Ancient Egyptian Medicine

Nunn, a retired physician and Egyptologist, has written the definitive book on ancient Egyptian medicine, incorporating both a detailed understanding of the science of healing with scholarly historical and linguisitc analysis. A caveat - the first three chapters (on extant medical texts, their origins, similarities and details of their recent ownership and provenance) is dry and are related to the rest of the book only inasmuch as they are the bulk of the sources used by him. Do not be dissuaded from what is really a gem of a treatise by this slow start.Having laid a foundation of the medical papyri and the Egyptian concept of physiology and pathology, Nunn really hits his stride when writing about disease, drug therapy and surgery. His familarity with ancient Middle Egyptian sa it pertains to diagnoses and treatment is clearly apparent, his inferences and analyses clearly supported. His chapter on "The Pattern of Disease" was brilliant, discussing the challenges to piecing together ancient diseases from mummies (given time, the nature of preservation, and the availability of tissues that can be analyzed). His discussion on parasitic disease and infection was detailed, but written in a manner that was accessable for a lay-person (non-physician) to understand. His chapter on the ancient Egyptian pharmacopeia (in terms of medicines, minerals and measurement of drugs) was similarly conceptually accessable.What was most striking to me was not only the level of medical sophistication the ancient Egyptians had, but the amount of detail Egyptologists are able to glean from not only a handful of medical papyri, but from tombs, mummies, ostraca and artwork. (In particular a scene of work-related injuries from a 20th dynasty tomb at Deir al-Medina - tomb 217 - was especially striking.) For anyone interested in the history of medicine or Egyptology, this is a must-read. Highest recommendations.

What ancient Egypt could do for illness has been found by the most painstaking research by dedicated scholars. What is known is summarized in this not very large book, but the choices are not extensive. It's enough however to make some comparisons with what has followed. Those who accepted the challenges of their time and place deserve respect for making the effort which has been called by the late, great Roy Porter, "The Greatest Benefit to Mankind"!

The author did a superlative job researching, composing, and writing this book. Plenty of pics and drawings. Just the right balance of technical information provided in a highly readable style. Much more information than I anticipated, but an easy read.

An excellent book!

I bought this as a resource for writing articles on the medical practices of the ancient world for my Roman history website. It will be excellent for that purpose, but it's also a pleasure to read. The organization is logical, the writing style enjoyable, and the content utterly fascinating. Anyone who write historical fiction set in ancient times should consider getting this for their own research.

I knew to some extent the Ancient Egyptians had skills in healing, but until I read this book I had no clear idea of how skillful they were. A lot of their practices are still used to day. The graphics of the parts of the body and their Egyptian names was a wonderful and added treat. I knew of medical papyri but not how many there were and what each contained. If you really want to see how advanced the Egyptians were I recommend this book

I am interested in Ancient Egypt and this book covers a very interesting aspect of life in Ancient Egypt.

Used it for an assignment, did what I needed.

you need a lot of prior knowledge to read this with any understanding

This is a great book. It's the book with most information on this theme i ever foun. It is also very well organized and precise.

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