EnglishLady
Veteran Expediter
Discovery News Feb 16
Two false mummy big toes may have been the world's earliest functional prosthetics, according to a study which has successfully tested replicas on volunteers.
Discovered in the necropolis of Thebe near present-day Luxor, the two artificial toes -- the so-called Greville Chester toe housed in the British Museum and the Tabaketenmut toe at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo –- date back to before 600 B.C.
They predate by a few hundred years, a Roman leg made out of bronze and wood in around 300 B.C, known as the Capua leg. The leg was destroyed by Second World War bombings.
Acquired by the British museum in 1881, the Greville Chester toe comes in the shape of the right big toe and a portion of the right foot.
It was made from cartonnage -- a type of papier mâché made of linen, soaked with animal glue and coated with tinted plaster.
"It is skilfully crafted and at one time carried a false nail," Jacqueline Finch, a researcher at the University of Manchester’s KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology, wrote in the British medical journal The Lancet.
The other false toe, now in Cairo's Egyptian Museum, was found attached on the right toe of a mummy identified as Tabaketenmut.
A priest's daughter who lived sometime between 950 and 710 B.C., Tabaketenmut might have lost her toe following gangrene triggered by diabetes.
Her false big toe was a three part wood and leather artifact which also included a hinge, possibly intended to mimic the flexibility of the joints.
Both artificial toes had holes for lacings to either attach the toes onto the foot or fasten it onto a sock or sandal.
However, finding a false toe fastened onto an amputee mummy toe doesn't necessarly prove the artifact was used as a prothesis.
"There is plenty of evidence from mummified remains to show that the ancient Egyptian embalmers made every attempt to reinstate the completeness of the physical body before burial," Finch said.
Indeed, missing limbs, eyes, noses, limbs and even genitals were often added to help a person properly enter the afterlife.
But while the limbs added by the embalmers were poor imitations, the Greville Chester and the Tabaketenmut toes bore distinctive signs of wear. Moreover, they appeared "far more sophisticated in both design and appearance," said Finch.
In order to find out whether the false toes were added for cosmetic purposes or used to help in walking, the researcher created two reproductions modelled as the Greville toe and the Tabaketenmut digit.
"The big toe is thought to carry some 40 percent of the bodyweight and is responsible for forward propulsion, although those without it can adapt well," Finch wrote.
"My own research used two volunteers with similar amputation sites and suggested that replicas of both ancient Egyptian false toes performed extremely well," she said.
Wearing the toes with replica Egyptian sandals, the volunteers found the wooden Tabaketenmut digit to be especially comfortable.
In particular, one of the volunteers was able to walk extremely well with both artificial toes.
"Perhaps now attribution for the first glimmers of prosthetic medicine should be firmly laid at the feet of the ancient Egyptians," Finch said.
Two false mummy big toes may have been the world's earliest functional prosthetics, according to a study which has successfully tested replicas on volunteers.
Discovered in the necropolis of Thebe near present-day Luxor, the two artificial toes -- the so-called Greville Chester toe housed in the British Museum and the Tabaketenmut toe at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo –- date back to before 600 B.C.
They predate by a few hundred years, a Roman leg made out of bronze and wood in around 300 B.C, known as the Capua leg. The leg was destroyed by Second World War bombings.
Acquired by the British museum in 1881, the Greville Chester toe comes in the shape of the right big toe and a portion of the right foot.
It was made from cartonnage -- a type of papier mâché made of linen, soaked with animal glue and coated with tinted plaster.
"It is skilfully crafted and at one time carried a false nail," Jacqueline Finch, a researcher at the University of Manchester’s KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology, wrote in the British medical journal The Lancet.
The other false toe, now in Cairo's Egyptian Museum, was found attached on the right toe of a mummy identified as Tabaketenmut.
A priest's daughter who lived sometime between 950 and 710 B.C., Tabaketenmut might have lost her toe following gangrene triggered by diabetes.
Her false big toe was a three part wood and leather artifact which also included a hinge, possibly intended to mimic the flexibility of the joints.
Both artificial toes had holes for lacings to either attach the toes onto the foot or fasten it onto a sock or sandal.
However, finding a false toe fastened onto an amputee mummy toe doesn't necessarly prove the artifact was used as a prothesis.
"There is plenty of evidence from mummified remains to show that the ancient Egyptian embalmers made every attempt to reinstate the completeness of the physical body before burial," Finch said.
Indeed, missing limbs, eyes, noses, limbs and even genitals were often added to help a person properly enter the afterlife.
But while the limbs added by the embalmers were poor imitations, the Greville Chester and the Tabaketenmut toes bore distinctive signs of wear. Moreover, they appeared "far more sophisticated in both design and appearance," said Finch.
In order to find out whether the false toes were added for cosmetic purposes or used to help in walking, the researcher created two reproductions modelled as the Greville toe and the Tabaketenmut digit.
"The big toe is thought to carry some 40 percent of the bodyweight and is responsible for forward propulsion, although those without it can adapt well," Finch wrote.
"My own research used two volunteers with similar amputation sites and suggested that replicas of both ancient Egyptian false toes performed extremely well," she said.
Wearing the toes with replica Egyptian sandals, the volunteers found the wooden Tabaketenmut digit to be especially comfortable.
In particular, one of the volunteers was able to walk extremely well with both artificial toes.
"Perhaps now attribution for the first glimmers of prosthetic medicine should be firmly laid at the feet of the ancient Egyptians," Finch said.