A Critical Evaluation of “The Ear that Hears Badly” in the Ebers Papyrus

Abstract

Objective:The Ebers papyrus (1,550 BC) is one of the most complete medical papyri of Ancient Egypt. It contains a few paragraphs about otology, about both treatments of the external ear and ideas concerning the ears and deafness. Over the years, many scholarly interpretations of these paragraphs have been made by learned Egyptologists and academic historians of otology. They do not always agree and have often been critical of each other. This historical review compares and contrasts all the main published academic translations of the Ebers papyrus by looking at the original document and their interpretations.Methodology:Historical research, based on the various translations of the Ebers papyrus.Results:Eight complete translations of the whole Ebers manuscript have been analyzed. Four of these contain transliteration of the hieroglyphics. The hieroglyph associated with the ear is a pictogram of a cow's ear. It has two possible interpretations. It can mean the ear itself but it can also be used to denote either deafness or hearing.Conclusion:Insights into the early Egyptians perception of the ear may be obtained, but study of primary references shows that there is scant evidence of knowledge of anatomical details in the Ebers papyrus.