DOCTOR MY EYES

Egyptologists are still seeking the tomb of the first known universal genius. Pharaoh Zoser’s grand vizier, Imhotep,  was not only an architect, engineer, and inventor of the pyramid but administrator, sage, and healer of the sick. Posterity has made him a god. Although the trail has been warm,  a definite trace of the sanctuary is still to be discovered.

Imhotep

Imhotep

To the atheists, one god is one too many. The Egyptians liked the plural concept of deities, quantum gods, bunches of them, but with only one being worshipped at a time, though all were eternal.One god was simply not enough and not well equipped to deal with the tasks at hand. The chasm between joy and sorrow, ecstasy and calamity required additional support.  There are many mysteries about Imhotep; he may have been the first Egyptian god to make room for levity and condone the ability to smile at one another.

In Egypt’s well-filled pantheon Imhotep is one of the very, very few who can boast of promotion from mortal to immortal being. Egytologists of the nineteenth-century were skeptical about his human origins. At that time the only information available derived from accounts written two and a half millenniums after his presumed lifetime. There was, for example, the terse statement in a chronicle of the Pharaohs by Maneto , an Egyptian priest who lived in the third century B.C. and wrote in Greek. Under the entry for Zoser I, Manetho noted that ”during his reign, lived Imhotep, who, because of his medical skill has the reputation of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, among the Egyptians and who was the inventor of the art of building with hewn stone. He also devoted attention to writing”.

''The Djoser pyramid complex in Egypt is surrounded by a high wall.  It contains several buildings that may have been used for trading the grain stored in the massive underground silo’s also contained within the complex.  The step pyramid was the first pyramid built in Egypt.  The Pyramid is set over the underground Tomb of Pharaoh Djoser.  Unlike other pyramids, the tomb was underground and there are alternative entrances to the tomb.  Imhotep is credited for designing the complex.''

''The Djoser pyramid complex in Egypt is surrounded by a high wall. It contains several buildings that may have been used for trading the grain stored in the massive underground silo’s also contained within the complex. The step pyramid was the first pyramid built in Egypt. The Pyramid is set over the underground Tomb of Pharaoh Djoser. Unlike other pyramids, the tomb was underground and there are alternative entrances to the tomb. Imhotep is credited for designing the complex.''

Manetho certainly thought Imhotep was a human, noted particularly as a doctor, architect, and author, but what was his authority for thinking so? In 1926, however, the question was settles for once and for all. The excavations then going on at the Step Pyramid produced numerous fragments of a statue of Zoser. On its base were inscribed the names of Zoser and of ”Imhotep, Chancellor of the King of Lower Egypt, Chief under the King.” No question about it, there had been a man named Imhotep, and like many an Egyptian official, he had dedicated a statue to his Pharaoh.


Putting together whatever facts are now known and fleshing them out with some guesswork has allowed the experts to sketch out Imhotep’s career in a general way. He was born at Memphis, the son of a man named kanofer, who stood high in the Egyptian hierarchy, serving as Chief of Works. As was common in ancient Egypt, the son succeeded his father. In this office, Imhotep’s most important project , naturally, was the construction of a fittingly impressive grave monument for his master.

''On the left, king Ptolemy presents an offering of wine to Imhotep and the god Ptah.  On the right is a drawing by Champollion: the Pharaoh before Imhotep.  (Behind Imhotep : 7 rays of the sun).''

''On the left, king Ptolemy presents an offering of wine to Imhotep and the god Ptah. On the right is a drawing by Champollion: the Pharaoh before Imhotep. (Behind Imhotep : 7 rays of the sun).''

Following the fashion of the day, he started to build him a mastaba. At some point Imhotep changed his mind, and what resulted was in effect six square mastabas, each smaller than the next, piled one upon the other like a child’s building blocks; the Step Pyramid, first of the pyramid tombs and prototype of the mammoth trio at Giza.

Imhotep’s creative touch can be seen not only in the form of the new monument but in its size and construction as well. Measuring 413 feet by 344 feet at the base and towering upward for 200 feet, the Step Pyramid dwarfed the mastabas surrounding it. And, while cut stone had before been used only for paving floors or lining chamber walls, the rest being of mud brick, Imhotep used it for the entire tomb complex; the pyramid, the courts and chapels, the decorative columns, above all the magnificent wall, more than a mile long, that enclosed the complex.


ph.jpg">Zoser. The eyes are empty, for the inlays were removed sometime in antiquity. It is one of the world's earliest royal portraits.

Zoser. The eyes are empty, for the inlays were removed sometime in antiquity. It is one of the world's earliest royal portraits.

The Step Pyramid was the world’s first important structure in stone. Manetho was right in calling its architect the ”inventor of the art of building with hewn stone”. Curiously, however, the stones are all small brick-shaped pieces, a far cry from the mighty ten ton blocks used in the Great Pyramids. It seems Imhotep, for all his trail blazing, could not shake off the influence of Egypt’s traditional building material.

As it happens, there are no contemporary references to him as a doctor, but this need not mean too much. One of his numerous offices was that of Chief Lector Priest, a post involving the reading of sacred books believed by the people to have magic powers; and Egyptian medicine, for all its remarkable accomplishments, never appeared to be far removed from superstition and magic.

It was his reputation as a writer and administrator that started Imhotep on the road to godhood. By New Kingdom times, around 1500 B.C. he had achieved the status of a sage. Poets sang reverently of his wise words, and scribes, when they mixed water with lampblack to make ink, poured out the last drop as a libation in his honor. It was only in the sixth-century B.C. , that Imhotep began his ascent to divine status. First he was advanced to the rank of a demi-god. Likenesses of him at this stage show him as a priest or learned man. He has a clean shaven head, sometimes covered with a skullcap, wears an apron and sandals, and sits pensively with an open scroll of papyrus on his lap. A multitude of bronze statuettes have been unearthed, the Louvre alone has fifty, many of which show him thus. They are probably votives offered by grateful worshippers.

Imhotep

Imhotep

Then, about the time that Egypt fell under the domination of the Greek Ptolemies, in the third century B.C. , Imhotep was exalted to full-fledged membership in the pantheon. He became Egypt’s god of medicine. His adherents forgot about his mortal father and endowed him with a divine one; to them he was the son of Ptah, the god par excellence of his birthplace. The statuettes of the shaven headed priest gave way to a new likeness showing a deity complete with beard and with a scepter in one hand and the symbol of life and happiness in another.

The Greeks, who were now settled throughout Egypt as the ruling class, identified Imhotep with their own god of medicine, Asclepius. Here flocked the sick to be cured, the crippled to be made whole, the sterile to be rendered fertile.Egyptians, Greeks ,the Romans who soon succeeded the Greeks as masters of Egypt; all came to implore his help , and kept coming for centuries. It appears that during the long period of Roman rule, he acquired greater and greater stature until, by at least the fourth century A.D. , he had become the major god of Memphis. Then, having reached this pinnacle, he was toppled from it into oblivion by the wave of Christianity that triumphantly engulfed Egypt when Christianity was made the state religion of the Roman Empire.

''There is also a statue is of a scribe, Ptah-Shepses (5th Dynasty) from Abu Sir. There are two types of scribe statues – reading and writing. This statue of Ptah-Shepses is a reading scribe.''

''There is also a statue is of a scribe, Ptah-Shepses (5th Dynasty) from Abu Sir. There are two types of scribe statues – reading and writing. This statue of Ptah-Shepses is a reading scribe.''

How did Imhotep heal? Certainly in part through the skill and experience of the priests who staffed his places of worship. However, he also enjoyed the potent aid of unquestioning faith on the part of his patients. Supremely confident in their god’s ability, they went to his temple, composed themselves to pass the night there, and during sleep were mysteriously administered a cure. It seemed to come in a dream induced vision.

”It is Imhotep says Sir William Osler, who was the real Father of Medicine. “The first figure of a physician to stand out clearly from the mists of antiquity.” Imhotep diagnosed and treated over 200 diseases, 15 diseases of the abdomen, 11 of the bladder, 10 of the rectum, 29 of the eyes, and 18 of the skin, hair, nails and tongue. Imhotep treated tuberculosis, gallstones, appendicitis, gout and arthritis. He also performed surgery and practiced some dentistry. Imhotep extracted medicine from plants. He also knew the position and function of the vital organs and circulation of the blood system. The Encyclopedia Britannica says, ‘The evidence afforded by Egyptian and Greek texts support the view that Imhotep’s reputation was very respected in early times…His prestige increased with the lapse of centuries and his temples in Greek times were the centers of medical teachings.’ ”

One of the unsung theories of Imhotep claims that archaeologists are unable to locate his sanctuary for the simple reason his remains are not in Egypt. This theory  hlds that Imhotep is actually the Biblical Joseph who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers and that Moses and the Priests departed with his remains during the Exodus.

This view is detailed by David Rohl, rogue Egyptologist, who believes that the academic world has dated the ancient world incorrectly. Until the last five years, most scholars didn’t give him the time of day, much less the time of Egypt.  But recently, astronomical dating on lunar events recorded in ancient times confirms Rohl’s dates as close as four years! Rohl’s new timeline is being hailed by some as the “round earth” for Biblical archeology. He is an unbeliever and claims no religious dogma, yet he confirms the existence of Joseph based on archeological digs dated to this time period.

One of the logical ways to begin dating Joseph is to discover ancient famines in Egypt. The ancient Egyptians  kept records detailing the most important agricultural event of the year, the flooding of the Nile. Flood records show the Nile flooded four times its normal size (27 feet higher than normal) during this era which would have made seed sowing impossible for years, creating famine.  To handle the influx of water, a new channel was dug at this time which retains its name from antiquity to this day: Bahr Yussef, the Waterway of Joseph. Pharaoh Amenemhat III built his pyramid overlooking this drainage channel. Financial records show that fortunes were in sharp decline and a new agricultural department was established called “the Department of People’s Giving.” This could be the system Joseph utilized to collect the grain given years in advance to the shortage.

12th Dynasty, Semitic grave artifacts are abundant in the area of the delta called Avaris, the Biblical Goshen. Some archeologists believe Joseph was entombed in a pyramid in his palace complex in Avaris. ”When excavated, Joseph’s pyramid tomb turned out to be empty. ‘But that’s consistent with his dying wish to be returned to the Promised Land,’ argues Rohl. ‘At the exodus, they took his body with them.’ What was found in the chapel of the tomb, however, was a busted-up painted statue of an Asiatically pale fellow with reddish hair adorned with the multicoloured coat of a middle Bronze Age chieftain.” ( Times Online )
Ptahwer (speculated to be Potiphar) is the name of a man in service to Amenemhat III. His name is found on an inscription in Sinai. This is another link connecting Joseph to the reign of Amenenhat III.

Related Posts

This entry was posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Miscellaneous, Visual Art/Sculpture/etc. and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.