Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus

Attribution:

Key Dates

1500

Created around 1500 BC

Key People

Edwin Smith purchased the artefact in Luxor in 1862. He was an American antiquities collector. In 1930 James Breasted, an American Egyptologist translated it.

There is a popular theory that although the papyrus was written ca. 1,500 BC, it was copied from an earlier work. Possibly written by Imhotep.

Key People:

Imhotep

This papyrus names 48 medical cases. Each case lists what symptoms to watch for, how to examine someone, how to treat them and what their prognosis is. They tend to be trauma-related conditions.

The cases start from the top of the head and work their way down to the arms and spine. This is the same sequence that Gray’s Anatomy follows says John F. Nunn, an Egyptologist and medical doctor.

The document itself is 17 pages, with five of those pages having writing on the back. It was purchased in Luxor in 1862 by Edwin Smith, an antiquities collector. The first translation of it appeared in 1930 by Egyptologist James Breasted.
A popular theory is that while the text was written down ca. 1,500 B.C., the content itself is copied from a much earlier work, possibly by Imhotep.

Alwyn Burridge, a University of Toronto Egyptologist, has been working on a new translation of the papyrus and believes that it was the work of a combat “medic in training” (not a doctor). She cites the lack of jargon and the simplicity of the writing among other evidence.

Origin & Collection

Additional information on display location:

New York Academy of Medicine - Rare book room

Physical properties

Materials:

Papyrus

Images

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