Peseshet () who lived under the Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (albeit a date in the Fifth Dynasty is also possible), is often credited with being the earliest known female

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

in history. Some have credited Merit-Ptah with being the first female physician, but she is likely a fictional creation based upon Peseshet. Peseshet’s relevant title was "lady overseer of the female physicians," but whether she was a physician herself is uncertain. She also had the titles ''king's acquaintance'', and ''overseer of funerary-priests of the king's mother''. She is believed to have had a son, Akhethetep, in whose mastaba at

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah, Gizeh, Geeza, Jiza''; , , ' ) is the third-largest city in Egypt by area after Cairo and Alexandria; and fourth-largest city in Africa by population after Kinshasa, Lagos, and Cairo. It is the capital of ...

her personal false door was found. However, the mother-son relation of Akhethetep and Peseshet is not confirmed by any inscription. On the false door is also depicted a man called Kanefer. He might be her husband. Akhethetep and Kanefer were both high-ranking individuals who lived during the

fourth dynasty of Egypt The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from to c. 2498 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with othe ...

and served as officers. She may have graduated midwives at an ancient Egyptian medical school in Sais.

''Storm Cycle''

Peseshet's history plays a key role in the 2009 novel ''Storm Cycle'' by Roy and Iris Johansen, which tells the story of an archaeologist seeking to obtain and sell cures and treatments that the novel's Peseshet is said to have discovered, and of a researcher whose only hope of saving her sister may lie in one of those cures.

Merit-Ptah

In 1938, Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead wrote of an ancient Egyptian female physician named Merit-Ptah. Her writings about Merit-Ptah were nearly identical to the facts of Peseshet’s life as discovered in Akhethetep’s tomb, with only Peseshet’s name and location of the tomb changed. It is unclear where Hurd-Mead got the name Merit-Ptah, but it is possible that she was inspired by Merit-Ptah the wife of Ramose.

References

Ancient Egyptian physicians Ancient women physicians Ancient Egyptian medicine Ancient Egyptian women {{med-hist-stub Ancient women scientists 3rd-millennium BC births 3rd-millennium BC deaths