They Stole It - African Medicine: The Ancient Knowledge - Teacher Resource

African Medicine

The Ancient Knowledge — Teacher Resources

They said Hippocrates invented medicine. Hippocrates came 2,000 years after Imhotep.

Quiz — African Medicine: The Ancient Knowledge

PART A — MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. Who did historian James Henry Breasted call the earliest known physician in history?

B) Imhotep of ancient Egypt.

Students should identify Imhotep and place him in ancient Egypt. Imhotep lived around 2650 BCE, more than 2,000 years before Hippocrates was born, and served as chancellor to the Pharaoh Djoser. Historian James Henry Breasted, who published the first full translation of the Edwin Smith Papyrus, called him the earliest known physician. [1]Nunn, John F. Ancient Egyptian Medicine. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996; Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. Ancient Egyptian medicine, Imhotep, and Imhotep's worship as a god of healing.[6]Breasted, James Henry. The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930. The first full English translation, dating the surviving copy to the 17th century BCE and the original text to about 3000–2500 BCE; calls Imhotep the earliest known physician. Students who answer A are repeating the Eurocentric miseducation the lesson corrects. Students who answer C or D are confusing a collector or a poet with a physician.

2. What does the Edwin Smith Papyrus contain?

C) Descriptions of skull fractures, spinal injuries, sutures, splints, and honey on wounds — copied more than 3,600 years ago.

Students should identify the Edwin Smith Papyrus as a specific surgical document with specific content: 48 cases, including skull fractures, spinal injuries, the brain, sutures, splints, and honey on wounds. The surviving scroll was copied around 1600 BCE from a text first written as much as a thousand years earlier by African physicians. [1]Nunn, John F. Ancient Egyptian Medicine. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996; Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. Ancient Egyptian medicine, Imhotep, and Imhotep's worship as a god of healing.[6]Breasted, James Henry. The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930. The first full English translation, dating the surviving copy to the 17th century BCE and the original text to about 3000–2500 BCE; calls Imhotep the earliest known physician. Students who answer A, B, or D are misidentifying either the document's content or its origin.

3. How many manuscripts are preserved in Timbuktu, Mali?

C) More than 350,000.

Students should state the number — more than 350,000 — and understand what it represents: one of the largest archives of African scholarship in existence, covering medicine, mathematics, astronomy, law, and theology. [7]Hunwick, John O., and Alida Jay Boye. The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu: Rediscovering Africa's Literary Culture. London: Thames & Hudson, 2008; Hammer, Joshua. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016. The Timbuktu manuscripts and the 2012–2013 rescue. Students who answer A, B, or D are dramatically understating the scale of this documented African intellectual tradition.

4. What did Homer write about Egyptians in The Odyssey, Book Four?

B) That every one in the whole country is a skilled physician.

Students should quote or closely paraphrase the passage and identify its source: "Every one in the whole country is a skilled physician, for they are of the race of Paeeon" (The Odyssey, Book Four). Paeeon was the Greek god of healing — Homer was comparing Egyptian physicians to a god. [8]Homer. The Odyssey, Book Four. Translated by Samuel Butler. London: A.C. Fifield, 1900. Greek testimony to Egyptian medical skill. Students who answer A, C, or D are misrepresenting what the primary source says.

5. What is an Inyanga?

B) A Zulu herbalist and traditional healer from Southern Africa.

Students should identify the Inyanga precisely — a Zulu herbalist and traditional healer from Southern Africa, part of a healing tradition in which South African traditional healers use around 3,000 plant species as medicine. [5]Van Wyk, Ben-Erik, Bosch van Oudtshoorn, and Nigel Gericke. Medicinal Plants of South Africa. Pretoria: Briza Publications, 2009. Medicinal plants used by South African traditional healers. Students who answer A, C, or D are misidentifying the people, the role, or the region.

6. How many years before Hippocrates did Imhotep live?

C) About 2,000 years.

Students should state the gap — about 2,000 years — and understand its significance. Imhotep lived around 2650 BCE; Hippocrates was born around 460 BCE. Calling Hippocrates the "father of medicine" while Imhotep predates him by 2,000 years is the central correction the lesson makes. [1]Nunn, John F. Ancient Egyptian Medicine. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996; Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. Ancient Egyptian medicine, Imhotep, and Imhotep's worship as a god of healing.[6]Breasted, James Henry. The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930. The first full English translation, dating the surviving copy to the 17th century BCE and the original text to about 3000–2500 BCE; calls Imhotep the earliest known physician. Students who answer A, B, or D are significantly understating the gap.

7. Why does the Edwin Smith Papyrus carry an American's name instead of an African one?

B) An American collector named Edwin Smith bought it in 1862, and his daughter later donated it to New York.

Students should trace the chain of custody: the text was written by African physicians, the surviving copy was made around 1600 BCE, Edwin Smith bought it in Luxor (ancient Waset, Kemet) in 1862, never published a translation, and his daughter donated it to New York after his death. The knowledge is African. The name belongs to the man who bought it. [6]Breasted, James Henry. The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930. The first full English translation, dating the surviving copy to the 17th century BCE and the original text to about 3000–2500 BCE; calls Imhotep the earliest known physician. Students who answer A, C, or D are misattributing the authorship or inventing a history the lesson does not support.

PART B — SHORT ANSWER KEY POINTS

Question 8. Imhotep lived 2,000 years before Hippocrates, yet Hippocrates is called the "father of medicine." Using at least two specific details from the lesson, explain what this reversal reveals about how the history of medicine has been taught — and what is lost when Imhotep's name is left out.

A strong answer should include:

• At least two specific details: Imhotep lived around 2650 BCE — more than 2,000 years before Hippocrates was born around 460 BCE; historian James Henry Breasted called him the earliest known physician; he was later worshipped as a god of medicine in Egypt, and the Greeks identified him with their own god of healing, Asclepius [1]Nunn, John F. Ancient Egyptian Medicine. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996; Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. Ancient Egyptian medicine, Imhotep, and Imhotep's worship as a god of healing.[6]Breasted, James Henry. The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930. The first full English translation, dating the surviving copy to the 17th century BCE and the original text to about 3000–2500 BCE; calls Imhotep the earliest known physician.
• What the omission reveals: calling Hippocrates the "father of medicine" while leaving out Imhotep is a choice that positions Europe as the origin of medical knowledge and erases the African foundation that preceded it
• What is lost: students who learn Hippocrates without Imhotep learn a false origin story for medicine — one that removes African achievement from the timeline
• Strong answers will connect: the erasure of Imhotep to the broader pattern in the lesson — African knowledge dismissed, renamed, or credited to others — and will note that Greece itself acknowledged Egyptian medical skill through Homer and through its worship of Imhotep

Question 9. The Edwin Smith Papyrus was copied more than 3,600 years ago from an even older text written by African physicians, and it describes treatments — including honey on wounds — that modern medicine still uses today. Using at least two specific details from the lesson, explain what the story of this document reveals about how African knowledge has been handled by the West.

A strong answer should include:

• At least two specific details: the surviving scroll was copied around 1600 BCE from a surgical text first written as much as a thousand years earlier by African physicians; Edwin Smith bought it in Luxor (ancient Waset, Kemet) in 1862, never published a translation, and his daughter donated it to New York — and it now carries his name rather than any African name [1]Nunn, John F. Ancient Egyptian Medicine. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996; Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. Ancient Egyptian medicine, Imhotep, and Imhotep's worship as a god of healing.[6]Breasted, James Henry. The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930. The first full English translation, dating the surviving copy to the 17th century BCE and the original text to about 3000–2500 BCE; calls Imhotep the earliest known physician.
• The honey treatment: honey on wounds is recorded in the papyrus and is still used in modern wound care — the knowledge survived, was confirmed by modern science, and is applied today without credit to the African physicians who recorded it
• What the pattern reveals: African medical knowledge was not lost — it was taken, renamed, and used
• Strong answers will connect: the Edwin Smith Papyrus to the lesson's pattern — they could not destroy it, so they dismissed it, and then they profited from it

Question 10. Homer wrote that Egyptians were as skilled in medicine "as a god" — and yet this testimony is rarely discussed in lessons about the origins of medicine. Using at least two specific details from the lesson, explain why this omission matters and what it reveals about how primary sources are selected or ignored in telling the story of medicine's origins.

A strong answer should include:

• At least two specific details: Homer wrote in The Odyssey, Book Four, "Every one in the whole country is a skilled physician, for they are of the race of Paeeon" — Paeeon being the Greek god of healing; this was written centuries before Hippocrates was born [8]Homer. The Odyssey, Book Four. Translated by Samuel Butler. London: A.C. Fifield, 1900. Greek testimony to Egyptian medical skill.
• Why the omission matters: The Odyssey is one of the most studied texts in Western literature — its testimony about Egyptian physicians is not hidden, it is simply not taught in the context of medicine's origins. That is an editorial choice, not a factual one
• What the omission reveals: primary sources are selected to support a narrative; leaving out Homer's testimony treats African achievement as if it does not count, even when a Greek source says it does
• Strong answers will connect: the selective use of Homer to the lesson's broader pattern of dismissal — Greece acknowledged Egyptian medical skill in writing, while Western education has left that acknowledgment out

Sources & Footnotes

1. [1] Nunn, John F. Ancient Egyptian Medicine. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996; Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. Ancient Egyptian medicine, Imhotep, and Imhotep's worship as a god of healing.
2. [2] Sofowora, Abayomi. Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine in Africa. Ibadan: Spectrum Books, 1993. Survey of traditional healing systems across the African continent.
3. [3] Bascom, William. Ifa Divination: Communication Between Gods and Men in West Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969. The Ifa system and the Babalawo.
4. [4] Van der Geest, Sjaak, et al. Study of fracture treatment by bonesetters in Techiman District, central Ghana (University of Amsterdam, medical anthropology). Akan traditional practitioners: priest-healers, herbalists, and bonesetters.
5. [5] Van Wyk, Ben-Erik, Bosch van Oudtshoorn, and Nigel Gericke. Medicinal Plants of South Africa. Pretoria: Briza Publications, 2009. Medicinal plants used by South African traditional healers.
6. [6] Breasted, James Henry. The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930. The first full English translation, dating the surviving copy to the 17th century BCE and the original text to about 3000–2500 BCE; calls Imhotep the earliest known physician.
7. [7] Hunwick, John O., and Alida Jay Boye. The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu: Rediscovering Africa's Literary Culture. London: Thames & Hudson, 2008; Hammer, Joshua. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016. The Timbuktu manuscripts and the 2012–2013 rescue.
8. [8] Homer. The Odyssey, Book Four. Translated by Samuel Butler. London: A.C. Fifield, 1900. Greek testimony to Egyptian medical skill.

Note on This Lesson

In their own words: James Henry Breasted, who published the first full translation of the Edwin Smith Papyrus in 1930, called Imhotep "the earliest known physician." He dated the surviving copy to the seventeenth century BCE and the original surgical treatise to about 3000–2500 BCE. [6]Breasted, James Henry. The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930. The first full English translation, dating the surviving copy to the 17th century BCE and the original text to about 3000–2500 BCE; calls Imhotep the earliest known physician.

Homer's words on Egypt, in Samuel Butler's translation of The Odyssey, Book Four: "Every one in the whole country is a skilled physician, for they are of the race of Paeeon." [8]Homer. The Odyssey, Book Four. Translated by Samuel Butler. London: A.C. Fifield, 1900. Greek testimony to Egyptian medical skill.

During the 2012–2013 occupation of Timbuktu, the city's librarians secretly moved hundreds of thousands of manuscripts south to safety. [7]Hunwick, John O., and Alida Jay Boye. The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu: Rediscovering Africa's Literary Culture. London: Thames & Hudson, 2008; Hammer, Joshua. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016. The Timbuktu manuscripts and the 2012–2013 rescue.

The images in this lesson are illustrations created for teaching. They are not photographs of historical people or documents.

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