Egypt Flashcards
When was the Egyptian period?
3000BC to 1500BC
Where did the Egyptian people build their settlement?
Along the river Nile
How can we find out about how Egyptian people lived?
They have 8 medical books written on papyrus, they embalmed bodies so we can study them, and Greeks visited Egypt and wrote about their life
What did the Egyptians compare the body anatomy to?
The channels in the river Nile
What did the Egyptians do to make a living (and why were they so rich) ?
They were farmers (the river nile fertilised and irrigated their crop fields) and they traded their crops
What did the Egyptians think had happened when a person got ill in terms of natural causes?
They thought that someone got ill when a channel got blocked (just like if a channel in the river nile got blocked the crops wouldn’t grow efficiently)
What did the Egyptians think were supernatural causes of diseases?
When a person had displeased a God like Sekhmet (goddess of healing) or Tawaret (goddess of childbirth) or when an evil spirit entered the body
How did Egyptians treat illnesses caused by a blocked channel?
They bled or purged the person to unblock the channel
How did Egyptians treat illnesses caused by Gods?
They prayed to particular Gods for cures, wore charms and made sacrifices
How did Egyptian trade help their medicine?
They were able to get herbs and minerals to treat disease from China
What did the Egyptian empire have many of?
Rich, specialist doctors (dentists, surgeons etc)
What did Egyptians know about anatomy?
They knew the location of particular organs in the body but did not know their function
How did the Egyptians know about anatomy?
Because they did mummification and embalming as part of their religion
What factors helped the religion in their medicinal knowledge?
Religion (mummification and they kept clean to please Gods), technology (writing in hieroglyphics to record ideas, good surgical instruments) thinking (many well trained doctors), government (stable government to train doctors and pass on ideas), economy (rich because of trade)
What was Egyptian surgery like?
They did simple surgeries like removing growths and sewing wounds with bronze tools, also did trephining
