A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTOR

 

Its another swetering morning in Memphis, Egypt. As the sunlight brightens the Nile, peseshet checks her supplies. Honey,garlic, cumin, acacia leaves, cedar oil. She is well stocked with the essentials she needs to treat her patients.

Peseshet is a swnw, or a doctor. In order to become one, she had to train as a scribe and study the medical papyri stored at the Per Ankh, the House of Life. Now she teaches her own students there. Before teaching, Peseshet has a patient to see.

One of the workers at the temple construction site has injured his arm. When Peseshet arrives, the laborer's arm is clearly broken, and worse, the fracture is a sed, with multiple bone fragments. Peseshet binds and immobilizes the injury. Her next stop is the House of Life.

On her way, a woman intercepts Peseshet in the street. The woman's son has been stung by a scorpion. Peseshet has seen many similar stings and knows exactly what to do. She must say an incantation to cast the poison out. She begins to recite the spell, invoking serqet, patron of physicians and goddess of venomous creatures.

Peseshet recites the spell as if she is serqet. This commanding approach has the greatest chance at success. After she utters the last line, she tries to cut the poison out with a knife for good measure. Peseshet packs up to leave, but the woman has another question.

She wants to find out if she is pregnant. Peseshet explains her fail safe pregnancy test: plant two seeds: one barley, one emmer. Then urinate on the seeds every day. If the plants grow, she is pregnant.

A barley seedling predicts a baby boy, while emmer foforetells a girl. Peseshet also recommends a  prayer to Hathor goddess of fertility. When Peseshet finally arrives at the House of Life, she runs into the doctor priest lsesi. She greets lsesi politely, but she thinks priests are very full of themselves.

She doesn't envy lsesi's role as neru pehut, which directly translates to herdsman of the anus to the royal family, or guardian of the royal anus. Inside the House of Life is bubustling as usual with scribes, priests, doctors and students. Papyri containing all kinds of records,not just medical information, are stored here.

Peseshet's son Akhethetep is hard at work copying documents as part of his training to become a scribe. He is particularly promising student, but he was admitted to study because Peseshet is a scribe, as was her farther before her. Without family in the profession, its very difficult for boys, and impossible for girls, to purse this education.

Peseshet oversees all the female swnws and swnws in training in Memphis. The men have their own overseer, as the male doctors will not answer to a woman. Today, Peseshet teaches anatomy. She quizzes her students on the metu, the body's vessels that transport blood, air, urine and even bad spirits.

Peseshet is preparing to leave when a pale, thin woman accosts her at the door and begs to be examined. The woman has a huge, sore lump under her arm. Peseshet probes the growth and finds it cool to the touch and hard like an unripe hemat fruit. She has read about ailments like this, but never seen one.

For this tumor there is no treatment, medicine or spell. All the texts give the same advice: do nothing. After delivering the bad news, Peseshet goes outside. She lingers on the steps of the House of Life, admiring the city at dusk. In spite of all her hard work, there will always be patients she cant help, like the woman with the tumor.

They linger with her, but Peseshet has no time to dwell. In a few short weeks, the Nile's annual flooding will begin, bringing life to the soil for the next year's harvest and whole new crop of patients.