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The Edwin Smith Papyrus is named after its original owner, Edwin Smith, an American Egyptologist (1822–1906) who purchased it in Luxor in 1862. On the basis of the handwriting, it has been dated to about 1600 B.C., but on the basis of language (and errors in transcription), the work is believed to be a copy of another text that was written some three centuries earlier. The work includes descriptions, examination procedures, diagnoses, and practical treatments for forty-eight 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. There are three categories of injuries—"an ailment I will handle" (describing injuries for which a known cure existed); "an ailment I will fight with" (denoting one whose treatment was less certain); and "and ailment for which nothing is done" (meaning one for which no practical treatment was known).
A mummy portrait (ca. 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.
A limestone statue of Yuny (early Dynasty 19, ca. 1290 B.C.)—a priest of Sekhmet and the son of a famous physician—originally stood in a shrine dedicated to Yuny and his father, to which pilgrims came to pray for aid in preventing or combating illness. Yuny is shown in a kneeling position, holding the elaborately ornamented shrine of Osiris, god of regeneration.
Pomegranates were introduced into Egypt from western Asia in the New Kingdom. Their juice was prized as a drink but can also be used as an astringent to shrink tissues and reduce swelling in wounds. The root of pomegranate trees is prescribed in medical papyri as a vermifuge against intestinal worms; its active ingredient, pelletrin, is still used for this purpose. The juice is also helpful in treating stomach disorders such as dysentery and diarrhea. These two jars were made to hold pomegranate juice, probably as a drink but perhaps also for medicinal purposes. The latter use is perhaps likelier for the smaller, green jar, which depicts the fruit in its unripened state, when the juice is too sour to drink.
Like pomegranates, glass-making arrived in Egypt in the New Kingdom, perhaps also as an import from western Asia. These two vessels were formed around a clay core, which was scraped out after the glass had cooled and hardened. The rims were made by reheating, cutting, and pressing the glass into shape.
The image of the hippopotamus as a protector of women was usually female itself. During the Middle Kingdom the animal in this role was invoked as the goddess Ipi, and in later periods more often as Taweret ("The Great One"). The container's imagery indicates that it was intended for a woman, and probably an expectant mother.
This little bowl was probably made for ritual libations. It is an early three-dimensional version of the hieroglyph meaning "clean": a human leg supporting a bowl from which water pours. The bowl is tilted so that water will flow out of it.
The image of Isis and Horus, divine prototypes of a mother and child, honors the act of nursing in the abstract; it was probably intended as a votive offering to Isis, perhaps from someone seeking the goddess's intercession.
Carved from a single piece of stone, this spouted dish is an early example of the Egyptians' persistent belief in the ability of water to magically absorb the characteristics of whatever it touched. It incorporates two hieroglyphic symbols, a pair of arms and an ankh, representing the concepts of "life force" and "life," respectively. Water poured from the dish was believed to carry both qualities with it.
This stela is covered with magical texts and images that protected against scorpions and snakes, two of the most pervasive threats in ancient Egypt. The scene in high relief at the front shows the infant Horus subduing snakes, scorpions, a lion, and an oryx, all animals emblematic of the desert. The stela was originally erected in a temple near modern Cairo; the Egyptians believed that water poured over it could absorb the powers of its inscriptions and serve as a magical antivenom.
The stela is named after the Austrian chancellor Prince Metternich, who received it as a gift from the ruler of Egypt in 1828. It remained in the Metternich family until shortly before its purchase by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.