Peseschet

Peseschet in hieroglyphics
Peseschet Psšt

Peseschet was an ancient Egyptian who had various titles, including the title of head of doctors . She is therefore often referred to as the first female doctor in world history. Although her title does not clearly indicate that she was a doctor herself, it is mostly assumed. Peseschet is known from a false door that was found in 1929/1930 in the mastaba of Achethotep in Giza , where Selim Hassan excavated a large cemetery of the Old Kingdom . Achethotep may have been her son, although this is nowhere said. The false door is dedicated to her and the king Kanefer, who was perhaps her husband and perhaps the father of Achethotep. Peseschet has three titles on the monument. It is King acquaintances , head of the dead priest of the Queen Mother and Head of the doctors . Especially the latter title was reason to believe that there were female in the Old Kingdom physicians, although this does not make explicit the title, as the ancient Egyptian word for doctors as doctors can be read (masculine). Their exact dating within the Old Kingdom is not certain.

See also

• Merit-Ptah

Individual evidence

1. ↑ John F. Nunn: Ancient Egyptian Medicine , London 1996, ISBN 0714109819 , pp. 124-125
2. ↑ Selim Hassan : Excavations at Giza, 1929-1930 , Vol. I, Oxford 1932, p. 83, Fig. 143 online
3. ↑ Simon D. Schweitzer: Were there doctors in ancient Egypt , in: Frank Feder, Ludwig Morenz, Günter Vittmann (eds.): From Theben to Giza, Festmiszellen for Stefan Grunert on his 65th birthday (Göttinger Miszellen, Supplement No. 10) , Göttingen 2011, ISSN 1867-9455, pp. 149-150