Ca. 1600BCE

Edwin Smith Papyrus, ancient Egyptian scroll on practical management of traumatic wounds. Document acquired by American Egyptologist Edwin Smith in 1862, but only published in translation by historian J. Ames Breasted in 1930 and reissued in a new translation, with commentaries, in 2012 (W. Moore; Vargas; Sanchez I & Meltzer). In the Papyrus, the swnw (physician) at bedside placed his hand right into the patient’s open wound, “conveying in this ritualized act control, reassurance, and healing” (Stepansky II, 196).