HEBRARIUM
Before the crime,
there was the preparation.
In ancient Egypt, medicine stood between observation, ritual and plant knowledge.
Among the plants named in Egyptian medical tradition was shemshemet, often identified with cannabis or hemp. It appears not as a modern scandal, but as part of a practical materia medica: ground, mixed, steeped, applied, washed, inserted, tested through the body.
The traces are small, but striking.
One recipe combines shemshemet with honey for gynaecological use — to “cool the uterus” and remove heat. Another, from the Ramesseum medical papyri, describes cannabis with celery left overnight in dew and used as a morning eye wash.
For LIBERA HERBA, the importance is not to pretend that ancient Egyptian medicine was modern pharmacology.
It was not.
The importance is that the plant appears inside one of humanity’s oldest medical archives.
Not as a crime. Not as a subculture. Not as a product.
As a preparation.
A plant handled by healers in a world where medicine, body, spirit and ritual had not yet been separated into modern boxes.
Factual Note
Ancient Egyptian medical papyri include recipes involving shemshemet — transliterated as šmšmt — a plant name commonly interpreted by some scholars as cannabis or hemp, though the identification remains debated.
The Ebers Papyrus includes a cannabis/hemp-and-honey preparation for gynaecological use, while the Ramesseum Papyrus III includes a recipe combining the plant with celery as an eye wash.
Reports of cannabis pollen associated with Ramesses II should be treated cautiously and not used as proof of regular royal medical use without stronger primary support. In this entry, shemshemet is treated as a cautious cannabis/hemp candidate, not as settled botanical proof.
Ancient Egypt
Medical papyri tradition
c. 2nd millennium BCE
Egyptian medical texts preserved recipes combining plant substances, minerals, animal products and ritual language. Under some scholarly interpretations, shemshemet / šmšmt may refer to cannabis or hemp in preparations connected with gynaecology, inflammation and eye treatment. (link).
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The VADEMECUM is not just a book anymore. It is becoming a living archive of guides, tools, notes and practical plant knowledge.
Free member access. Join early. Keep the archive open.
The VADEMECUM is becoming a living archive of practical plant knowledge.
Free member access.