Scientist probes a medical riddle from ancient Egypt

Jul 30 2007 by Jessica Shaughnessy, Liverpool Daily Post

A WIRRAL scientist is trying to prove whether a 3,000 year-old artificial toe from ancient Egypt is the world’s earliest known prosthetic body part.

Egyptologist Jacky Finch from Bromborough is lead researcher on the University of Manchester’s pioneering study into the Cairo Toe.

A cunning contraption of wood and leather attached to the mummified right foot of an Egyptian woman kept at Cairo Museum, it is thought the toe could be the oldest functional prosthesis ever identified.

If true, the toe will pre-date what is currently considered to be the earliest known practical prosthesis, an artificial leg from 300BC, by several hundred years.

Ms Finch is recruiting volunteers whose right big toe has been lost in order to test an exact replica of the artificial toe.

A model of a second false Egyptian big toe on display in the British Museum will also be tested at the Human Performance Laboratory at nearby University of Salford.

Ms Finch said: “The toes date from between 1000 and 600BC, so if we can prove that one or both were functional then we will have pushed back prosthetic medicine by as much as 700 years.

“The Cairo toe is the most likely of the two to be functional as it is articulated and shows signs of wear.

“It is still attached to the foot of the mummy of a female between 50 and 60 years of age. The amputation site is also well healed.” The British Museum artefact, named the Greville Chester Great Toe, is made from cartonnage, a sort of papier maché made using linen, glue and plaster.

Although it also shows signs of wear, it does not appear to allow for movement, unlike the Cairo Toe, which is made out of three pieces.

The discovery would point to the possibility that surgical skills in Egypt were more advanced then believed.

It could also mean that healer priests of the time may have had the ability to perform simple amputations, possibly using cauterisation to stop infection and blood flow.

Research into the toe is being carried out at the university’s KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology, the first specifically designated research centre for the investigation of Egyptian mummies in the world.

The investigations, which will be completed this year, mark the first practical effort to prove the theory that the Egyptians possessed the medical knowledge to design and fit artificial limbs. But the Egyptians sent their dead off in style and there is a possibility the appendage could have been a funeral adornment.

jessicashaughnessy