By Hetvi Vakil
Egyptian medicine is one of the oldest documented ones in the world. Believe it or not, their practices and vast knowledge have greatly influenced other cultures and ultimately formed the basis of today’s modern medicine. The Egyptian doctors were called ‘swnw’ during the magnificent era of the Egyptian civilization, and were highly respected by the population.
One of the most interesting concepts practiced by the swnws was the foolproof pregnancy determining test. If a woman wanted to know if she was expecting, she had to plant two seeds: one barley and one emmer, and then urinate on the seeds daily. If any of these sprouted, congratulations! She was pregnant! But what’s even more captivating is that the gender of the baby could also be found out. The growth of the barley indicated a boy, while the growth of emmer meant a girl. It’s so awesome to realize that things as common as pregnancy and gender tests trace back to such ancient times.
Another more enthralling fact is that the Egyptians greatly believed that evil spirits and demons were responsible for several diseases and ailments, and gods could help cure them. Hence, many of the treatments often involved praying to deities in order to please them. Chanting spells or incantations were very common for purposes like neutralizing poison, improving fertility, healing tumors; this was usually done to the gods like Serqet (the goddess of venomous creatures), Hathor (the goddess of fertility) or Bes (the god who protected women during pregnancy).
Surprisingly, even in those primeval times, when there were no sophisticated tools or radiology methods, the Egyptians knew a lot about the organs of the human body, the circulatory system and the use of prosthetics, as is recorded in their papyrus documents. Key ingredients used by the doctors included honey, castor oil, garlic and berries, and also opium, which might have been used to alleviate severe, excruciating pain.
The beauty of this archaic civilization lies in the natural healing methods they employed, alongside the prayers and hymns they sung, to perform challenging treatments and operations. Fascinating, right?
By: Hetvi Vakil
Links used:
Comments