Ebers Papyrus

en.wikipedia.org

38 points·benbreen··7 comments

It's really something to think that this treatise from 1500BC accurately documents the current medical recommendation for dealing with guinea worms. Sometimes a simple mechanical solution is all you need (for millenia)

What blows my mind more about anything ancient is that written language was effectively lost for 500 years during the Bronze Age collapse and we nonetheless returned to civilization and language.

The more I study the history of writing systems, the clearer it becomes what a tremendous organizational and cultural advantage it is to be able to commit thoughts to stone/papyrus/whatever media you choose.

I understand that some languages ceased to be written altogether, e.g. Mycenaean Greek (in Linear B) or Ugaritic. I've never read that written language across any sizable geographic area ceased for any length of time. Do you have any sources for such a claim?

Nope, I am not at all an expert and I likely misspoke, I think a better explanation would be that literacy in the Mediterranean sea area was dramatically reduced for all the cultures that remained after the Bronze Age collapse.

Losing or reducing literacy is not different (in my opinion) than losing an advanced technology.

The wiki mentions one of the plants used to treat diabetes was called asit plant fibers. Does anyone familiar with this have any insight into what experts think asit was?

> It contains many incantations meant to turn away disease-causing demons and there is also evidence of a long tradition of empiricism.

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