Dwarfs Honoured in Ancient Egypt
Roger Highfield
Telegraph.co.uk
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The ancient Egyptians looked on dwarfs as magical figures and elevated some to the status of gods, an American doctor's study says.
Dr Chahira Kozma, of Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, has used inscriptions and representations on tomb and temple walls, papyrus documents and other objects, as well as human remains, to see how achondroplasia, a cause of the most common type of dwarfism, was regarded in ancient times.
Dr Kozma reports in the American Journal of Medical Genetics next month how "dwarfs were likely accepted in ancient Egypt and were given a visible role in the society. Furthermore their daily activities suggest integration in daily life and that their disorder was not shown as a physical handicap."
Ancient Egyptian society had a strong code of ethics and commandments to be respectful towards dwarfs, the crippled and blind.
Seneb, one such revered dwarf, lived in the 4th or early 5th dynasty in Giza. He was the overseer of the palace dwarfs, the chief of the royal wardrobe and priest of the funerary cults of Khufu.
Dec 28, 2005
Roger Highfield
Telegraph.co.uk
____________
The ancient Egyptians looked on dwarfs as magical figures and elevated some to the status of gods, an American doctor's study says.
Dr Chahira Kozma, of Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, has used inscriptions and representations on tomb and temple walls, papyrus documents and other objects, as well as human remains, to see how achondroplasia, a cause of the most common type of dwarfism, was regarded in ancient times.
Dr Kozma reports in the American Journal of Medical Genetics next month how "dwarfs were likely accepted in ancient Egypt and were given a visible role in the society. Furthermore their daily activities suggest integration in daily life and that their disorder was not shown as a physical handicap."
Ancient Egyptian society had a strong code of ethics and commandments to be respectful towards dwarfs, the crippled and blind.
Seneb, one such revered dwarf, lived in the 4th or early 5th dynasty in Giza. He was the overseer of the palace dwarfs, the chief of the royal wardrobe and priest of the funerary cults of Khufu.
Dec 28, 2005
