January 29, 2025
Family Matters: Charlotte Rose on Ancient Egyptian Medical Magic for Women and Children
Roots of Magic Interview 3
We discuss ancient Egyptian medical/magical texts, materia, and practices with Charlotte Rose, who is investigating the material culture of Egyptian medical-magical spells.
We start with some basics: we get a handle on the various kingdoms and intermediate periods of ancient Egyptian history, and then touch on the dangers inherent in childbirth and childhood in ancient Egypt (and in premodern cultures more generally).
We then discuss the material dossier of ancient Egyptian childbirth-magic, including protective amulets, ‘birth-bricks’ upon which the labouring woman would squat or kneel, ‘birth-wands’, figurines of protective deities, and other impedimenta, and the textual dossier of spells written on papyrus devoted to protecting mothers and children, stopping miscarriage, speeding birth, and a host of other medical matters. We attempt to get some kind of picture of what the birthing-chamber might have looked like: who was there aside from the mother and her unborn child? What were these people doing? Aside form the normal perils of childbirth, ancient Egyptian mothers had to worry about the presence of the evil dead in the space of birth, in which the realms of the living and the not-yet-alive open a window on the realm of the dead. We discuss this liminality and its magico-religious expression in our magical dossier.
Download Charlotte Rose on Egyptian Childbirth Magic
Interview Bio:
Charlotte Rose is a research fellow at the DFG Centre for Advanced Studies MagEIA. Her academia page has more information on her work.
Works Cited in the Interview (all papyri!):
Papyrus Kahun: M. A. Collier – S. G. C. Quirke, The UCL Lahun Papyri.. Religious, literary, legal, mathematical, and medical, British Archaeological Reports – International Series 1209 (Oxford 2004), 58–64.
Papyrus Berlin 3027 (aka “Mutter und Kind”, “Mother and Child”): N. Yamazaki, Zaubersprüche für Mutter und Kind: Papyrus Berlin 3027, ACHET – Schriften zur Ägyptologie B2 (Berlin 2003)
Papyrus Ebers: Fischer-Elfert 2005: H.-W. Fischer-Elfert (Ed.), Papyrus Ebers und die antike Heilkunde. Akten der Tagung vom 15. – 16.3.2002 in der Albertina, UB der Universität Leipzig, Philippika 7 (Wiesbaden 2005)..
Papyrus Westcar: D. Bagnato, The Westcar Papyrus: a transliteration, translation and language analysis (Vienna 2006).
Recommended Reading:
Barinet, Thierry. Médecines et magiciens à la cour du pharaon: Une étude du Papyrus médical Louvre E 32847. Paris: Musée du Louvre/Institut Khéops 2018. Pages 48-54.
von Deines, H., H. Grapow, and W. Westendorf, Grundriss der Medizin der alten Ägypter: IV,1-2. Übersetzung der medizinischen Texte. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1958.
Richard-Alain, J. and A-M. Loyrette. La Mere, l’enfant et le lait en Egypte ancienne: traditions médico-religieuses; une étude de sénologie égyptienne (textes médicaux des papyrus Ramesseum nos. III et IV). Paris: L’Harmattan, 2010.
Monteiro Santos, Jessica Alexandra. “The magical spells as a source to study ancient Egyptian children’s protection: An overview,” in M.H. Trindade Lopes et al., Ancient Egypt 2017: Perspectives of Research, pp. 223-230. Travaux de l’Institut des Cultures Mediterraneennes et Orientales de l’Academie Polonaise des Sciences 6. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2020.
Quack, J. F. Altägyptische Amulette und ihre Handhabung. ORA 31. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002.
Charlotte Rose. Childbirth Magic in Ancient Egypt: Deciphering Bed Figurines from Ancient Egypt. Expedition Magazine, 58(3):38-45, Winter 2016.
Westendorf, Wolfhart. Handbuch der altägyptischen Medizin. Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, 1999.
Image-Gallery:
Keywords: Donkeys, Egypt, Interview, Magic, Medicine
