![]() Winkler tells of the onion test that advises inserting an onion in the vagina of a woman, and if her breath smelled like onions the next day, it meant she was pregnant. Other pregnancy tests attested in Egyptian papyri were less reliable. “No,” says Schiødt, “any idea of hormonal influences is completely non-existent.” Instead, she suggests that the test’s accuracy is probably down to trial and error. So, did ancient Egyptian doctors know about hormones in urine? Modern scholars have attributed the test’s accuracy to the high levels of estrogen in a pregnant woman’s urine, which helps to stimulate growth in the wheat and barley. 'Secret chamber' in Tutankhamun's tomb does not exist, say researchers (Photo by Hannes Magerstaedt/Getty Images) Hannes Magerstaedt/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images MUNICH, GERMANY - APRIL 02: The burial mask of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun is shown during the 'Tutanchamun - Sein Grab und die Schaetze' Exhibition Preview at Kleine Olympiahalle on Apin Munich, Germany. “As the pregnancy test shows, it is clear that certain techniques found their ways beyond the shores of the Nile.” “Ancient travelers to Egypt were amazed at the fact that there were doctors specializing in particular areas of medicine and their knowledge was praised,” he says. In the ancient world, Egyptian medicine was highly respected and their methods were often adopted by other cultures, explains Andreas Winkler, an Egyptologist from the University of Oxford. ![]() The test appears as late as the 1699, in a book of German folklore. “We find the same test in Greek and Roman medicine, in the Middle East during the Middle Ages, and European medical traditions,” says Schiødt. One thing is for sure, the pregnancy testing method had longevity. But she urges caution, as the small number of papyri and the uncertainty as to where they came from geographically means that it is hard to say exactly how representative the texts are. Sofie Schiødt, one of the PhD students analyzing the texts, suggests that there may have been a standardized medical corpus containing tests and treatments used across ancient Egypt. Head of the mummy Djehutynakht Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, BostonįBI cracks the case of the 4,000-year-old mummy's head Until now, many Egyptologists thought that the civilization was unaware of the existence of the kidneys, but one of the translated medical texts discusses the organ, showing that their knowledge of anatomy was even more advanced than previously thought. However, there have been other revelations since the research collaboration began in September 2017. The wheat and barley test was already known from a papyrus of a similar date that is now held at the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. “The texts are damaged, they are written in an ancient script that few people can read, and the terminology is immensely complex,” says Ryholt. “There’s less than a dozen well-preserved ancient Egyptian medical papyri… Anything new will shed important new light.” “We’re dealing with the kind of material that is so incredibly rare,” says Egyptologist Kim Ryholt, head of the Carlsberg papyrus collection and part of the international research collaboration translating the texts. ![]() Oldest 'tattoo art' discovered on Ancient Egyptian mummies ![]() Predynastic male mummy from Gebelein Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum
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