The Carlsberg papyrus is an ancient Egyptian medical papyrus. Mainly written in hieratic and demotic, with some components written in Ancient Greek and hieroglyphics, the Carlsberg Papyrus is the most abundant ancient Egyptian medical papyri, containing more substantial amounts of artifacts of the original papyri than other medical papyri collections.[1] The papyrus deals mainly with treatment for eye diseases and pregnancy. It currently resides in the Egyptological Institute of the University of Copenhagen. [1][2]
Contents |
Some fragments of the Carlsberg papyrus collection date back to ca. 2000 B.C., while others — such as the Tebtunis manuscripts — date back to ca. 1st century A.D.[1]
Aksel Volten was keeper of the collection since 1943. By 1954 he was able to enlarge it substantially through new acquisitions with funds mainly provided by the Carlsberg Foundation.[1]
Most of the texts are written in hieratic and demotic scripts, although there are several texts written in hieroglyphs and in Greek. The actual contents of the papyrus vary greatly, but it focuses mainly on treatment for eye diseases and pregnancy. The structure of the papyrus bears great resemblance to that of the Kahun and Berlin papyri.[1][2]
The collection was further expanded through acquisitions from Professor H. O. Lange and Professor C. E. Sander-Hansen, private owners of several papyri. Two Coptic codices purchased from Carl Schmidt and the Teaching of King Merikare further added to the collection.[1]
More than six hundred individual manuscripts have been recorded, some of which have been pieced together from dozens or even hundreds of fragments.[1]