Medical papyri Chester Beatty

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The Chester Beatty medical papyri are a collection of ancient Egyptian magical texts with medical extracts and belong to a larger group of nineteen papyri that Alfred Chester Beatty donated to the British Museum in London in 1930 . They include the Papyri Chester Beatty V to VIII as well as XV and XVIII .

origin

The papyri were found in Deir el-Medina in 1928 and named after their first owner, Alfred Chester Beatty, who donated them to the British Museum. They were part of a larger find that is now dispersed. The legal texts are now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford , the letters in the Institut français d'archéologie orientale and the largest literary manuscript in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin . The manuscripts in the British Museum include literary texts, rituals, incantations and the medical texts.

These papyri seem to have belonged to a family archive that was created by the scribe Kenherchepeschef from Deir el-Medina in the 19th dynasty and passed on by his wife Naunachte to the children of their second marriage. The collection remained in the hands of the family for over a century and continued to grow. Most recently it was deposited in a burial chapel , where it remained until it was discovered in 1928.

Although the collection also contains a purely medical text, no one in the family appears to have held the title of doctor ( sunu ).

List of papyri

The lyrics consist largely of magical sayings, only Papyrus Chester Beatty VI seems to be purely medical.

  • Papyrus Chester Beatty V (BM 10685):
The third section, which contains magical incantations against headaches , including against migraines , is medically interesting .
In contrast to the other writings, this is a purely medical "textbook" that deals with the anus and contains recipes for enemas . The writing was probably used by specialist doctors who were called "Shepherd of the aft" in ancient Egypt and are even mentioned by Herodotus and other ancient writers.
  • Papyrus Chester Beatty VII (BM 10687):
This papyrus contains many spells on the front and back, the former dealing with scorpion stings.
  • Papyrus Chester Beatty VIII (BM 10688):
The papyrus contains spells against demons in the stomach and possibly also a short recipe, although it is not clear which disease it is supposed to cure.
  • Papyrus Chester Beatty XV (BM 10695):
Chester Beatty XV consists of only one page but is best preserved. Lines five through nine contain two recipes for treating “thirst in the mouth”.
  • Papyrus Chester Beatty XVIII Rs. (BM 10698):
The reverse side contains some recipes for preparing medical drugs .

See also

literature

  • Hildegard von Deines, Hermann Grapow and Wolfhart Westendorf : Outline of the medicine of the ancient Egyptians. (Transcription, translation, commentary, dictionary, grammar), Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1954–1973.
  • Alan Gardiner : Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum. Third Series: Chester Beatty Gift. British Museum, London 1935.
  • Frans Jonckheere: Le Papyrus Médical Chester Beatty par le Dr Frans Jonckheere, La Médicine Égyptienne N ° 2. Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth, Brussels 1947.
  • JF Nunn: Ancient Egyptian Medicine. British Museum Press, London 1996, ISBN 0-7141-0981-9 , pp. 36-37.
  • Wolfhart Westendorf: Handbook of ancient Egyptian medicine. Volume 1 (= Handbook of Oriental Studies. First Department, Near and Middle East. Vol. 36). Brill, Leiden / Boston / Cologne 1999, ISBN 90-04-11320-7 , pp. 45-48, 68-71.

References and comments

  1. ^ A b Westendorf: Handbook of ancient Egyptian medicine. 1999, pp. 68-71.
  2. ^ A b Nunn: Ancient Egyptian Medicine. 1996, pp. 36-37.
  3. ↑ ges-tep = "half of the head"