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Quote by James Henry Breasted

“The attention given to the side of the head which has received the injury, in connection with a specific reference to the side of the body nervously affected, is in itself evidence that in this case the ancient surgeon was already beginning observations on the localization of functions in the brain.”

Book:The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, Vol 1: Hieroglyphic Transliteration, Translation and Commentary

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The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, Vol 1: Hieroglyphic Transliteration, Translation and Commentary

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Author

James Henry Breasted

James Henry Breasted was an American archaeologist renowned for his research on ancient Egypt. Born on August 27, 1865, and passing away on December 2, 1935, Breasted made significant contributions to the field of archaeology, particularly in the study of ancient Egyptian civilization. more

“We could argue that the ancient Egyptians were positively constrained by their hieroglyphic system of writing to express abstract qualities in a crudely physical way. Against such an interpretation, it is important to bear in mind that language is not simply the vehicle of expression of a given mentality, it actually is that mentality giving expression to itself. The very structures of language are the articulation of the mentality. We should be wary of thinking that the ancient Egyptian mind was “really” like ours, but was constrained by the hieroglyphic script. Rather, the hieroglyphic script was the medium most appropriate for the articulation of the ancient Egyptian mentality. Far from being crude, it reflected richly symbolic modes of conceiving and relating to both the physical and the psychic spheres of existence. It has already become apparent that these two spheres were not experienced as separated from each other—as we today tend to experience them. It is now necessary to go further, and seriously consider the idea that psychic attributes were indeed experienced as “situated” in various parts of the body. The pictorial character of the hieroglyphic form of writing made possible a quite effortless translation of this experience into the written word. For the hieroglyphic script, because it was pictorial, had not yet created a division between concrete and abstract, between “outer” and “inner.” And it had not done so just because the ancient Egyptian mentality had not done so.”

Language Expression Hieroglyphic

Book:Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred

Source: Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred

“[...] we have in our treatise a series of fifty-seven examinations, almost exclusively of injuries of the human body forming a group of observations furnishing us with the earliest known nucleus of fact regarding the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the human body. Crude and elementary as they are, the method by which they were collected was scientific, and these observations, together with the diagnoses and the explanatory commentary in the ancient glosses, form the oldest body of science now extant.”

Biology Anatomy Ancient Egypt Medical History Hieroglyphic Ancient Medicine

Book:The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, Vol 1: Hieroglyphic Transliteration, Translation and Commentary

Source: The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, Vol 1: Hieroglyphic Transliteration, Translation and Commentary

“A man has perished; his corpse is dust, and his people have passed from the land; it is a book which makes him remembered in the mouth of a speaker. More excellent is a [papyrus] roll than a built house, than a chapel in the west. It is better than an established villa, than a stela in a temple...”

Writing Books Egypt Pharaohs Hieroglyphic

Author:Anonymous

“It's a third eye view of hieroglyphics; A describing of these inscribings, mummified encryptions from ancient ancestry of pyramids and pharaohs laid deep in the rich soil with buried layers of gold & knowledge kept hidden from the mass.”