---
title: "History of medicine"
chunk: 2/17
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_medicine"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:00:03.179404+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Ancient Mesopotamian medicine ===
The Mesopotamian region, covering much of present-day Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Iran, and Turkey, was dominated by a series of civilisations including Sumer, the earliest known civilisation in the Fertile Crescent region, alongside the Akkadians (including Assyrians and Babylonians). Overlapping ideas of what we now understand as medicine, science, magic, and religion characterised early Mesopotamian healing practices as a hybrid naturalistic and supernatural belief system.
The Sumerians developed one of the earliest known writing systems in the 3rd millennium BCE, and created numerous cuneiform clay tablets regarding their civilisation. These included detailed accounts of drug prescriptions and operations, as well as exorcisms. These were administered and carried out by highly defined professionals including bârû (seers), âs[h]ipu (exorcists), and asû (physician-priests). An example of an early, prescription-like medication appeared in Sumerian during the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112 BCE – c. 2004 BCE).
Following the conquest of the Sumerian civilisation by the Akkadian Empire and the empire's eventual collapse from a number of social and environmental factors, the Babylonian civilisation began to dominate the region. Examples of Babylonian Medicine include the extensive Babylonian medical text, the Diagnostic Handbook, written by the ummânū, or chief scholar, Esagil-kin-apli of Borsippa, in the middle of the 11th century BCE during the reign of the Babylonian king Adad-apla-iddina (1069–1046 BCE).
This medical treatise devoted great attention to the practice of diagnosis, prognosis, physical examination, and remedies. The text contains a list of medical symptoms and often detailed empirical observations along with logical rules used in combining observed symptoms on the body of a patient with their diagnosis and prognosis. Here, clearly developed rationales were developed to understand the causes of disease and injury, supported by theories, agreed upon at the time, of elements we might now understand as natural causes, supernatural magic and religious explanations.

Most known and recovered artefacts from the ancient Mesopotamian civilisations centre on the neo-Assyrian (c. 900 – 600 BCE) and neo-Babylonian (c. 600 – 500 BCE) periods, as the last empires ruled by native Mesopotamian rulers. These discoveries include a huge array of medical clay tablets from this period, although damage to the clay documents creates large gaps in our understanding of medical practices.
Throughout the civilisations of Mesopotamia there are a wide range of medical innovations, including evidenced practices of prophylaxis, measures to prevent the spread of disease, accounts of stroke, and an awareness of mental illnesses.

=== Ancient Egyptian medicine ===

Ancient Egypt, a civilisation spanning the valley of the river Nile (throughout parts of present-day Egypt, Sudan, and South Sudan), existed from its unification in c. 3150 BCE to its collapse via Persian conquest in 525 BCE and ultimate downfall from the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 BCE.

Ancient Egyptians developed a complex, experimental, and communicative medical tradition that has been uncovered through surviving documents, most made of papyrus, such as the Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus, the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the Ebers Papyrus, the London Medical Papyrus, to the Greek Magical Papyri.
Herodotus described the Egyptians as "the healthiest of all men, next to the Libyans", because of the dry climate and the notable public health system that they possessed. According to him, "the practice of medicine is so specialized among them that each physician is a healer of one disease and no more." Although Egyptian medicine, to a considerable extent, dealt with the supernatural, it eventually developed a practical use in the fields of anatomy, public health, and clinical diagnostics.

Medical information in the Edwin Smith Papyrus may date to a time as early as 3000 BCE. Imhotep in the 3rd dynasty is sometimes credited with being the founder of ancient Egyptian medicine and with being the original author of the Edwin Smith Papyrus, detailing cures, ailments and anatomical observations. This papyrus is regarded as a copy of several earlier works and was written c. 1600 BCE. It is an ancient textbook on surgery almost completely devoid of magical thinking and describes in exquisite detail the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of numerous ailments.
The Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus treats women's complaints, including problems with conception. Thirty-four cases detailing diagnosis and treatment survive, although some of them are mere fragments. Dating to 1800 BCE, it is the oldest surviving medical text of any kind.
Medical institutions, referred to as Houses of Life, are known to have been established in ancient Egypt as early as 2200 BCE.
The Ebers Papyrus is the oldest written text mentioning enemas. Many medications were administered by enemas and one of the many types of medical specialists was an Iri, the Shepherd of the Anus.
The earliest known physician is also credited to ancient Egypt: Hesy-Ra, "Chief of Dentists and Physicians" for King Djoser in the 27th century BCE. Also, the earliest known woman physician, Peseshet, practiced in Ancient Egypt at the time of the 4th dynasty. Her title was "Lady Overseer of the Lady Physicians."

=== Ancient Chinese medicine ===