Following in the footsteps of the snakes that bit the Egyptians 2,500 years ago

About 2,500 years ago, Egyptian doctors treated snake bites by referring to a papyrus scroll describing possible treatments. The papyrus contains detailed information on various aspects of snake bites, including descriptions of different types of venomous snakes, symptoms of envenoming, and recommended treatments to counteract the effects of the venom. Although scientists found it in the 1930s, and today it is housed in the Brooklyn Museum in New York, many of the snakes’ identities still spark controversy.

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Herpetologists, who study reptiles and amphibians, have not attempted to identify many of the snakes described in the papyrus. Identifications are uncertain because some species no longer live in Egypt. Hence the importance of the recent study published in Environmental archaeology. The researchers used an ecological model to predict where these snakes might have lived thousands of years ago, to test some of the proposed identifications. The niche model takes the environmental conditions a species lives in now and then incorporates climate data from elsewhere to identify other suitable habitats, even thousands of years ago.

The authors focused on 10 species of snakes that are particularly venomous in the papyrus. They described each one’s habitat and area with 19 climate variables (such as rainfall and average temperature). They then added climate data dating back up to 6,000 years ago, and asked the model to predict this information about snakes found in ancient Egypt.

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The results included nine types of regions within ancient Egypt, and four (Bitis arietans, Dolichophis jugularis, Macrovipera lebetina, and Daboia mauritanica) was inside modern Egypt. He predicted this too Dabuya Palestine It would occupy an area of ​​suitable habitat within modern Egypt, but separate from the species’ main range. type x, A specific reasonwould have been located in kingdoms that were regular partners of the ancient Egyptians.

The researchers believe the study reveals how the use of specialized ecological models can help understand which animals, in this case snakes, would have interacted with ancient populations, providing a clearer view of the risks and challenges they faced in their environment.