Kahun Papyrus

Figure 7 - Berlin Stela which Arnold suggests represents Akhenaten attending Neferttiti in her Birth Bower / Mamissi

The Birth Bower and Mamissi-Chapels in Ancient Egypt

Kate Phizackerley introduces womens’ experience of child birth in Ancient Egypt and the special birth bowers assigned to this important event. She traces how this involved into a special type of chapel, called a mammis and considers what implications might be drawn from one scene depicting Akhenaten and his queen, Nefertiti. Along the way she covers who might attend a birth and touches on some of the medical texts. [more…]