Curing a Hangover the Ancient Egyptian Way
Sticking your head in a hedge is a common result of overindulgence in wine, but it's also a cure, apparently.
Forget the greasy
breakfast and reruns of 30 Rock – the ancient Egyptians have offered up a
new hangover cure for those who perhaps had one too many glasses of
Muscat of Alexandria the night before.
The catchily-named Oxyrhynchus Papyrus – a collection of medical
texts from 2000 years ago – suggests that those suffering from a
"drunken headache" should wear a necklace made of Alexandrian laurel
around their neck. This is meant to ease any ill effects from
overindulgence, and potentially worked by causing a lot of self
consciousness that served as distraction from the headache at hand.
Alexandria laurel is native to the eastern Mediterranean and is thought to be the very same laurel associated with winning Olympians and poets. It also goes by the name of Danae racemosa as well as Poet's laurel, which begs the question – will this hangover cure turn your drunken ramblings into beautifully constructed prose? Probably not.
The ancient Egyptians were great wine drinkers, using wine for ceremonial purposes as well as for leisure. Depictions of winemaking have been found on tomb walls, along with raucous party scenes. Interestingly, the unpleasant after-effects of overdoing the wine have been recorded in the same way. It therefore makes sense that they would have their very own addition to the world of dubious hangover cures, joining snails rubbed on the forehead (the Romans) and downing a pint of buttermilk (the Scots).
The papyri were dug up as part of a major excavation of an ancient rubbish dump at Oxyrhynchus in 1896, and experts have been translating the almost 500,000 documents since. The collection of medical texts that forms the 80th volume of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri has offered historians new insight into medical practices in ancient Egypt. The document is nearly 2000 years old and contains doctors' notes, recipes and details of surgical procedures, as well as writings by Hippocrates, the father of western medicine and Galen, an important Greek physician.
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Alexandria laurel is native to the eastern Mediterranean and is thought to be the very same laurel associated with winning Olympians and poets. It also goes by the name of Danae racemosa as well as Poet's laurel, which begs the question – will this hangover cure turn your drunken ramblings into beautifully constructed prose? Probably not.
The ancient Egyptians were great wine drinkers, using wine for ceremonial purposes as well as for leisure. Depictions of winemaking have been found on tomb walls, along with raucous party scenes. Interestingly, the unpleasant after-effects of overdoing the wine have been recorded in the same way. It therefore makes sense that they would have their very own addition to the world of dubious hangover cures, joining snails rubbed on the forehead (the Romans) and downing a pint of buttermilk (the Scots).
The papyri were dug up as part of a major excavation of an ancient rubbish dump at Oxyrhynchus in 1896, and experts have been translating the almost 500,000 documents since. The collection of medical texts that forms the 80th volume of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri has offered historians new insight into medical practices in ancient Egypt. The document is nearly 2000 years old and contains doctors' notes, recipes and details of surgical procedures, as well as writings by Hippocrates, the father of western medicine and Galen, an important Greek physician.
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