Papyrus Berlin 3027: spells and remedies for mother and child
An Eighteenth Dynasty papyrus places remedies and spells for mothers and children together. Does our modern line between treatment and ritual fit this text?
What the Berlin papyrus edition shows
The Science in Ancient Egypt project describes Papyrus Berlin P 3027 as a compilation in hieratic, in Middle Egyptian, on a papyrus scroll now in the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection in Berlin. Its find spot is unknown, and it is dated between the reigns of Amenhotep I and Amenhotep II in the 18th Dynasty. Science in Ancient Egypt / Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities ↗
What it contains
The project classifies the text under medicine and lists recipes, incantations, children's diseases, and discomforts of the female breast and genital area. Erman published it in 1901 under the title 'Zaubersprüche für Mutter und Kind', spells for mother and child. Science in Ancient Egypt / Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities ↗
Whose categories are medicine and magic?
The research record uses this papyrus to test modern category boundaries. A recipe and a spell sit in the same text, sometimes in the same paragraph. Ask whether sorting them into 'medicine' and 'magic' reflects the scribe's view or only ours.
Did the scribe separate cure from spell?
If a remedy was spoken as well as applied, which part would a patient and a scribe each have considered the treatment?