Asian disease
| Asian disease in hieroglyphics | ||||||||
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ta-net-aamu t3-nt- ˁ3mw Disease of Asians |
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The Asians disease is one in ancient Egyptian medical texts occurring disease, with possibly leprosy or bubonic plague can be identified. It is mentioned in the incantation texts of the Hearst Papyrus and Papyrus London .
description
In the Hearst Papyrus, the body of an affected patient is compared with charred charcoal :
“Who is omniscient like Re? Who is also omniscient? (Roughly) this God who charcoal the body with charcoal? This "Supreme God" will be seized (i.e. rendered harmless). If, as Seth conjured the sea, Seth conjured you as well, (you) Asians disease, then you shouldn't stir, twice ( nmnm ?), In the body of the NN, born from the NN. ... "
The god Seth , who is also often associated with foreign countries , appears here in an unusual healing function and is supposed to ward off foreign illnesses. In the London Papyrus, the Asian disease occurs together with other foreign diseases and is invoked in "the language of the Cretans ", possibly in Luvian .
Both texts suggest an external treatment in connection with magic remedies. One remedy tries a cure with vegetable oil and scale . The skin should be treated with the help of a seal . The other remedy is a brew made from yeast , urine and mash that is given to the wounds.
identification
Hans Goedicke sees a connection with the bubonic plague because of the black coloration of the body described above . He takes the dates of both papyri (around 1550 BC and 1350 BC ) as a guide . The Hearst papyrus comes from the end of the Hyksos period , at which mass burials that could possibly be traced back to epidemics could be proven. An unknown epidemic is said to have broken out among the Hittites under Šuppiluliuma I 200 years later . As far as is known, it was brought into Syria from Egyptian territories . At the time of Mursili II there was an epidemic that killed a large part of the Hittite people. However, no signs of a plague have yet been found on Egyptian mummies .
For Wolfhart Westendorf, however , the Asian disease is a name for leprosy. In the Hearst papyrus, the disease is triggered by a foreign god, the so-called “God who charcoals the body with charcoal”, which in the London papyrus is associated with “white spots” in burns . The ancient Egyptian word for "white spots", sehedschu , is in the Demotic to behold and there is "Leprosy, leprosy". Leprosy occurs in many other forms in Egyptian texts. For example, the frequently mentioned Chons tumor appears in demotic and Coptic sources as sebeh or sōbeh and could be identified there as leprosy. In contrast, leprosy was observed in Egyptian mummies in the Coptic period at the earliest .
See also
literature
- Walter Wreszinski : The medicine of the ancient Egyptians II. The London medical papyrus (BM 10059) and the Hearst papyrus. Transcription, translation and commentary . Leipzig 1912, p. 110-111, 192 .
- Hans Goedicke: Plague . In: Wolfgang Helck (Ed.): Lexicon of Egyptology . tape V . Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1984, ISBN 3-447-02489-5 , p. 918-919 .
- Wolfhart Westendorf: awakening of the healing art. Medicine in ancient Egypt . Artemis & Winkler, Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-7608-1072-1 , p. 311-312 .
- Wolfhart Westendorf: Handbook of ancient Egyptian medicine . In: Handbuch der Orientalistik, 36 . tape 1 . Brill, Leiden-Boston-Cologne 1999, ISBN 90-04-11320-7 , pp. 266-267 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Papyrus London, 32
- ↑ a b c Westendorf: Handbook of ancient Egyptian medicine , p. 311.
- ^ A b Westendorf: Handbook of ancient Egyptian medicine , pp. 311-312.
- ↑ Westendorf: Awakening the Art of Healing , p. 266.
- ↑ Goedicke: LdÄ V , p. 918.
- ^ JF Nunn: Ancient Egyptian Medicine , London 1996, ISBN 0-7141-0981-9 , p. 75.