Cancer and Medicine in Ancient Egypt
on-line via Zoom

Date: Saturday January 9^th 2027 @ 4pm
By Dr. Roselyn A. Campbell
on-line via Zoom
Cost: Free for Members and £4 Visitors

Abstract

While cancer is often considered a disease of the modern world, caused by tobacco, industrial pollution, and other elements of modernization, increasing evidence suggests that cancer has been present for millennia. Over the past decade, evidence for cancer has even been found in fossilized dinosaurs. This lecture will examine evidence of cancer in past human populations through the study of human remains, particularly from ancient Egypt, and will consider the medical treatments the Egyptians may have used to treat cancer and other diseases.

Biography

Dr. Roselyn A. Campbell is a bioarchaeologist and Egyptologist. She received her PhD from the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, and is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at Purdue University with Dr. Michele Buzon. In addition to her work on cancer in the past, her work also analyzes state-sanctioned violence in the past. Dr. Campbell has excavated throughout Egypt and the Middle East, as well as in Peru, Ethiopia, Armenia, Spain, and the western United States. Her most recent publication considers gender and medicine in ancient Egypt, and in 2024, she co-edited The Poetics of Violence in Afro-Eurasian Bioarchaeology (Springer). Dr. Campbell’s most recent project explores activity patterns and community relationships in human remains from Tombos, modern Sudan

Edward joined the Egypt Exploration Society in May 2022. As Development Manager he works to facilitate the Society’s development projects; through fundraising, events organising, and building relationships with our colleagues and supporters, he helps the EES to realise its mission of supporting and widening access to Egyptian cultural heritage.

Alongside his research and teaching experience, Edward has an active record of outreach work (from museum talks to producing online materials), believing that engagement with Egyptian cultural heritage should be accessible and appealing to a diversity of audiences. Outside of Egyptology, Ed has performed as a comedian across the UK and internationally.