Conference Proceedings
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Schiødt, S., A. Jacob, and K. Ryholt, eds. Scientific Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East: Joint Proceedings of the 1st and 2nd Scientific Papyri from Ancient Egypt International Conferences, May 2018, Copenhagen, and September 2019, New York. ISAW Monographs. New York: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World and New York University Press, 2023.
Available for purchase through NYU Press
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About the Volume
Scientific Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East presents a collection of articles by leading scholars on scientific practices in the ancient world, with emphasis on the fields of medicine, astronomy, astrology, and other forms of divination. The essays engage with a wide variety of textual sources in many different languages and scripts from Egypt and the Near East spanning more than a millennium, including some texts that are edited and discussed here for the first time. The contributors to this volume were tasked with approaching their texts not only as specialists, but also from a cross-cultural perspective, and the resulting body of work reveals new and exciting evidence for the transfer of scientific knowledge across cultural borders in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East.
About the Editors
SOFIE SCHIØDT is an Egyptologist specializing in pharaonic medicine, magic, and mummification. She is a postdoctoral researcher at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen and co-director of the international research project Scientific Papyri from Ancient Egypt in Cross- Cultural Perspective (SciPap) at the University of Copenhagen. She is currently preparing the text edition of the second-longest medical text preserved from ancient Egypt, P.Louvre- Carlsberg.
AMBER JACOB is a PhD Candidate at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University and co-director of the SciPap project. Her work centers on Egyptian medical practice in Graeco-Roman Egypt and its cross-cultural implications. Her dissertation presents the editio princeps of an unpublished corpus of Demotic medical texts from Tebtunis.
KIM RYHOLT is Professor of Egyptology at the University of Copenhagen, director of the Papyrus Carlsberg Collection, and founder and former director of the SciPap project. He specializes in ancient Egyptian history, literature, and historiography.
Contributions
Part 1: Medicine and Magic
- F. Hoffmann: A Medical Interpretation of Egyptian Magical Texts
- S. Schiødt: Contending with Swellings in Ancient Egypt: Notions of Skin Disease and Disease Causation in Ppayrus Louvre-Carlsberg
- A. Jacob: Skin Deep: Cutaneous Treatment and Taboo in Graeco-Roman Egypt
- J. F. Quack: A Miscellany of Mainly Medical Content: P.Brooklyn 47.218.47
- R. Kade: Fifty Shades of gyl: Deciphering the “Other” in Demotic Scientific Tradition
- N. Reggiani: Medical Literary and Documentary Culture in Graeco-Roman Fayum
- C. Bubb: The Movement of Fluids in Hippocratic Places in Man and the Egyptian Vessel System
- A. Grons: An Overview on Eye Diseases in Coptic Medical Prescriptions
- F. Minen: Signs of Sickness and Health in Ancient Mesopotamia: Some Notes on Comparing Terrestial Omens and Medical Texts
Part 2: Astronomy, Astrology, and Other Forms of Divination
- A. Jones: The Study of Astronomical Papyri from Neugebauer to Today
- K. Ryholt: Sothis Divination in Ancient Egypt
- I. Adsbøl Christensen: An Unpublished Astrological Manual from the Tebtunis Temple Library: A Preliminary Report
- L. Zhang: To Agree or Not to Agree? One Astrological Problem in the Women’s Astrological Manuals (PSI inv. D35 + P.Carlsberg 684 and P.Carlsberg 100)
- L. Prada: Sex and Gender Balance in Oneirocritic Science: If Ancient Egyptian Women Could nk, then Men Were Allowed to Have Erotic Dreams, Too (With the Edition of P.Saqqara H5-DP 351 recto)
SciPap Research
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Schiødt, S. ed. with contributions by Schiødt, S. and Grons, A. Two Medical Manuscripts: The Hieratic P. Carlsberg 8 and the Coptic Codex P. Carlsberg 500. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2024.
Available for purchase through Musuem Tusculanum Press
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About the Volume
Two Medical Manuscripts: The Hieratic P. Carlsberg 8 and the Coptic Codex P. Carlsberg 500 presents the first complete edition and translation of two medical manuscripts from ancient and late antique Egypt. P. Carlsberg 8, a hieratic papyrus containing two treatises, one dated to the 14th BCE and one from the 13th century BCE, concerns ophthalmology and gynecology. P. Carlsberg 500, a Coptic manuscript dated to the 6th century CE, outlines treatments for various ailments. The two texts significantly extend the available corpus of Egyptian medical texts and expand the current understanding of ancient medical practices.
About the Contributors
SOFIE SCHIØDT is an Egyptologist specializing in pharaonic medicine, magic, and mummification. She is a postdoctoral researcher at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen and co-director of the international research project Scientific Papyri from Ancient Egypt in Cross- Cultural Perspective (SciPap) at the University of Copenhagen. She is currently preparing the text edition of the second-longest medical text preserved from ancient Egypt, P.Louvre- Carlsberg.
ANNE GRONS is a postdoctural researcher at the Institute of the History of Pharmacy and Medicine at Philipps-Universität Marburg and a member of the SciPap collaboration. Her work focuses on Coptic medicine, pharmacology, and medical history in late antique and medieval Egypt. She is preparing a new edition of about 40 Coptic medical papyri from collections across the world.
