Category: owenjarus - Part 14

A Toronto Egyptologist has a new translation of the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus coming out and a new theory on how it was written. Previously the content was attributed to a great medical doctor such as Imhotep. But not for much longer.

About 3,500 years ago, in an Egypt partly conquered by a foreign power, an Egyptian man with no medical training, likely a metalworker, was pressed into service as a combat medic.

He prepared for his task by studying the basics of combat medicine from a swnw (a doctor) or some form of expert. He wasnt preparing to become a doctor himself. His job would have been to work as a medic on the battlefield, diagnosing conditions, treating soldiers with first aid (bandages, honey and ox bile being three popular treatments) and giving instructions to assistants with less training than him.

During his training the man took down notes quickly, his writing was sloppy, he abbreviated terms using his own shorthand and he avoided the medical jargon of the day at one point comparing brain tissue to the ripples that occur when copper is smelted. To help him memorize the late stages of tetanus (lockjaw) he scribbled an illustration of clenched teeth with spit coming out.

The Egypt he lived in (ca. 1,500 B.C.) was partly conquered, with a foreign group called the Hyksos occupying the north and an Egyptian pharaoh, fighting against them, based in the south. With the battles came the casualties and the skills this man learned would have been in great demand.

That is the true story of how the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, one of the earliest pieces of medical literature in the world, was written, says University of Toronto Egyptologist Alwyn Burridge.

This startling new story behind the papyrus is the fruit of a three year translation effort by Burridge. As she went about the laborious task of translating the document she gained a sense of the personality who penned the text.
She encountered passages that were difficult to translate, which in the past had been considered misspellings. On more careful examination, she realised that these were not misspellings at all, but abbreviations and small illustrations that the writer himself came up with.

Just like how a student today takes down lecture notes, the writer abbreviated words to save time. He had to do this because he was trying to keep up with the talking speed of his teacher. The writer also drew little drawings, such as the teeth with the spit coming out, to help learn the material. Previously it was believed that these were words.
These discoveries meant that Burridge, in her translation, was able to match these abbreviations to the words that make the most sense, and leave the illustrations as they are.

When her work was finished, Burridge and Dr. Gonzalo Sanchez (a medical doctor who has been assisting in the task) found themselves looking at a document with very simple explanations and little medical jargon. The author compared symptoms to everyday items and events such as copper smelting.

The papyrus is rife with little notes that elucidate symptoms that would be well understood to a professional swnw (the Egyptian Term for doctor), said Burridge in an email to this blogger.

Other clues included text that was out of alignment, and references that sound as if the writer was taking down information being told to him by an expert.