Inventions & Discoveries · Medicine and health

Edwin Smith Papyrus

c. 1600 BCE · 17th century BCE

The Edwin Smith Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian medical text and the oldest known surgical treatise on trauma, copied c. 1600 BCE, probably at Thebes, from an original that may date from the Old Kingdom. Written in hieratic on a scroll 4.68 metres long, it sets out 48 cases of injury, each with examination, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, and largely avoids magic. Named after the American Egyptologist who bought it in Luxor in 1862, it has been kept at the New York Academy of Medicine since 1948.

Edwin Smith Papyrus
Image: Jeff Dahl · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

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First known
c. 1600 BCE
Where
Thebes, Egypt

NoteThe surviving copy may reproduce an older original of the Old Kingdom; the suggestion that Imhotep wrote it is conjecture.

Built onPapyrusc. 3000 BCE

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See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Edwin Smith Papyrus. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/edwin-smith-papyrus
MLA
“Edwin Smith Papyrus.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/edwin-smith-papyrus. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Edwin Smith Papyrus.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/edwin-smith-papyrus.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Edwin Smith Papyrus’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/edwin-smith-papyrus (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻