A few years ago I was on one of the cable channels watched show on construction of the Egyptian pyramids, among other things it was mentioned that the construction of the first pyramid was associated with consolidating all Egyptian tribes with one goal in one place, thus creating the beginnings of the Egyptian empire. It was talked about life workers on the pyramid, construction of the first cities around of the pyramid, and all that in order to Pharaoh, who was the personification of God, after death, receives his eternal resting place, as well as eternal life in the heart of the pyramid. Workers themselves lived with their families in the settlements around the pyramid, means they have accommodations provided , also, their wages were paid in the form of food, and all those who have been injured at work or they get sick, they were treated by the then physicians, then i first time indicative heard that at the time of ancient Egypt was health care... These days, surfing the internet I came across these texts, and remembered the same issue a few years ago...

Paid sick days and physicians at work: ancient Egyptians had state-supported health care

AUTHOR

Anne Austin

Postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University

We might think of state supported health care as an innovation of the 20th century, but it’s a much older tradition than that. In fact, texts from a village dating back to Egypt’s New Kingdom period, about 3,100-3,600 years ago, suggest that in ancient Egypt there was a state-supported health care network designed to ensure that workers making the king’s tomb were productive.

The village of Deir el-Medina was built for the workmen who made the royal tombs during the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BCE). During this period, kings were buried in the Valley of the Kings in a series of rock-cut tombs, not the enormous pyramids of the past. The village was purposely built close enough to the royal tomb to ensure that workers could hike there on a weekly basis.

These workmen were not what we normally picture when we think about the men who built and decorated ancient Egyptian royal tombs – they were highly skilled craftsmen. The workmen at Deir el-Medina were given a variety of amenities afforded only to those with the craftsmanship and knowledge necessary to work on something as important as the royal tomb.

The village was allotted extra support: the Egyptian state paid them monthly wages in the form of grain and provided them with housing and servants to assist with tasks like washing laundry, grinding grain and porting water. Their families lived with them in the village, and their wives and children could also benefit from these provisions from the state.

Among these texts are numerous daily records detailing when and why individual workmen were absent from work. Nearly one-third of these absences occur when a workman was too sick to work. Yet, monthly ration distributions from Deir el-Medina are consistent enough to indicate that these workmen were paid even if they were out sick for several days.

These texts also identify a workman on the crew designated as the swnw, physician. The physician was given an assistant and both were allotted days off to prepare medicine and take care of colleagues. The Egyptian state even gave the physician extra rations as payment for his services to the community of Deir el-Medina.

This physician would have most likely treated the workmen with remedies and incantations found in his medical papyrus. About a dozen extensive medical papyri have been identified from ancient Egypt, including one set from Deir el-Medina.

These texts were a kind of reference book for the ancient Egyptian medical practitioner, listing individual treatments for a variety of ailments. The longest of these, Papyrus Ebers, contains over 800 treatments covering anything from eye problems to digestive disorders. As an example, one treatment for intestinal worms requires the physician to cook the cores of dates and colocynth, a desert plant, together in sweet beer. He then sieved the warm liquid and gave it to the patient to drink for four days.

Just like today, some of these ancient Egyptian medical treatments required expensive and rare ingredients that limited who could actually afford to be treated, but the most frequent ingredients found in these texts tended to be common household items like honey and grease. One text from Deir el-Medina indicates that the state rationed out common ingredients to a few men in the workforce so that they could be shared among the workers.

Despite paid sick leave, medical rations and a state-supported physician, it is clear that in some cases the workmen were actually working through their illnesses.

For example in one text, the workman Merysekhmet attempted to go to work after being sick. The text tells us that he descended to the King’s Tomb on two consecutive days, but was unable to work. He then hiked back to the village of Deir el-Medina where he stayed for the next ten days until he was able to work again. Though short, these hikes were steep: the trip from Deir el-Medina to the royal tomb involved an ascent greater than climbing to the top of the Great Pyramid. Merysekhmet’s movements across the Theban valleys were likely at the expense of his own health.

This suggests that sick days and medical care were not magnanimous gestures of the Egyptian state, but were rather calculated health care provisions designed to ensure that men like Merysekhmet were healthy enough to work.

In cases where these provisions from the state were not enough, the residents of Deir el-Medina turned to each other. Personal letters from the site indicate that family members were expected to take care of each other by providing clothing and food, especially when a relative was sick. These documents show us that caretaking was a reciprocal relationship between direct family members, regardless of gender or age. Children were expected to take care of both parents just as parents were expected to take care of all of their children.

When family members neglected these responsibilities, there were fiscal and social consequences. In her will, the villager Naunakhte indicates that even though she was a dedicated mother to all of her children, four of them abandoned her in her old age. She admonishes them and disinherits them from her will, punishing them financially, but also shaming them in a public document made in front of the most senior members of the Deir el-Medina community.

This shows us that health care at Deir el-Medina was a system with overlying networks of care provided through the state and the community. While workmen counted on the state for paid sick leave, a physician, and even medical ingredients, they were equally dependent on their loved ones for the care necessary to thrive in ancient Egypt.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

Anne Austin receives funding from the Mellon Foundation.

The Conversation is funded by the following universities: Aberdeen, Bath Spa, Bangor, Bath, Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Brunel, Cardiff, Cardiff Metropolitan, City, Coventry, Durham, Edinburgh Napier, Essex, Glasgow Caledonian, Goldsmiths, Huddersfield, Hull, King's College, Lancaster, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Northumbria, Nottingham, The Open University, Queen Mary University of London, Queen's University Belfast, Salford, Sheffield, Southampton, Stirling, Surrey, Sussex, UCL, Warwick and York.

It also receives funding from: Hefce, Hefcw, SAGE, SFC, RCUK, The Nuffield Foundation, The Ogden Trust, The Wellcome Trust, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The Alliance for Useful Evidence

...I found another article about this theme...

Some Ancient Egyptians Had State-Sponsored Healthcare

Craftsmen who built royal tombs enjoyed sick days, designated physicians and rationed medicine—all paid by the state

By Laura Clark

smithsonian.com
February 20, 2015

State-sponsored healthcare might seem like a relatively modern concept, but Egyptian papyri texts dating back 3,100 to 3,600 years tell a different story.

These text were discovered during archeological excavations of Deir el-Medina, a village occupied during ancient Egypt’s New Kingdom period, which spanned between 1550 and 1070 B.C. The village was the home to the highly skilled craftsmen charged with creating rock-cut tombs for royalty in the Valley of the Kings.

There were real perks to being a prized, adept worker in Deir el-Medina. The workers lived alongside their families, and the state provided them with monthly payments in grain, homes and even house servants. And, as the texts reveal, the workers also received the benefits of paid sick days. As New Historian explains:

Among the texts discovered are numerous records detailing when and why individual workmen were absent from work. Almost one-third of absences were as a result of a workman being too sick to work. Monthly ration distributions from Deir el-Medina, however, were very consistent; indicating that these workmen were paid their monthly grain even if they were off work for several days.

The papyri also show that the craftsmen were provided a kind of company doctor, “a workman on the crew designated as the swnw, physician,” reported Anne Austin, the dig’s lead archaeologist. The physician, outfitted with an assistant, was paid by the state for his services and given time off to prepare treatments.

The Egyptian state was involved with the pharmaceutical treatments of the day. “One text from Deir el-Medina indicates that the state rationed out common [medicinal] ingredients to a few men in the workforce so that they could be shared among the workers,” writes the Conversation. But the distribution of treatments wasn’t always so egalitarian. As is still the case today, some concoctions required expensive ingredients that only the very wealthy could afford—and there’s no evidence suggesting that state intervened to provide such treatments more widely.

There’s also textual evidence from Deir el-Medina that family played a big role in caring for the ill and disabled—an indictation that in ancient Egypt, just as in most of the world today, a complex social system provided for those who couldn’t provide for themselves.

It isn’t hard to understand what might have fueled the Egyptian state’s benefits package for skilled craftsmen. Trained and experienced workers of this kind were valuable assets, and keeping them healthy would have helped ensure productivity in the construction of royal tombs. It wasn't exactly universal health care—but, for the craftsmen who enjoyed the privilege, it must have been a real advantage.

Source: theconversation.com

smithsonian.com

Thanks to all of what archaeologists and historians have discovered about the pyramids, even this articles which testify about health care at state level, the ancient Egyptian, due to need Pharaohs for immortality, were and realy become eternal. Even after few thousands years still testify about themselves from graves, through records, hieroglyphs, cuneiform, minutely described ceremonies. With the help of today's technology, we slowly learn what deseases infected patients, what were their diet... Increasingly we become convinced that immortality is not so unrealistic thing, but understanding immortality differ us significantly from the ancient Egyptians. We still believe in the afterlife, ehile they realized it, maybe not personified, but with the legacy that reminds us of them... Great people can not hope of immortality, they are working on it and realize that...

& & &

Pre par godina sam na jednom od kablovskih kanala gledao emisiju o gradjenju egipatskih piramida, izmedju ostalog spomenuto je da je gradjenje prvih piramida bilo povezano sa objedinjavanjem svih egipatskih plemena sa jednim ciljem i na jednom mestu, samim tim i stvaranje zacetaka Egipatskog carstva. Bilo je price i o zivotu radnika na piramidi, gradjenju prvih gradova oko piramide, a sve u cilju da faraon, koji je bio olicenje boga, posle smrti, dobije svoje vecno prebivaliste, kao i vecni zivot u samom srcu te piramide. Sami radnici su ziveli sa svojim porodicama u naseobinama oko piramide, znaci imali su obezbedjen smestaj, takodje, nadnice su im bile placane u vidu hrane, i svi oni koji su na radu bili povredjeni, ili su se razboleli, bili su leceni kod tadasnjih lekara, tada sam prvi put okvirno cuo da je u vreme starog Egipta bilo zdravstvene nege... Ovih dana, surfujuci internetom naisao sam na ovaj clanak, i setio sam se iste emisije od pre par godina...

Placeni slobodni dani i lekari na poslu: stari Egipcani su imali drzavno potpomognutu zdravstvenu zastitu

Autor

En Ostin

doktor nauka na Univerzitetu Stanford

Mogli bi smo da drzavom potpomognutu zdravstvenu zastitu zamisljamo kao inovacijom dvadesetog veka, ali ta tradicija je mnogo starija. U stvari, tekstovi iz sela, koje datira iz perioda egipatskog Novog Kraljevstva, pre oko 3100-3600 godina, sugerisu da je u drevnom Egiptu postojala mreza drzavne zdravstvene zastite, osmisljena tako, da radnici, koji su radili na gradnji kraljeve grobnice budu sto produktivniji.

Selo Deir el-Medini je izgradjeno za radnike koji su gradili kraljevske grobnice tokom Novog Kraljevstva ( 1550-1070 pre nove ere). Tokom ovog perioda kraljevi su sahranjivani u nizu grobova isklesanih u stenama, a ne u ogromnim piramidama iz proslosti. Selo je sa namerom izgradjeno dovoljno blizu kraljevske grobnice, kako bi se osiguralo da radnici tamo dolaze svake nedelje.

Ovi radnici nisu onakvi kako ih obicno zamisljamo, kada mislimo na ljude, koji su gradili drevne egipatske kraljevske grobnice- oni su bili veoma veste zanatlije. Radnici na Deir el-Medini su dobili niz pogodnosti koje se pruzaju samo izuzetno vestim zanatlijama i radnicima sa neophodnim znanjem za rad na necemu toliko vaznom kao sto je bilo gradjenje kraljevske grobnice. Selo je dobilo dodatnu podrsku: Egipatska drzava im je placala mesecne izdatke u vidu zitarica, bilo im je obezbedjeno stanovanje, kao i sluge, koje su pomagale pri zadacima kao sto je pranje vesa, mlevenje zitarica i donosenju vode. Njihove porodice su zivele sa njima u selu, a njihove zene i deca su imali koristi od ovih zakonskih odredbi drzave.

Medju ovim tekstovima su brojne dnevne evidencije o detaljima kada su i zasto pojedini radnici odustvovali sa posla. Skoro trecina ovih izostanaka se javljala kada je radnik bio isuvise bolestan da radi. Ipak, distribucija mesecnog sledovanja iz Deir el-Medine bila je dovoljno dosledna da pokaze da je tim radnicima bilo placeno, cak i kada su bili bolesni nekoliko dana.

Ovi tekstovi takodje predstavljaju i radnika oznacenog kao svnv, lekara. Lekar je imao asistenta, i obojici su bili dodeljeni slobodni dani za pripremu leka, kako bi vodili racuna o svojim kolegama. Egipatska drzava je dodelila cak i sledovanje vise lekaru, kao platu za njegove usluge u zajednici Deir el-Medine.

Ovaj lekar je najverovatnije lecio radnike pomocu lekova i molitvi nadjenih medju njegovim medicinskim papirusima. Otkriveno je oko desetak obimnih medicinskih papirusa iz drevnog Egipta, ukljucujuci jedan komplet iz Deir el-Medine.

Ovi tekstovi su bili neka vrsta medicinskog prirucnika za drevne egipatske lekare navodeci pojedinosti tretmana za razne bolesti. Najduzi medju njima, papirus Ebers, sadrzi preko 800 tretmana koji pokrivaju sve- od problema sa ocima do probavnih poremecaja. Kao primer navodi se tretman protiv crevnih parazita koji zahteva od lekara da skuva: urmu sa pustinjskom biljkom Colocynth ( rodjaka lubenice) u slatkom pivu, procedjenu tecnost pacijent pije naredna cetiri dana.

Bas kao danas , za neke od ovih drevnih egipatskih lekova bilo je neophodno prikupiti skupe i retke sastojke, koji su ogranicavali njihovu upotrebu na one ljude, koji su to mogli sebi priustiti, ali, vecina tih namirnica; med , mast…; mogla se naci kao uobicajen sastojak u svakom domacinstvu. U jednom tekstu iz Deir el-Medine, navodi se, kako je drzava rasporedila namirnice na nekoliko radnika, koji ce vrsiti dalju distribuciju medju ostalim radnicima.

Uprkos placenom bolovanju, medicinskom sledovanju I drzavnoj zdravstvenoj zastiti, jasno je da su neki radnici radili i tokom bolesti.

Primer iz jednog teksta, gde se navodi radnik Merisekhmet, koji je pokusao da ode na posao bolestan. Tekst nam govori, kako je radnik dolazio na Kraljevsku Grobnicu dva dana zaredom, ali nije bio sposoban za rad. Vrativsi se u selo Deir el-Medinu, ostao je deset dana kako bi ozdravio i nastavio sa radom. Iako kratak, put iz Deir el-Medine do Kraljevske Grobnice je strm, a uspon je veci nego penjanje na vrh Velike piramide. Citav taj put kroz dolinu Tebe je imao uticaja na njegovo zdravlje.

Iz ovoga se zakljucuje, da bolovanje i medicinska nega nisu bli velikodusni gestovi egipatske drzave, vec, prilicno proracunate odredbe zastite zdravlja u nameri da osiguraju ljude kao sto je Merisekhmet- njegovo zdravlje za rad. Iz licnih prepiski saznajemo da kada drzava nije bila u mogucnosti da pruzi dovoljno, mestani Deir el-Medine bili su upuceni jedni na druge, deleci odecu i hranu, posebno u slucaju bolesti clanova porodice. Ova prepiska nam prikazuje uzajamnu pomoc medju clanovima porodice, nezavisnu od pola i uzrasta. Od dece se ocekivalo da brinu o oba roditelja, kao sto se ocekivalo i od roditelja da brinu o svoj svojoj deci. Ako bi clanovi porodice zanemarili svoje obaveze to bi rezultiralo novcanim i drustvenim posledicama. U svom testamentu seljanka Naunakhte navodi, da iako je bila majka posvecena svoj svojoj deci, cetvoro njih je napusta, kada je ostarila. Ona ih opominje i lisava nasledstva, kaznjava ih finansijski, ali i podvrgava ruglu pred najvisim staresinama Deir el-Medine.

Ovo nam ukazuje da je zdravstvena zastita Deir el-Medine bila sistem sa isprepletenom mrezom drzavne i medjusobne pomoci. Dok radnici ocekuju placeno bolovanje, lekara, cak i medicinske sastojke od drzave, istovremeno se oslanjaju na svoje najblize kada im zatreba pomoc neophodna za napredovanje u drevnom Egiptu. 

Izjava

En Ostin dobija sredstva od Melon fondacije

Konverzacija je finansirana od strane: Aberdin, Bat Spa, Bangor, Bat, Birmingem, Bredford, Brajton, Bristol, Brunel, Kardif, Kardif Metropoliten, Siti, Koventri, Duram, Edinburg Napier, Eseks, Glazgov Kaledonia, Goldsmit Hadersfild, Hal, Kraljevski koledž, Lankaster, Lids , Lester, Liverpul, Nortumbria, Notinghem, Otvoreni univerzitet , Londonski univerzitet kraljica Meri, Kraljicin univerzitet u Belfastu, Salford, Sefild, Southempton, Stirling, Sari, Saseks, UCL, Vorvick i Jork.

Takodje dobija sredstva od: Hefca, Hefcva, SAGE, SFC, RCUK, Nafild fondacije, Ogden trasta, Velkom trasta, Esme Ferbern fondacije, i Alijanse za korisne dokaze.

...nasao sam jos jedan clanak o ovoj temi...

Drevni egipcani su imali zdravstvenu zastitu finansiranu od strane drzave

Zanatlije, graditelji kraljevske grobnice su koristili bolovanje, lekare i medicinsku zastitu

Napisala Laura Klark

smithsonian.com

20. februara 2015.

Drzavna zdrvastvena zastita izgleda kao relativno savremen koncept, ali tekstovi sa papirusa, koji datiraju od 3100. do 3600. godine pre nove ere, govore drugacije. Ovi tekstovi su otkriveni tokom arheoloskih iskopavanja Deir el-Medine, selu nastanjenom tokom Novog kraljevstva drevnog Egipta, od 1559. do 1070. godine pre nove ere. Selo je bilo postojbina jako vestih majstora, koji su isklesali gronice u stenama za plemstvo u Dolini kraljeva.

Cenjen, vican radnik je bila prava privilegija u Deir el-Medini. Radnici su ziveli zajedno sa svojim porodicama, a drzava im je davala mesecnu platu u zitaricama, kuce, cak i sluge. Tekstovi takodje otkrivaju da je drzava placala bolovanje. Kako "Novi istoricar" objasnjava:

"Medju nadjenim tekstovima su brojni zapisi, kada su i zasto pojedini radnici odsustvovali s posla. Skoro trecina odsustava je bilo zbog bolesti radnika. Mesecni pokazatelji distribucije iz Deir el-Medine su jako dosledni, ukazuju na to da je radnicima placano mesecno sledovanje zitarica, i ako su bili odustni samo nekoliko dana."

Papirusi takodje pokazuju da su zanatlije osnovale neku vrstu drustva lekara, "radnik iz ekipe je oznacen kao svnv, lekar", izvestava En Ostin, vodeci arheolog na iskopini. Za usluge i vreme provedeno na pripremi tretmana, lekare, zajedno sa asistentima je placala drzava.

Egipatska drzava je imala udela i u raspodeli lekova u toku dana: "Jedan tekst iz Deir el-Medine kaze da je drzava odredila par sposobnih ljudi, kako bi oni rasporedili lekove medju radnicima."navodi "the Conversation". Ali podela lekova nije uvek bila jednaka. Kao sto je i danas slucaj,dolazilo je do izmisljanja nepotrebno skupih sastojaka, da lekove mogu sebi da priuste samo oni najbogatiji, pa se sugerise da je drzava intervenisala kako bi lekovi bili raspodeljeni jednako.

Tu su i tekstualni dokazi iz Deir el-Medine da porodica ima velikog udela u brizi oko bolesnih i invalida, sto ukazuje da je u drevnom Egiptu, kao u danasnjem svetu, postojao slozen sistem pomoci predvidjen da pomogne onima koji ne mogu sebi obezbediti negu.

Nije tesko razumeti kako je drzava paketom ovakvih beneficija uticala na zanatlije. Ovako obuceni i iskusni radnici su bili vredni sredstava, a odrzavanje zdravlja je osiguralo produktivnost u izgradnji kraljevskih grobnica. Ovakva zdravstvena zastita nije bila univerzalna, ali je za zanatlije bila realna prednost.

Izvori: theconversation.com

       smithsonian.com

Zahvaljujuci svemu sto su arheolozi i istoricari otkrili o piramidama, pa i ovi clanci, koji svedoce o zdravstvenoj nezi na nivou drzave, stari Egipcani su zahvaljujuci potrebi njihovih Faraona za besmrtnoscu, zaista i postali besmrtni. I posle nekoliko hiljada godina jos uvek svedoce sami o sebi iz grobnica, zapisima, hijeroglifima, klinastim pismom, do tancina opisanim obredima... Uz pomoc danasnje tehnologije, polako saznajemo i od kojih bolesti su oboljevali, kakva im je bila ishrana... Sve vise bivamo uvereni da besmrtnost i nije tako nerealna stvar, ali shvatanje besmrtnosti nas znatno razlikuje od starih Egipcana... Mi jos uvek verujemo u zagrobni zivot, dok su ga oni i ostvarili, mozda ne personifikovano, ali zaostavstinom koja nas na njih podseca... Veliki ljudi se ne nadaju besmrtnosti, oni rade na tome da je i ostvare...