Archaeologists have made a groundbreaking discovery that ancient Egyptians performed medical surgery to treat cancer thousands of years ago. The finding, based on the analysis of an ancient Egyptian man’s skull dating back to 2686 to 2345 BC, provides evidence of early attempts at surgical intervention. The man had cuts around cancerous lesions on his skull, indicating that he underwent surgery in an effort to treat his cancer.
This discovery challenges previous beliefs about the history of modern medicine, as it predates the earliest known description of cancer in the Edwin Smith papyrus from 1600 BC. The research team, led by paleontologist Edgard Camarós Perez, believes that this finding could change perceptions of when modern medicine truly began. They also analyzed the skull of a woman from 664 – 343 BC, who had extensive damage to her skull from cancer but also showed signs of healed trauma lesions caused by medical treatment.
Despite these early attempts at treating cancer, researchers acknowledge that ancient Egyptians were not successful in curing the disease. However, they hope to gain a deeper understanding of how ancient civilizations coped with cancer and other medical conditions throughout history through further study. This research sheds light on the medical practices of ancient Egyptians and challenges conventional timelines of medical history.
