On one of the wettest October Sundays on record, with the aid of my Rockefeller ID card, I slipped into the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt (now until January 15, 2006). The more than 60 objects in this exhibition are “representative of the everyday material culture of ancient Egypt.” They are divided into four basic components of Egyptian medicine: Prevention, Birth and Infancy, Injuries and Treatment, and Physicians. The entrance to the exhibition room is guarded by two imposing statues of the goddess Sekhmet. At 6’ 10”, each with the head of a male lion, they stare out impervious to circumstance in silent contemplation of their 4,000 year history. Representative of the force of Sekhmet’s violence and unexpected disaster, as well as her gift of life, over 700 similar statues were found in Thebes. Just inside the exhibition to the left are two vessels, a basin and a ewer. They are thin-walled, elegantly shaped, and copper-green patinated. Less than 4” tall, it seems impossible they have survived 4,200 years.

From the accompanying commentary: “Egyptian physicians saw the treatment of illness in part as appeasement to the goddess Sekhmet…Good health began with prevention which was achieved by both practical means and magic. Practical means are represented by objects associated with water, the primary agent of cleanliness, and eye paint (for protection from flies and eye disease). Protection against malevolent spirits, believed to be the root cause of illness, was achieved by invocation of the god Bes and the hippopotamus goddess Ipi or Taweret. They were associated with women and children, the most vulnerable members of Egyptian society… Egyptian physicians usually did not practice internal surgery and detailed knowledge of internal organs was limited to embalmers.”

Noteworthy in the exhibition are two wooden water lilies less than 3” long. They etch a timely reminder of the ephemeral nature of empire with the sharp shadows of their splinter-like leaves. Other striking objects are two glass pomegranate jars. Reminiscent of the plastic lemon juice containers available from any supermarket, the larger represents the ripe yellow fruit and contained pomegranate juice to drink, while the smaller green jar (representing the unripe pomegranate) likely contained an astringent medicine. Adjacent to these exhibits is a remarkable libation dish from about 3,000 BC when craftsmen had perfected the translation of the plasticity of clay into forms carved from soft stone. The graywacke dish is carved in the form of an ankh, the sign for ‘life’. This symbol is combined with a pair of outstretched arms. It was likely their integration reinforced the power of each with the intention to magically give ‘force of life’ to the water poured from the dish. Even more evocative is the Metternich Stela (~350 BC, 32” X 13” X 5”). It is considered “one of the most perfectly preserved objects to have survived from ancient Egypt.” Commissioned for the purpose of “giving air to the suffocating,” the stella’s front, back, and sides are covered with a myriad of small protective images and texts. “Egyptians believed that water poured over it could absorb their efficacy and serve as a magical antivenom.” The surface of the stone seems worn impossibly smooth by this timeless process.

The deceptive delicacy and transience of the copper vessels, water lilies, pomegranate jars, and libation dish are offset by a larger than life statue of the physician Yuny (~1275 BC). Carved from limestone this kneeling figure, more representative of the popular notions associated with ancient Egyptian culture, emerges from the shadows at the back of the room. Holding a carved shrine between his knees that contains a figure of Osiris, this statue is inscribed on its base, back pillar, and shrine. Venture to the back of the sculpture to discover two images of Renutet, Yuny’s wife. Nearby, at 1” x 3/4” x 3/8”, a carved bovine heart was one of the smallest pieces on exhibit. It was probably intended as an amulet on the body of a mummy for “the eternal preservation of the deceased’s intellectual and emotional faculties.”

On loan from the NY Academy of Medicine is one of the most famous of all medical texts, the Edwin Smith Papyrus. Its 17 pages flood through the center of the room like a metaphorical Nile. From 1,600 BC, this papyrus is probably best known to you as the two page frontpiece of Kandel, Schwartz, and Jessell’s Principles of Neural Science. There we learn that it “contains the earliest reference to the brain anywhere in human records.” With the word brain only appearing eight times in Egyptian records, six are in this document. In the half-light of the room and having succumbed to the power and age of the many exhibits, it is not hard to imagine a morning 3,600 years ago with physicians consulting the papyrus to determine the appropriate treatment for an injured soldier or worker. Possibly, one similar to the adjacent mummy with its obligitory CAT scan of the skeleton containing multiple fractures.

As a brief escape from Manhattan, it is always a pleasure to wander the halls of the Metropolitan Museum. However, even there it is rare to see such an evocatively presented collection of Egyptian antiquities. I left the exhibition with memories of a richer experience by far than the knowledge that “The principles at the core of modern medical training—the practices of today’s physicians and the armamentarium available to them—all have counterparts or precursors in ancient Egyptian medicine.”

Quotations from the exhibition catalog: Allen JP (2005) The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt. Yale University Press, New Haven.