Project description
Reconstructing the patient experience in Ancient Egypt
While there has been extensive research into ancient Egyptian medicine, there is still much to be learned about the experience of sick people in terms of their illness, treatment and society’s reaction towards them. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions scheme, the PAVE project will provide the first in-depth investigation of patienthood in ancient Egypt during the period of 1550–1069 BC. Using a range of methods drawn from histories of medicine, anthropology, sociology, phenomenology, philology and bioarchaeology, the project will investigate the experience of being sick, society’s response towards such diseases and the causes behind differing treatments. The findings will shed light on the history of medicine and challenge assumptions about illness and care in the ancient world.
Objective
PAVE is the first comprehensive study of patienthood in ancient Egypt (1550–1069 BCE). The goal is to analyze experiences of illness, sickness, and treatment, and to uncover the social dynamics that shaped these. To do so, PAVE pioneers an interdisciplinary approach that combines concepts from history of medicine, anthropology, sociology, and phenomenology with philological and bioarchaeological evidence. The project is important because it fills a major research gap—illuminating the patient’s perspective and the life opportunities of sick people in Egypt for the first time—and by doing so it demonstrates how and why theory from outside the field of Egyptology must be integrated into the discipline. Moreover, PAVE will extend the temporal depth of the history of medicine, and by bridging the gap between ancient evidence and modern theory, PAVE offers major theoretical gains, challenging common assumptions in the history of medicine. To gain insight into the patient’s view, I will unveil expressions of illness (the individual experience of being unwell) and sickness (the social construction of and response to unwellness) by analyzing the broad range of health-related texts and human remains within the framework of the “eidetic characteristics of illness” and the sick role. Moreover, I will investigate the textual sources for the treatment choices sick people made and what factors governed such choices by applying the concept of therapeutic navigation. My work will be supported by my supervisor, medical historian Ylva Söderfeldt, my mentor, medical anthropologist Claudia Merli, and colleagues at Uppsala University. The MSCA-PF will allow me to develop transferable skills in leadership, communication, and project organization, and provides a unique opportunity for me to deepen my knowledge of history of medicine, medical anthropology, and interdisciplinary research. The acquisition of these skills will have a significant impact on my future career.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
751 05 Uppsala
Sweden
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.