Magyar László szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 170-173. (Budapest, 2000)

KÖZLEMÉNYEK — COMMUNICATIONS - Győry, Hedvig: "Providing protection to a new-born on the day of his birth ". Extra-and intrauterine complications and abnormalities in ancient Egypt. — „Az újszülött védelméről gondoskodni születése napján ". Méhen kívüli és belüli komplikációk és rendellenességek az ősi Egyiptomban

spina bifida and Sprengel'

s deformity already while in the womb.

80 In the Catacombs in Hermopolis, among the apes dedicated to Thot there was a creature with anencephaly malformation of the skull, just in the same position as those animals used to be. The result of the 1974 year X-ray examination was the realisation, that it was a still-born human foetus at 7 months gestation time.

81 Another congenital disorder is the osteogenesis imperfecta fetalis. There are only three archeological examples for the moment. The Egyptian one is from Speos Artemidos. The dating of the coffin indicates that the infant was born during the 21

st Dynasty.

82 A baby born with the abnormality cleft palate and/or lip

83 when severely afflicted was unable to be nursed or feed and would often die. Those surviving babies who reached adulthood as a result of extreme care of the community could have difficulties later on to produce proper or at least intelligible articulation or even consuming food. This might have been the case with a Nubian woman (London, Natural History Museum) or at a middle aged Egyptian woman found near Asyut (25

th Dynasty).

84 Most of the foeti with hydrocephalus

85 were likely to die together with their mother in childbirth. But this condition can be developed also shortly after being born e.g. because of perinatal trauma, tumour or infections. Such could be the case at a small girl (L: 0,85 cm) from the New Kingdom,

86 who was buried with rich supplement into her tomb, or to the Roman time man of 30 in Shurafa.

87 His cranial capacity was 2901,4 m

3

. In his case it seems if his fully developed skull went through such a transformation.

88 Less tragic congenital defect is talipes equinovarus — clubfoot —, which can be clearly seen on the mummy of Pharaoh Siptah

89 — though it can develop also because of poliomyelitis. The relative frequency of the symptom is attested by the fact, that it also appears on representations.

90 Other congenital conditions are sacralisation,

91 multiple basal-cell 80 R.G. Harrison

—R.C. Connolly

—S. Ahmed

—A.B. Abdalla

—

M. E.-Ghawabi: A Mummified foetus from the Tomb of Tutakhamon, Antiquity, 53, 1979, p. 19—21; Renate Germer: Mummies. Life after Death in Ancient Egypt, Munich—New York, 1997, p. 65—69. 81 Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire: Communication faite à l'Académie royale des Science, dans sa séance du 9 janvier 1826, in: Joseph Passalacqua: Catalogue raisonné et historique des antiquités découvertes en Egypte, Paris, 1826, p. 231—233. Joyce Filer: Disease, London, 1995, p. 63; Renate Germer: Mumien. Zeugen Pharaonenreiches, Zürich—

Munich, 1991, p. 150—151. 82 Joyce Filer: o.e., p. 64. 83 E.g. Theya I. Molleson: o.e., p. 141. (Cemetery 72, Roman), cf. grooves on the ear at children, in whose mouth they have found disorder after birth see Winifred S. Blackman: The Fellahin of Upper Egypt, Cairo, 2000, p. 56. 84 Joyce Filer: o.e., p. 64—65: excavation by Guy Brunton; A.T. Sandison: o.e., p. 29—44. 85 George J. Armelagos

—James O. Mills: Paleopathology as Science: the contribution of Egyptology, in: Walker R. ed.: Biological Anthropology and the Study of Ancient Egypt, London, 1993, p. 4. 86 Bernard Bruyère: Rapport sur les fouilles de Deir el-Medineh, 1934-5, IL: La nécropole de l'Est, FIFAO 15, Le Caire, 1937, p. 166—167. 87 Reginald Engelbach, in: Pétrie

—Macay: Heliopolis, Kafr Ammar and Shurafa, London, 1915, p. 47—48, pl. 56 (= Journal of Anatomy and Physiology 47, July 1913.) 88 Joyce Filer: o.e., p. 66. 89 James E, Harns

—Edward F. Wente: An X-Ray Atlas of Royal Mummies, Chicago

—London, 1980, p. 69, 292— 294, fig. 8.25 and 8.26 90 Newberry: Beni Hassan II, London, 1893, p. 36, pi. 32. = Jacques Vandier: Manuel d'archéologie Égyptienne, V. Bas-reliefs et peintures scenes de la vie quotidienne, Paris, 1969, p. 207, fig. 98.2 = Alfred Rupp: Der Zwerg in der Ägyptischen Gemeinschaft. Studien zur Ägyptischen Anthropologie, CdÉ 40/80, 1965, p. 303, 2C, 1 Or, 25, 3: Beni Hassan, tomb of Baqt I. (no. 29), Dyn. 11—

12

nd

; Norman de Garis Davies: The Rock Tombs of el-