The Edwin Smith papyrus
A surgical text that describes injuries, examines patients and sometimes admits defeat.
- When
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Bronze Age, Holocene
Copied around 1600 BCE from an original perhaps a thousand years older, the papyrus presents 48 cases of trauma from head to torso in a consistent format: title, examination, diagnosis, and verdict — an ailment I will treat, an ailment I will contend with, or an ailment not to be treated. It is almost entirely free of magic, identifies the brain and describes its surface, and links paralysis to injuries of the spine and skull.