Mediterr. J. Otol 2007; 3:(1)

Otology and Paleopathology in Ancient Egypt

Albert Mudry, Wolfgang Pirsig. amudry@worldcom.ch

Like the classical study of medical papyri, paleopathology uncovers interesting facts concerning ear diseases in ancient Egypt. Three paleopathologic sources are available for the study of ancient otologic disorders: skulls, mummified heads, and middle ear ossicles, all of which will be reviewed in this article. At the beginning of the 20th century, the first studies of skulls with mastoiditis were published. In the second half of the 20th century, the study of mummified heads began to interest ear, nose, and throat specialists. The most well-known mummified heads with a tympanic membrane perforation are housed at the Pennsylvania University Museum in Philadelphia, US (the mummy of PUM II) and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada (the mummy of ROM I). Less well-known mummies can be found in the Mook Collection of the Institute of Anthropology in Munich, Germany. Recently, the study of auditory ossicles excavated in 1988 from a necropolis near Minshat Abu Omar in the eastern Nile delta by the second author (W. P.) added new information to the science of otologic paleopathology: One hundred and sixty-one ossicles from the Ptolemaic period showed signs of bone erosion that was probably caused by middle ear infection. The reading of medical papyri promotes the study of the symptoms of ear diseases without the benefit of the clinical and pathologic images of those diseases, both of which are provided by paleopathologic analysis. Experts have concluded that middle ear infections and their sequelae were indeed present in ancient Egypt.