown.[2]

: "To prevent conception, smear a paste of dates, acacia, and honey to wool and apply as a pessary."[7]

Birth control

: "Drink a mixture including elderberry, asit plant fibres, milk, beer-swill, cucumber flowers, and green dates." It is not known what "asit" is.[8]

Diabetes mellitus

: "Wrap the emerging end of the worm around a stick and slowly pull it out." 3,500 years later, this remains the standard treatment.[9]

Guinea-worm disease

Bleary eyes: Combine the following ingredients into a paste to apply to the bleary eyed patient. ", Onions, Verdigris, and Cyperus from the North, with Antelope dung, Clear Oil, and Entrails of the qadit animal. This could be painted on with a Vulture's feather."[10]

Myrrh

: create two substances one from powdered fruit of the donpalm and milk of a woman who has borne a son. The other Cow's Milk. Then in the morning bathe both eyes from the first mixture then wash the eyes with the Cow's milk four times for six days.

To drive Blood from the eyes

: Use a combination of red lead, Goose Grease, and Ginger to coat the eyes with.[11]

Xanthelasma

: apply a mixture of red lead, powdered wood from Arabia, Iron from Apollonopolis parvis, Calamine, Egg of an ostrich, Saltpeter from upper Egypt, Sulfur, and honey to the eyes.[12]

Pterygium

: Combine Myrrh, Lizard's blood, Bat's Blood and then tear out the Hairs and Put thereon in order to make him well. Then use a mixture of Incense ground in lizard's dung, Cow's blood, Donkey's Blood, Pig's blood, Dog's blood, Stag's blood, Collyrium, and Incense to prevent the hair from growing back into the eye after being pulled out.[13]

Trichiasis

: Use two eyes of a pig with the water removed from them, True Collyrium, red lead, and Wild Honey to create a powder and inject it into the ear. while mixing you must repeat "I HAVE BROUGHT THIS THING AND PUT IT IN ITS PLACE. THE CROCODILE IS WEAK AND POWER- LESS. (Twice)."[14]

Blindness

Chew bits of berry along with beer and it will relieve the constipation.[15]

Constipation:

: A clay effigy of a crocodile with herbs stuffed into its mouth was firmly bound to the head of the patient by a linen strip.[16] The linen strip is inscribed with the names of Egyptian gods.[16] This treatment was said to get rid of the ghosts and demons that were causing the pain.[17] This remedy likely reduced the pain by cold compression of the head.[18]

Migraines

: Combine the inner of an onion, fruit of the am tree, natron, setseft seeds, cooked bones of a swordfish, cooked redfish, cooked crayfish skull, honey, and abra ointment. Apply to the head for four days.[19]

Headaches

: use a frog and warm it in oils and rub the afflicted spot, or warm an electric eel's head in oils and apply it to the burn site.[20]

Burn wound prevention

: cakes, wheat, corn and grits.[21]

Diabetes

: small shavings of ebony wood and saltpeter.[21]

Miosis

 : place powdered granite in a cloth and place upon the afflicted eye.[21]

Corneal Opacity

/Hookworm: warm the Jochauflegung of the sau wood in oil and give to the patient.[22]

Bilharzia

To strengthen the : use a poultice of flesh of a fat cow applied to the body part which needs the strengthening.[23]

nervous system

: "Spit it out, thou Slime, Son of Slime: Grasp the bones, touch the skull, smear with tallow, give the patient, seven openings in the head, serve the god Ra, thank the god Thoth. Then I brought thy remedy for thee, thy drink for thee, to drive away, to heal it: Milk-of-a-Woman-who-has-Borne-a-Son and Fragrant Bread. The Foulness rises form out the Earth! The Foulness!(Four times). to be spoken over the Milk-of-a-Woman-who-has-Borne-a-Son and Fragrant Bread. put in the nose."[24]

Coryza

Examples of remedies in the Ebers Papyrus include:


One of the more common remedies described in the papyrus is ochre, or medicinal clay. It is prescribed for intestinal and eye complaints. Yellow ochre is also described as a remedy for urological complaints.[25]

To prevent fleas and lice, Egyptians would mix in date-meal and water in bowls and cook the mixture until warm. They would then drink it and spit it out.

[27]

To protect their grain from rodents and vermin, they would spread gazelle dung and mice urine around the fire in the granary.

[27]

The use of animal and insect repellents derived from plants and other organisms found in nature is known from the time of the Ebers Papyrus. Several examples of such repellents can be found in the text.[26]

Calendar[edit]

In the time of Amenhotep I a calendar table was written on the verso side of the papyrus.[28] Since 1906 we have a transcript by Kurt Sethe. Some rate this table to be "the most valuable chronological tool from Egypt that we are ever likely to possess".[28]

Modern history of the papyrus[edit]

Like the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the Ebers Papyrus came into the possession of Edwin Smith in 1862.


The source of the papyrus is unknown, but it was said to have been found between the legs of a mummy in the El-Assasif district of the Theban necropolis.


The papyrus remained in the collection of Edwin Smith until at least 1869, when there appeared—in the catalog of an antiquities dealer—an advertisement for "a large medical papyrus in the possession of Edwin Smith, an American farmer of Luxor."[29]


The papyrus was purchased in 1872 by the German Egyptologist and novelist, Georg Ebers, after whom it is named.

List of ancient Egyptian papyri

History of medicine

Medical literature

Ebers (1875). . Leipzig: Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann. doi:10.11588/DIGLIT.3.

Papyros Ebers: Das Hermetische Buch über die Arzneimittel der alten Ägypter in hieratischer Schrift (Bands 1 & 2): Einleitung und Text

. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrich'sche Buchhandlung. 1913.

Papyros Ebers: Das Hermetische Buch über die Arzneimittel der alten Ägypter in hieratischer Schrift

Joachim, H. (1890). . Berlin: Druck und Verlag von George Reimer.

Papyros Ebers: Das älteste Buch über Heilkunde

Pommerening, Tanja (2005). "Altägyptische Hohlmaße Metrologisch neu Interpretiert". Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße. Beiheft 10 (in German). Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag. ISBN 978-3-87548-411-3.

studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur

Pommerening, Tanja (2005). "relevant pharmaceutical and medical knowledge, an abstract, Phillips-Universitat, Marburg, 8-11-2004". Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße. Beiheft 10 (in German). Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag. ISBN 978-3-87548-411-3.

studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur

Scholl, Reinhold (2002). Der Papyrus Ebers. Die größte Buchrolle zur Heilkunde Altägyptens. Schriften aus der Universitätsbibliothek 7 (in German). : Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig. ISBN 978-3-910108-93-6. LCCN 2002505846.

Leipzig

Ghalioungui, Paul; ; 1987 edition.

The Ebers Papyrus: A New English Translation, Commentaries and Glossaries by Paul Ghalioungui

of the digitized Ebers Papyrus, with translations in English and German.

Official website

with information about visiting the Ebers Papyrus showroom.

Leipzig University Library website page about the Ebers Papyrus

. Translated by Ebbell, Bendix. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard. 1937. LCCN 37020036. Archived from the original on 2009-03-12.

The Papyrus Ebers: The Greatest Egyptian Medical Document

(1889). Papyrus Ebers: Die Maasse und das Kapitel über die Augenkrankheiten (in German). Leipzig: Bei S. Hirzel.

Ebers, Georg

(PDF). Translated by Bryan, Cyril P. London: Geoffrey Bles. 1930. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-21.

The Papyrus Ebers, Translated from the German Version By Cyril P. Bryan