“Ailments in Ancient Egypt: Causes and Treatments” in an Interactive Lecture at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Prof. Laila Mamdouh Azzam, Professor of Egyptology, Department of Archaeology and Civilization, Faculty of Arts, Helwan University

31 October 2021

07:30 PM

Online Lecture

The Antiquities Museum and the Zahi Hawass Center for Egyptology; affiliated to the Bibliotheca Alexandria Cultural Outreach Sector, in cooperation with the Department of Archaeology and Civilization, Faculty of Arts, Helwan University, organize an online lecture entitled “Ailments in Ancient Egypt: Causes and Treatments”. The lecture is delivered by Prof. Laila Mamdouh Azzam, Professor of Egyptology, Department of Archaeology and Civilization, Faculty of Arts, Helwan University. The lecture is broadcast on Sunday, 31 October 2021; 7:30 pm, on the “Bibliotheca Alexandrina Antiquities Museum” Facebook page.
The lecture sheds light on medical practices of the Ancient Egyptians, since their earliest times, and their great achievements in this field. The first medical document dates back to the reign of King Den of the First Dynasty. Manetho even mentioned that King Den of the First Dynasty wrote several books on anatomy that were still used in his own days. Despite the great progress achieved by the Ancient Egyptians in medicine, it was mixed with magic in most of its phases. Thus, any disease could be cured by magical spells or medical prescriptions, or by a combination of both. Ailments in Ancient Egypt were divided into two categories. First, ailments with obvious causes, such as wounds, bone fractions, etc.; these are usually cured by drugs and prescriptions. Second, ailments with obscure causes, such as fever, headaches, etc.; these are cured usually by means of magical spells, so to explain this phenomenon, the Ancient Egyptians thought that such ailments could be punishments by the gods, or due to the presence of demons in the patient’s body.
 

You can participate in the lecture using the following link, or by entering the meeting information shown below on bibalex.webex.com.

Meeting link:

https://bibalex.webex.com/bibalex/j.php?MTID=m285b424102e1d7672431b4ea26975120
Meeting Number: 2375 215 5857

Password:

3D3h