Ancient Egyptians

Question 1

What happened when hunter-gatherers began settling in one place?

Answer 1

They realised that they could grow crops or keep their own animals for food

Question 2

Where was one of the first places that hunter-gatherers began settling?

Answer 2

Egypt - The river Nile

Question 3

What were the 7 important developments in Egyptian civilisation that had an impact of the development of medicine?

Answer 3

Farming
Religion
Written language
Tools
Doctors
Cities
Trade

Question 4

What role does farming play in the development of medicine?

Answer 4

Farmers could channel the water from the river Nile to their fields so their crops had plenty of water.
This is called irrigation.
Farming was so successful that Egypt because rich.
There rich people had time and money to spend on things such as medicine and religion.

Question 5

What role does religion play in the development of medicine?

Answer 5

People who had contact with the spirit world were now called priests
They organised the belief of the spirit world into religion
From this, came the idea of the afterlife
And the spirits were not gods who were in control of different aspects of the world

Question 6

What role does written language play in the development of medicine?

Answer 6

They crested a written language called hieroglyphics
This allowed ideas to be written down and shared
Historians were able to read these documents
This has helped us to know lots more about Egyptian medicine

Question 7

What role does new tools play in the development of medicine?

Answer 7

More precise tools were made, meaning they could be used more effectively in medicine

Question 8

What role did doctors play in the development of medicine?

Answer 8

Doctors became more important
They were carefully trained
They were still religious figures and used charms, prayers and chants as well as natural remedies

Question 9

What role did cities play in the development of medicine?

Answer 9

They caused some problems
Didn’t know how to get rid of the large scale of waste
This was solved by the river Nile in Egypt
Epidemics were a problem and spread very quickly where lots of people lived

Question 10

What role did trade play in the development of medicine?

Answer 10

Goods were traded with other countries
This included medical herbs and other natural remedies
Medical ideas were also spread this way

Question 11

What did the Egyptians believe the gods controlled?

Answer 11

When the Rile Nile flooded

When people got sick

Question 12

Where was basic treatment performed?

Answer 12

At home with herbal remedies

More complex conditions were treated at a temple

Question 13

What were specialist doctors and physicians also?

Answer 13

Priests

Question 14

Who were priests employed by?

Answer 14

Pharaohs, doctors often had other skills apart from medicine

Question 15

What are Egyptian attitudes towards disease? And give an example.

Answer 15

They looked to nature and the world around them for explanations of illness and disease.
For example the Channel Theory

Question 16

What are Egyptian attitudes towards injuries?

Answer 16

They had a good understanding of injuries that could happen at work, during battles or when hunting animals.
When an injury had an obvious cause they used natural remedies.

Question 17

What are Egyptian attitudes towards treatments? And give an example.

Answer 17

They made natural treatments from herbs, plants, minerals and animal parts to treat injury and everyday illness.
For example, Egyptians used honey, a natural antiseptic, to treat many conditions.

Question 18

Give three examples of supernatural treatments

Answer 18

Spells
Charms
Prayers

Question 19

Why were Egyptians against dissection?

Answer 19

Because their religion states that they need their body in the afterlife.

Question 20

What is embalming?

Answer 20

Dead bodies are opened up, and herbs are put inside to preserve them.
Vital organs such as the stomach, intestines, liver and lungs, were taken out and put into four separate canopic jars.

Question 21

How did Egyptians find out about the inside of the bodies?

Answer 21

Through mummification

Question 22

What is dissection?

Answer 22

The careful cutting and analysis of dead bodies

Question 23

Explain the ‘Channel Theory’

Answer 23

Compared the veins in our body to the irrigation systems used for their crops.
When the irrigations were blocked, the crops were ruined, so they believed that illness was caused by their channels being blocked.

Question 24

What are the three ways of preventing these blockages?

Answer 24

Bleeding
Vomiting
Emptying Bowels

Question 25

Name three ways in which Egyptians took great care of their bodies

Answer 25

Baths
Toilets
Mosquito Nets

Question 26

Why did they use baths, toilets and mosquito nets?

Answer 26

For their own comfort and beliefs, not because they knew what caused disease

Question 27

Why did the Egyptians use mosquito nets?

Answer 27

To prevent bites which were uncomfortable, rather than to prevent malaria

Question 28

Why did Egyptians believe it was important to be clean?

Answer 28

To please the Gods when worshipping

Question 29

What did they not realise about their eye make-up?

Answer 29

That it contained elements such as copper ore or malachite which prevented eye infections