Edwin Smith Papyrus

How they did it in every mechanical detail remains at open conversation.

back on the ground in the daily life of the nile valley knowledge of another kind was being refined egyptian medicine was remarkably advanced far more systematic than the popular image of chanting priests waving incense might suggest The Edwin Smith Papyrus, dated to roughly 1600 BCE but believed to be a copy of a text several centuries older, is a surgical treatise that would not look entirely out of place in a 19th century medical school.

It catalogues 48 cases of trauma, fractures, dislocations, wounds, crush injuries, and for each one provides a methodical work-up examination, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.

The prognoses are divided into three categories an ailment I will treat an ailment I will contend with and an ailment not to be treated, the ancient equivalent of triage.