The Brooklyn Papyrus (''47.218.48'' and ''47.218.85'', also known as the Brooklyn Medical Papyrus) is a medical papyrus dating from ancient Egypt and is one of the oldest preserved writings about

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

and

ophiology Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning " reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) an ...

. The manuscript is dated to around 450 BCE and is today kept at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. The term ''Brooklyn Papyrus'' can also refer to Brooklyn Papyrus 35.1446br>

The manuscript

The Brooklyn Papyrus consists of a scroll of papyrus divided into two parts with some parts missing, its total length is estimated to 175 × 27 cm. The text is on the recto side. The different numbers refer to the upper part (-48, 66,5 × 27,5 cm) and the lower part (-85, 66,5 × 27,5 cm) of the scroll. The manuscript is a collection, the first part systematically describing a number of different

snakes Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

and the second part describing different treatments for

snakebite A snakebite is an injury caused by the bite of a snake, especially a venomous snake. A common sign of a bite from a venomous snake is the presence of two puncture wounds from the animal's fangs. Sometimes venom injection from the bite may occu ...

s. The manuscript also contains treatments of scorpion bites and spider bites. The papyrus scroll is dated in between 660 and 330 BC around the Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt. The text however is written in a style common during the Middle Kingdom which could suggest its origin might be from the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt.

The text proceeds page by page, alternating between the two parts of the papyrus. Thus each complete page starts with 47.218.48 and finishes with 47.218.85 (the accession numbers given by the

). The title and start of the work are missing, and the extant part of the first section commences at line 15 of the lower part (designated page 1) and continues to page 2 of both upper and lower parts, terminating at line 16 of the latter. The first section comprises a systematic description of snakes and their bites. The last line states that there have been descriptions of 38 snakes and their bites, of which the first 13 are lost. The second section starts on line 17, page 2 of the lowers part (47.218.85), and continues almost complete up to the fifth pair of pages. Only the right-hand halves of the sixth pair of pages remain. The second section commences at paragraph 39 with an important introduction:

Beginning of the collection of remedies to... drive out the poison of all...snakes, all scorpions, all tarantulas and all ::serpents, in the hand of the ''kherep'' priests of Serqet and to drive away all snakes and to seal their mouths.

The second section then continues with many remedies and a few spells for those bitten by snakes. The format for the remedies is strictly pragmatic, and most are based on the species of snake responsible for the bite, or the symptoms suffered by the victim. The remedies are in the typical format of prescriptions that appear in the Ebers Papyrus and other

medical papyri Egyptian medical papyri are ancient Egyptian texts written on papyrus which permit a glimpse at medical procedures and practices in ancient Egypt. These papyri give details on disease, diagnosis, and remedies of disease, which include herbal rem ...

which were apparently intended for lay doctors. This papyrus provides the most striking evidence for the closely parallel roles of the physician ''swnw'' and the various priests concerned with healing.

History

The date of the scroll's discovery is not known. It was purchased around 1889 by

Charles Edwin Wilbour Charles Edwin Wilbour (March 17, 1833 – December 17, 1896) was an American journalist and Egyptologist. Wilbour is noted as one of the discoverers of the Elephantine Papyri and the creator of the first English translation of ''Les Misérables' ...

and donated to the museum by his daughter Theodora Wilbour in the early 1930s. The manuscript might originate from a temple in Heliopolis. In 1989, French

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...

Serge Sauneron Serge Sauneron (3 January 1927 – 3 June 1976) was a French Egyptologist. He was Director of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale The Institut français d'archéologie orientale (or IFAO), also known as the French Institute for Orient ...

published an extensive description of the manuscript in his book
Un traité égyptien d’ophiologie - Papyrus du Brooklyn Museum nos 47.218.48 et 85
' The ancient Egyptians were well aware of both snake's usefulness in controlling vermin and the dangers posed by its poison. Snake deities were worshipped in hopes of preventing potential attacks by their earthly representatives. At present the manuscript is not on display at the Brooklyn Museum. The archive numbers are ''47.218.48'' and ''47.218.85''.

Snakes listed in Part One of the papyrus

*¹ Can be saved if the snake is weak *² Female pronoun used throughout the description *Numbers of teeth refer to the bite wound *The word ''fy'' may mean viper, or a snake resembling a viper

Gallery

File:Brooklyn Papyrus, 664 - 332 B.C.E., 47.218.48a.jpg, Brooklyn Papyrus File: Brooklyn Papyrus, 664 - 332 B.C.E., 47.218.48b.jpg, Brooklyn Papyrus

References

Notes

Literature

* * * *

External links

* * {{Ancient Egyptian medicine 5th-century BC works Ancient Egyptian medical works Egyptian papyri Collection of the Brooklyn Museum Herpetological literature