Peseshet, who lived under the

Fourth Dynasty The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from to 2494 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other ...

(albeit a date in the

Fifth Dynasty The Fifth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty V) is often combined with Dynasties Third Dynasty of Egypt, III, Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, IV and Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, VI under the group title the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. The Fifth ...

is also possible), is often credited with being the earliest known female

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

in history. Some have credited

Merit-Ptah Merit-Ptah ("Beloved of Ptah") was thought to be a female chief physician of the pharaoh's court during the Second Dynasty of Egypt, c. 2700 BCE; she is purportedly referred as such on an inscription left on her grave at Saqqara by her son. Howev ...

with being the first female physician, but she is likely a fictional creation based upon Peseshet. Peseshet’s relevant title was "lady overseer of the female physicians," but whether she was a physician herself is uncertain. She also had the titles ''king's acquaintance'', and ''overseer of funerary-priests of the king's mother''. She is believed to have had a son Akhethetep, in whose

mastaba A mastaba (, or ), also mastabah, mastabat or pr- djt (meaning "house of stability", " house of eternity" or "eternal house" in Ancient Egyptian), is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inwar ...

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah'' arz, الجيزة ' ) is the second-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and fourth-largest city in Africa after Kinshasa, Lagos and Cairo. It is the capital of Giza Governorate with a total population of 9.2 ...

her personal false door was found. However, the mother-son relation of Akhethetep and Peseshet is not confirmed by any inscription. On the false door is also depicted a man called Kanefer. He might be her husband. Akhethetep and Kanefer were both high-ranking individuals who lived during the

fourth dynasty of Egypt The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from to 2494 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other ...

and served as officers. She may have graduated

midwives A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...

at an ancient Egyptian medical school in

Sais Sais ( grc, Σάϊς, cop, Ⲥⲁⲓ) was an ancient Egyptian city in the Western Nile Delta on the Canopic branch of the Nile,Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. "Saïs." '' Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary''. 9th ed. Springfiel ...

''Storm Cycle''

Peseshet's history plays a key role in the 2009 novel ''Storm Cycle'' by Roy and

Iris Johansen Iris Johansen (born April 7, 1938) is an American author of crime fiction, suspense fiction, and romance novels. Biography Iris Johansen left a job as an airline reservations agent in the early 1980s to begin writing romance novels. She chan ...

, which tells the story of an archaeologist seeking to obtain and sell cures and treatments that the novel's Peseshet is said to have discovered, and of a researcher whose only hope of saving her sister may lie in one of those cures.

Merit-Ptah

In 1938, Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead wrote of an ancient Egyptian female physician named Merit-Ptah. Her writings about Merit-Ptah were nearly identical to the facts of Peseshet’s life as discovered in Akhethetep’s tomb, with only Peseshet’s name and location of the tomb changed. It is unclear where Hurd-Mead got the name Merit-Ptah, but it is possible that she was inspired by Merit-Ptah the wife of Ramose.

References

{{Ancient Egyptian medicine Ancient Egyptian physicians Ancient women physicians Ancient Egyptian medicine Ancient Egyptian women