Yes, history can be rewritten. Some twenty-five years after Ed and Ellen Case of southern California discovered the pictograph of work on feet and hands in Egypt, Dr. John F. Nunn becomes the first Egyptologist to acknowledge the pictograph as reflexology. A November 23, 2005 visit to the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archeology on the campus of the University College London in England revealed Dr. Nunn's Ancient Egyptian Medicine (The British Museum Press, 1996). Dr. Nunn notes that the work on feet and hands depicted in Ankhmahor's tomb is a form of "physiotherapy." "It is again inconceivable that the Egyptians had not discovered the beneficial and pleasurable effects of manipulation and massage... Figure 6.14 shows the remarkable scenes in the tombs of Ankh-ma-hor and Khentika, which appear to represent manipulation of fingers and toes. This could be manicure and pedicure, but the words of the patients and therapists shown in the figure suggest very strongly that a therapeutic effect is intended. Alternatively, it has been suggested that these scenes represent a form of reflexology and current illustration of this type of treatment certainly look remarkably like these tomb reliefs (pictographs from Ankhmahor's Tomb and Khentika's Tomb at Saqqara memorializing two viziers to Teti, 6th dynasty (2345-2040))." (p. 133)
The pictograph and accompanying hieroglyphic are the earliest known artifacts of reflexology, and some would argue, one of the earliest of any type of complementary medicine practice. Dr. Nunn's work adds to the information about and on-going debate of the meaning of the pictographs. Previously, Egyptologists had argued that the pictograph depicted therapy, an operation, or a pedicure/manicure. (Kunz and Kunz, Reflexions, Vol. 19, Number 2, Spring/Summer 1998, p. 2) Dr. Nunn adds to the mystery of the pictograph. In his discussion of "The Healers" which includes types of medical practice and the names of known physicians, he notes that Ankhmahor was not a physician but a ka-priest and vizier to the pharaoh Teti. In "Notes on ten selected pharaonic doctors," Dr. Nunn, however, discusses Ankh, an individual whose pictograph in Ankhmahor's Tomb indicates that he was a physician: "We have no knowledge of Ankh's tomb. He is, however, an example of the many doctors known to posterity only because of mention in a relief on the wall of someone else's tomb, in this case a tomb of exceptional interest from the medical point of view. Ankh is seen bearing four ducks as offerings in the funerary procession of the tomb owner Ankh-ma-hor. In front of him in his title and name, swne per aa Ankh. As court physician he might well have been a personal friend of Ankh-ma-hor, or perhaps he was his doctor (or both). Those represented in reliefs were believed to be accessible to the tomb owner in the hereafter, and there might be distinct advantage in having your own doctor with you in the afterworld." An illustration accompanies the discussion: "(A) Relief of the physician of the great house (i. e. palace) Ankh as an offering bearer in the tomb of Ankh-ma-hor (6th Dynasty, Saqqara)" (p. 126)
Some argue that Ankhmahor's tomb in Saqqara has been mislabeled as the Tomb of the Physician. Many agree that the inclusion of pictographs representing medical practices of the time provides invaluable insights of the times. Nunn notes that "... Ankhmahor possessed many important titles but none of direct relevance to medicine. Nevertheless, his tomb contains no fewer than seven items of medical interest to us today. (List includes the physician Ankh, circumcision, "manipulation of toes and fingers," "hydrocele," "achonodroplasiac dwarfs, obesity, gynaecomastia)... We are fortunate that Ankh-ma-hor should have chosen to display this remarkable concentration of items of medical interest. There is evidence he went to great trouble in the planning, supervision and even the alteration of the reliefs in his tomb." (p. 126)
"It (Ankhmahor's Tomb) is popularly known as the 'Physician's Tomb' because although Ankhmahor was not himself a physician his monument contains some interesting scenes of medical practices... Another relief shows a foot operation being performed - sited (sic) by many reflexologists as proof of ancient alternative therapies practiced (sic) on the hands and feet." (http://www.egyptsites.co.ul/lower/saqqara/tombs/ankhmahor.html)
Dr. Nunn's credentials are noted on his book's back cover: "Dr. Nunn draws on his own experience as both a doctor of medicine and an Egyptologist to reassess the evidence. he has translated and reviewed the original Egyptian papyri as well as reconsidering other sources of information including skeletons, mummies, statues, tomb paintings and coffins."
The Cases were touring the Papyrus Institute in Cairo when the guide said that you're into foot stuff, you should see this. He then led them to the exhibit from Ankhmahor's tomb at Saqqara. The familiar black silhouette of the pictograph was created by an artist commissioned by Jim Ingram. Together with Ed, Ellen and his wife Sally, he co-founded the Foot Reflexology Awareness Association of southern California.
Reflexology in Egypt, History Rewritten VOLUME 26, NUMBER 12, December 2005 Editors: Barbara and Kevin Kunz © 2005 Kunz and Kunz ©Kunz and Kunz 2005| Reflexology Books | Reflexology Charts | Reflexology Logo Products | Self Help Reflexology | Reflexology Ebooks | Reflexology IPhone App |
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