Edwin Smith Papyrus

Edwin Smith Papyrus
Plates vi & vii of the Edwin Smith Papyrus at the Rare Book Room, New York Academy of Medicine
Sizelength: 4.68 meters
Createdc. 1600 BC
DiscoveredEgypt
Present locationNew York City, New York, United States

The Edwin Smith Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian medical text, named after Edwin Smith who bought it in 1862, and the oldest known surgical treatise on trauma. This document, which may have been a manual of military surgery, describes 48 cases of injuries, fractures, wounds, dislocations and tumors.

It is unique among the surviving Egyptian medical papyri because it presents a rational and scientific approach to medicine in ancient Egypt and avoids prescribing magic. This copy dates to Dynasties 16–17 of the Second Intermediate Period in ancient Egypt, c. 1600 BCE but the original may date from the Old Kingdom.

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