Investigation into Dynamics of Ancient Egyptian Pharmacology: A Statistical Analysis of Papyrus Ebers and Cross-cultural Medical Thinking

A study that investigates the validity of analysing the distribution pattern of materials in the Ebers Papyrus involves a range of discussion that often requires quite different areas of expertise such as Egyptian philology, ancient and traditional medicines, modern chemotherapeutic principles, medical history, medical anthropology and statistics as well as database design. The research sets out both the objectives of the investigation and the fundamental concepts of medicine that underpin study in the context of ancient Egyptian medicine. The work begins with an illustration of the current situation of the study of Egyptian medicine and this is followed by a discussion on the possibilities and effectiveness of the application of statistics as a method of future investigation in the analysis of Egyptian prescriptions. Certain key concepts derived from diverse principles of medicine known from different cultures are defined and approaches are made to the Egyptian medical texts to describe their contents and introduce suggested interpretations based on the medical perspectives that the author establishes.