Prosthetics for Osiris: Evidence for Assistive Technology in Ancient Egypt

Abstract

Recently there has been an increasing trend to interpret disability as a part of personal identity rather than a condition or conditions to be suffered. Recognizing the diversity of approaches to indfigividual abilities and the variety of cultural viewpoints surrounding disability, it is time to examine how people with disabilities were perceived and how they perceived themselves in the ancient world. The large number of available remains, rich material culture, and existing written and visual records make Egypt an excellent case study for exploring individual and cultural perceptions of ability, disability, and accommodation in the past. This chapter reviews extant finds in order to critically examine material evidence for disability and accommodation among elites from various periods of Ancient Egypt. The material culture shows how people who might be recognized as having physical disabilities today were accommodated in Ancient Egypt. Accommodations range from simple canes to more complex walking devices. Perhaps most striking is the presence of some of the earliest prosthetic devices in Egyptian burials. These prostheses can be merely ornamental or fully functional and were clearly made to aid not only in life, but also in the afterlife. Together with paleopathological evidence of disability during life provided by mummified human remains, these individuals and their burials offer a revealing glimpse into what it was like to live and die with a disability in the age of the Pharaohs