The art of medicine in Ancient Egypt

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS inhabited a perilous land. In addition to the dangerous animals with which they came into regular contact--including lions, hippopotami, crocodiles, snakes, and scorpions--they were subject to diseases with causes that were not well understood. As a result, the Egyptians amassed a wealth of knowledge about the treatment of injuries and disease. Furthermore, to protect themselves from perils, both seen and unseen, they incorporated powerful talismans into their art.

This long-neglected area of Egyptian art is explored in the exhibition, "The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt," providing a new perspective on some 65 of the most beautiful and intriguing pieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection.

The centerpiece will be a surgical papyrus--the sole borrowed work in the exhibition--which is on loan from the New York Academy of Medicine. It is one of only two complete medical texts from ancient Egypt. Because of the handwriting, it has been dated to around 1600 B.C., but on the basis of language, the work is believed to be a copy of another text that was written some three centuries earlier. It includes descriptions, examination procedures, diagnoses, and treatments for 48 distinct injuries, beginning at the top of the head and ending at the shoulder blades and chest. The injuries listed are consistent with those sustained in war or construction. Rarely seen even by Egyptologists, the manuscript's presentation represents its first public display in more than 50 years.

Flanking the entrance to the exhibition are two of the world's best-preserved colossal statues of Sekhmet, the lion-headed Goddess of Healing--her name means "the powerful one"--who also was the Goddess of War, Violent Storms, and Pestilence. (The physicians of ancient Egypt belonged to her priesthood.) The seven-foot-tall statues originally stood with some 600 similar ones in the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III (Dynasty 18, c. 1390-1352 B.C.).

A limestone statue of Yuny (early Dynasty 19, c. 1290 B.C.)--a priest of Sekhmet and the son of a famous physician--was part of a shrine dedicated to Yuny and his father, to which pilgrims came to pray for aid in preventing or combating illness. The priest is shown in a kneeling position, holding the elaborately ornamented shrine of Osiris, God of Regeneration.

Coffins, mummies, and mummy portraits that relate to the theme of medicine also are displayed. Nesiamun--a man whose mummy (c. 700 B.C.) was discovered during a 1923 excavation--was found, through CAT-scan technology, to have suffered serious injury, possibly caused by collision with a chariot. (The actual CAT scans are seen nearby.) A mummy portrait (c. A.D. 160) realistically depicts a scar resulting from surgery that would have improved the vision and facial appearance of a youth afflicted with a congenital lesion.

The Metternich Stela, one of the most perfectly preserved objects from all of ancient Egypt, was presented to the Austrian count Metternich by the Viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, in 1828. Originally erected in Alexandria during the reign of Nectanebo II (360-343 B.C.), it is covered with finely detailed three-dimensional reliefs, incised images, and texts for protection from and cure of diseases and injuries. The magical quality of the words was thought to be activated by reciting the texts aloud or by drinking water that had been poured over the stone.

Other highlights include a physician's ointment jar; a statue of Imhotep, an official who was deified in Egypt and became identified with Asclepius, the ancient Greek God of Medicine; vessels associated with healing substances; tubes for disease-preventing cosmetics; magical implements; vases in the shape of flowers that had medicinal or analgesic properties; and a footed libation bowl which acts simultaneously as a three-dimensional hieroglyphic rebus meaning "clean."

"The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt" is on view through Jan. 15, 2006, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

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