Earliest Known Woman Physician Peseshet

records from ancient Egypt document women serving as physicians as early as the third millennium BCE, including Meit Ptah around 2700 BCE and Peseshet during the Fourth Dynasty. These references, preserved in later inscriptions and archaeological findings, indicate that women were formally recognized within the medical profession in the Old Kingdom period. Meit Ptah is often cited as one of the earliest known female physicians. She is said to have lived around 2700 BCE, during Egypt’s Third Dynasty, and is described in later accounts as a contemporary of Imhotep, the architect and physician who served Pharaoh Djoser. Her name was reportedly recorded in the tomb of a high priest, where she was referred to as a “chief physician.” Although direct contemporary inscriptions from her lifetime have not been extensively preserved, references to her appear in historical discussions of early medical practice in ancient Egypt. The Third Dynasty (c. 2686–2613 BCE) was a formative period in Egyptian state development, marked by the construction of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara under Djoser.