“A giant wad of snot – isn’t that what Egyptians thought of the brain?” This quote from an esteemed neurosurgical colleague at a major teaching hospital reflects a popular assessment of the ancient Egyptians. Herodotus described some funerary practices where the brain was treated as useless, disposable waste, but this may have simply been a practical solution to a mortuary problem. Egyptian culture, however, from very early times was aware of the essential nature of the brain. I hypothesise that brain extraction was a strategy to improve the odds of quality mummification.
Evidence of Importance to Life
The paramount nature of the brain is reflected in a central feature of the earliest attested document in human history. The Narmer Palette, c. 3150 BC (shown above), depicts the king, exercising his power of life and death via the ‘smiting’ pose, a rapid means to destroy an enemy by disrupting the structure of the brain. Smiting was a standard icon for three millennia. Also on the palette is the depiction of decapitated enemies, another form of destroying the brain’s control of life.
War and violence were well known from Predynastic times, allowing ancient physicians to learn to triage and treat combat injuries and observe the consequences of these injuries. Soldiers also knew that the fastest way to immediately incapacitate an enemy in close combat was to injure their brain.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July / August 2020 من Ancient Egypt.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July / August 2020 من Ancient Egypt.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
INSIDE THE STEP PYRAMID OF DJOSER
Sean McLachlan explores the recently reopened interior of this iconic Third Dynasty Saqqara monument.
PER MESUT: for younger readers
She Who Loves Silence
Highlights of the Manchester Museum 29: An Offering by Queen Tiye for her Husband
Campbell Price describes an offering table with a touching significance.
Highlights Of The Manchester Museum 28: Busts Of Jesse And Marianne Haworth
Campbell Price describes the significance of two statue busts on display in the Museum.
TAKABUTI, the Belfast Mummy
Rosalie David and Eileen Murphy explain how scientific examination of the ‘Belfast Mummy’ is revealing much new information about her life and times.
Lost Golden City
An Egyptian Mission searching for the mortuary temple of Tutankhamun has discovered a settlement – “The Dazzling of Aten” – described as the largest city ever found in Egypt (see above). Finds bearing the cartouches of Amenhotep III (see opposite, top) date the settlement to his reign, c. 1390-1352 BC – making it about 3400 years old.
Jerusalem's Survival, Sennacharib's Departure and the Kushite Role in 701 BCE: An Examination of Henry Aubin's Rescue of Jerusalem
BOOK REVIEWS
Golden Mummies of Egypt: Interpreting Identities from the Graeco-Roman Period by Campbell Price
BOOK REVIEWS
Old And New Kingdom Discoveries At Saqqara
An Egyptian team working on a Sixth Dynasty pyramid complex near the Teti pyramid at Saqqara has made a series of important discoveries.
Map Of Egypt
What’s in a name? It is easy for us to forget that the names we associate with the pyramids – such as the Meidum Pyramid, the Bent Pyramid or the Black Pyramid – would have been meaningless to their builders.
