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The Brooklyn Papyrus ( 47.218.48 and 47.218.85, also known as the Brooklyn Medical Papyrus) is a medical papyri dating from ancient Egypt and is one of the oldest preserved writings about medicine and ophiology. The manuscript is dated to around 450 BC and is today kept at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City.
The term Brooklyn Papyrus
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The manuscript is a collection, the first part systematically describing a number of different snakes and the second part describing different treatments for . The manuscript also contains treatments of scorpion bites and spider bites.
The papyrus scroll is dated 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 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 in 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 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.
In 1989, French Egyptologist Serge Sauneron 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 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.
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