Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / The Physicians of Ramses: Medicine in the Age of the Pharaohs
Transcript
- Lucas: You know, we've talked a lot about Ramses the builder, the warrior, the diplomat. But I've been digging into something that doesn't get as much attention: the state of medicine in his time. And honestly, it's pretty astonishing. Luna: Medicine under Ramses? What did they have, like, herbs and prayers? Lucas: Well, yes, but a lot more than that. The Egyptians had a word for doctor: sunu. And they had specialists—eye doctors, dentists, even veterinarians. The Ebers Papyrus, which dates to around 1550 BCE but was still in use in Ramses's day, is over a hundred pages long, filled with remedies for everything from crocodile bites to asthma. It's a blend of practical treatments and magical spells, but the herbal knowledge is real. Luna: Wait, they had dentists? What did they do for cavities? Lucas: They drilled them. We have actual skulls with holes that match the precision of a bronze drill. And they used a paste made from ground pumice and vinegar as a kind of toothpaste. Hesy-Ra, a physician from the Third Dynasty—centuries before Ramses—is the earliest named dentist we know of. His tomb reliefs show surgical tools. By Ramses's time, dentistry was well established. Luna: That's incredible. But how much of it actually worked? I mean, magic and medicine mixed together. Lucas: That's the fascinating part. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, which is even older—around 1600 BCE—is a purely rational surgical text. It describes 48 cases of trauma, from a fractured skull to a broken nose, with methods for diagnosis and treatment. The word 'magic' doesn't appear in it. They even had techniques for suturing wounds and setting bones. And honey was widely used as an antibiotic—they knew it prevented infection. Luna: So they had a scientific track and a spiritual track running side by side. Lucas: Exactly. The sunu were empiricists. They observed symptoms, made diagnoses, and prescribed treatments. But they also understood that some ailments seemed beyond physical causes. So you'd have a priest of Sekhmet or Bes chanting incantations while the physician applied a poultice. It wasn't either-or; it was both. Luna: What about hospitals? Did they have anything like a clinic? Lucas: They had the Per-Ankh, the House of Life. It was attached to major temples, like the one at Heliopolis or Memphis. These were part library, part school, part clinic. Physicians trained there, copying medical papyri and learning from senior doctors. And there were royal physicians who attended the pharaoh's family. Ramses II had a personal physician named Khaemwaset—not his son, but a different man—though we know more about his son the priest. Luna: Did they ever perform surgery? Like, major operations? Lucas: They did trepanation—drilling a hole in the skull. We have several skulls with healed edges, meaning the patient survived. They also performed amputations, and they had prosthetics. A famous example is the toe of a mummy from Thebes—a wooden and leather prosthetic that actually worked. They understood anatomy quite well from mummification, and they knew the pulse was related to the heart. Luna: So Ramses himself—did he have any known medical issues? I mean, he lived to his nineties, so he must have been pretty healthy. Lucas: When his mummy was examined, they found he suffered from severe arthritis in his hips and knees. He had poor dental health—multiple abscesses, cavities, gum disease, which probably caused chronic pain. There's evidence of vascular disease, too. And the cause of death is uncertain, but it might have been heart failure or an infection. For a man of his age, though, he was remarkably well preserved. Luna: So their medicine couldn't save him from old age, but it kept him going for decades. Lucas: Exactly. And think about this: Egyptian medical knowledge influenced the Greeks. Imhotep, the architect and physician, was later deified and associated with Asclepius. When the Greeks came to Egypt, they studied at the temples. So in a way, Egyptian medicine is part of the foundation of Western medicine. Luna: That's a pretty amazing legacy. I always thought ancient medicine was all superstition, but this changes my view. Lucas: It's easy to dismiss, but when you look at the papyri, you see careful observation and rational thought. The Ebers Papyrus even includes a section on mental health, describing depression as a condition where 'the heart is sad and the body is heavy.' They had remedies for it too—poppy, maybe, or certain incenses. They saw the body and mind as connected. Luna: That's surprisingly modern. I guess we don't give them enough credit. Lucas: We often focus on the pyramids and the gold, but the real treasure might be those papyri. They show a civilization that thought deeply about suffering and tried to alleviate it. And Ramses, with his massive building projects and wars, probably benefited from the best medical care of his age. It's a side of him that's easy to overlook. Luna: Well, I'm glad we didn't overlook it. Thanks for digging into this. Lucas: My pleasure. Next time you see a bandage, think of the sunu who used linen and honey three thousand years ago.