In the middle of the 18th century (AD!) something hitherto unheard of happened in Germany: A woman, Dorothea Erxleben, received her doctorate from the University of Halle and was thus officially admitted to the medical profession. Of course, we were a little late again; a good 4,000 years too late to be precise. However, the search for traces of the “first female doctor in history” turns out to be a bit tricky.
The question of women doctors in ancient Egypt became popular in the 1930s. At that time, Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead published the book "A History of Women in Medicine" and wrote in it that a certain Merit-Ptah was supposed to have been chief physician in the 5th Dynasty (or 2730 BC) under Queen Neferirkare. Unfortunately, nothing is right about this statement. At that time, Egyptian history was actually dated differently, today we would classify the 5th dynasty at the end of the 3rd millennium, but Neferirkare was a king and not a queen. Unfortunately, no Merit-Ptah can be found who could have been a doctor at the time. Despite the lack of evidence, Hurd-Mead's portrayal has long enjoyed great popularity, as it seemed to be further evidence of how progressive the Egyptians were in gender equality issues. Even without doctors, however, this theory would not have to be refuted at all: in ancient Egypt, women were indeed equal to men in many respects, be it their right to acquire and sell property or to be witnesses and prosecutors in court, or their ability to take up offices and professions, including quite powerful political positions.
Now, however, there is actually evidence that women around 2400 B.C. could really be doctors: In the mastaba tomb of Achethotep in the necropolis of Giza, a false door was found during the excavations in 1929/1930, which probably shows the parents of the tomb owner. Achethotep himself was a high official and scribe at various locations, as well as the head of the scribes of the Cheops pyramid. His father, Kanefer, bears the title of “king's confidante”. Now the mother of Achethotep, Peseschet, is interesting. Her titles take up by far the largest space of the false door: She is the king's confidante, head of the Ka priests of the queen mother (unfortunately, it is unclear which queen mother it is), and head of the (female) doctors.
False door of Peseschet and Kanefer aus from the tomb of Achethotep (G 8942)
from: Selim Hassan, Excavations at Giza 1929-1930 (Oxford 1932).
We have to consider a few points about this title: First of all, Peseschet does not necessarily have to have been a doctor herself just because she was the head of (female) doctors; she is not explicitly called a doctor. In addition, Peseschet was referred to as the head of (male) doctors for a long time: the female form in her title (swnw.t instead of swnw) was omitted in the translations and in some publications she is still (and incorrectly) referred to as the head of male doctors . So even if Peseschet was not a doctor herself, there definitely were female doctors.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to determine whether female doctors had different areas of responsibility than their male colleagues. From purely practical considerations and experiences from other cultures, it can be assumed with some justification that women doctors could have been active in obstetrics. There is only one word for midwife or obstetrician in connection with the goddess Heket, whose nickname is “the one who gives birth”. In a few depictions of a birth, however, women are always shown helping the woman giving birth. Were they swnw.t?
Even if little is known about women doctors in ancient Egypt, it is plausible to assume that women practiced medicine. The fact that there is no further naming of female doctors does not have to contradict this assumption: Male colleagues are also only known in rare cases. Unfortunately, we have to come to terms with a rather large gap in transmission on this subject, too.
Literature
- Paul Ghalioungi, Les plus anciennes femmes-médecins de l'Histoire, BIFAO 75 (1975), pp. 159-164.
- Wolfram Grajetzki, Meritptah: The world's first female doctor?, Ancient Egypt Magazine 111 (2018), pp. 24-31.
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