Mummies Magic And Medicine In Ancient Egypt

This volume, published in honour of Egyptologist Prof. Rosalie David OBE, presents the latest research on three of the most important aspects of ancient Egyptian civilisation: mummies, magic and medical practice. Drawing on recent archaeological fieldwork, new research on Egyptian human remains, reassessments of ancient Egyptian texts and modern experimental archaeology, these essays try to answer some of Egyptology's biggest questions: How did Tutankhamun die? How were the Pyramids built? How were mummies made? A number of leading experts in their fields combine both traditional Egyptology and innovative scientific techniques to ancient material. The resulting overview presents the state of Egyptology in 2016, how it has developed over the last forty years, and how many of its big questions still remain the same.

The skills of the ancient Egyptians in preserving bodies through mummification are well known, but their expertise in the everyday medical practices needed to treat the living is less familiar and often misinterpreted. John F. Nunn draws on his own experience as an eminent doctor of medicine and an Egyptologist to reassess the evidence. He has translated and reviewed the original Egyptian medical papyri and has reconsidered other sources of information, including skeletons, mummies, statues, tomb paintings and coffins. Illustrations highlight symptoms of similar conditions in patients ancient and modern, and the criteria by which the Egyptian doctors made their diagnoses - many still valid today - are evaluated in the light of current medical knowledge. In addition, an appendix listing all known named doctors contains previously unpublished additions from newly translated texts. Spells and incantations and the relationship of magic and religion to medical practice are also explored. Incorporating the most recent insights of modern medicine and Egyptology, the result is the most comprehensive and authoritative general book to be published on this fascinating subject for many years.

This monograph explores the unity of the modern concepts of magic and science in Egyptian medicine.

Diseases and injuries were major concerns for ancient Egyptians. This book, featuring some sixty-four objects from the Metropolitan Museum, discusses how both practical and magical medicine informed Egyptian art and for the first time reproduces and translates treatments described in the spectacular Edwin Smith Papyrus.

Evidence of the medical practice of ancient Egypt has come down to us not only in pictorial art but also in papyrus scrolls, in funerary inscriptions, and in the mummified bodies of ancient Egyptians themselves. Halioua and Ziskind provide a comprehensive account of pharaonic medicine that is illuminated by what modern science has discovered about the lives (and deaths) of people from all walks of life.

An entertaining and informative introduction to how ancient Egyptians practiced magic in their daily lives. In the ancient world, if you needed a love charm, wanted to contact your dead wife, or needed the ability to fly like a bird, the magicians of Egypt were the ones who could make it happen. In Ancient Egyptian Magic, Christina Riggs explores how the Egyptians thought about magic, who performed it and why, and also helps readers understand why we’ve come to think of ancient Egypt in such a mystical way. Readers will learn how to cure scorpion bites, discover why you might want to break the legs off your stuffed hippopotamus toy, and uncover whether mummies really can come back to life. Readers can also learn how to save a fortune on pregnancy tests—urinating on barley grains will answer that question— as well as how to use the next street parade to predict the future or ensure that an annoying neighbor gets his comeuppance. Was magic harmless fun, heartfelt hope, or something darker? Featuring demons, dream interpreters, the Book of the Dead, and illustrations from tomb paintings and papyrus scrolls, Riggs breathes new life into ancient magic and uses early texts and images to illuminate the distinctions between magic, religion, and medicine.