Things Ancient Egypt Got Right (And Had No Idea Why)
The Accidental Brilliance Behind Ancient Egyptian Customs
Ancient Egypt, a cornerstone of history and one of civilizations great enigmas. Constructors of towering pyramids, the pioneers of modern schools of science and the forge of legendary rulers. As much as these historical contributions may shape our understanding of this once great nation, Egypt was so much more. Or, rather, their sophistication had a much stranger side to it.
The further you dig into their 3,000-year-old civilization, the more you find that sophistication and strangeness were never opposites. When you are among the first to understand the world, your methods of doing so are bound to look unorthodox from where we’re standing. And as we know, history has a habit of smoothing over the weird outcrops of great civilizations, leaving us with monuments and timelines rather than some of their strangest discoveries.
What we do not talk about enough was Egypt’s ability to be accidentally brilliant. Solving real world problems with their strangest customs. Solutions arriving thousands of years early with no proper explanation.
So why not shed light on some of my favorites?
Human Flytraps
Flies were no small nuisance in Egypt. A hot climate, open food and the sprawling banks of the Nile made for the perfect environment for the breeding of pestilent insects. For the general population, this was simply a fact of life, but for the wealthy, not so much. I mean, come on, how dare the buzzing of flies defile the dignity of their ruler?
So, as any sane human being would do, they came to a solution: lets cover our servants in honey and stand them in a corner—human flytrap style.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Pharaoh Pepi II, who allegedly ruled for over 90 years, kept his quarters free of pests by having a servant rubbed down with honey and stationed nearby. Naturally, the flies would flock to the servant, who now appeared to be a sweet treat, and would most likely drown while attempting to partake in their gluttony.
Now, whether Herodotus is a reliable source is worth noting. He wasn’t exactly known for journalistic restraint—nicknamed both “the father of history” and “the father of lies.” But the story has now persisted for centuries with no foundation to either prove or dismiss this notion. For a nation that organized the construction of the Pyramids of Giza, outsourcing the fly problem isn’t outside the realm of reality.
Penicillin’s Great Grandfather
Long before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, the Ancient Egyptians were packing infected wounds with moldy bread. Did they understand why? Hell no! Ancient Egyptians had zero understanding of bacteria, fungal antibiotics or microorganisms. All they knew was that someone tried it, it worked, and they just kept doing it.
Archaeological evidence and medical papyri dating back to 1500 BCE reference the application of moldy bread to wounds and infections as a legitimate treatment. Egyptian physicians, also known as swnw, were remarkably advanced for their time, documenting treatments and observations with a level of rigor that would not resurface until thousands of years later.
The mold most commonly found in bread, Penicillium, produces the same antibiotic compounds utilized by Fleming centuries later. The Egyptians had no way of knowing this would happen, but I bet they would feel cheated seeing him win a Nobel Prize for the same discovery.
The Original Two-liner
Long before your usual drugstore two liner, Ancient Egyptians had their own method for determining whether a woman was pregnant. According to papyri dating back to around 1350 BCE, a woman who suspected she might be pregnant was instructed to urinate on two separate bags of grain—one of wheat and one of barley. If the wheat was first to sprout, she was carrying a girl. If the barley, a boy. If neither sprouted at all, no child would be had!
The gender prediction element was most definitely nonsense, but the pregnancy detection part was not. In the 1960s, researchers actually put this method to the test and found that the urine of pregnant women caused the grain to sprout at a significantly higher rate than that of a non-pregnant woman, likely due to higher levels of estrogen affecting the seeds. It worked roughly 70% of the time.
They had no concept of hormones or human biology. They simply observed, documented, and happened to stumble onto a diagnostic technique that held merit for thousands of years before anyone could explain it.
Starting to see a trend?
Three customs. Three problems. Three solutions that range from questionable to genuinely ahead of their time. It is easy to look back at the ancient world and feel a comfortable sense of superiority. We have the internet, antibiotics and fly swatters that don’t require the defiling of another human being. But the Egyptians were working with what they had, observing the world around them with a rigor that most civilizations would not match for centuries to come. Yes, some of their conclusions were most definitely wrong, but many of them were correct, not because they knew why or how, but just because they were.
And, if we are being honest, that is what makes them so much more interesting.
Did you Know?
Pharaohs were almost certainly always clean shaven, the long braided beards you see in statues were fake, worn to imitate the god Osiris. Even Egypt's first female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, strapped one on.
Ancient Egyptians trained baboons to help catch criminals. They were also used to pick fruit and make beer. Some owners loved them so much they got baboon tattoos.
thrilling read mr odd historian
Very entertaining!