A toe made of wood and leather is thought to be the oldest known prosthetic. It was found on a female mummy buried at Luxor and has been dated to approximately 950 and 710 BC.
The loss of a big toe hampers walking. Researchers, with the help of two volunteers who had lost big toes, showed that the artificial toe was a practical device that would have helped its wearer walk more naturally in sandals, although there were some problems when the testers walked barefoot. This lends support to the idea that these devices were not created for mere cosmetic purposes.
There are other examples of ancient prosthetic devices, though none are currently thought to be older than the Egyptian toe. One is a big toe known as the Greville Chester toe which dates before 600 BC and is currently in the British Museum. This toe is made of cartonnage, a papier mache made with a mixture of animal glue, linen and plaster. A much later example is a Roman bronze and wooden leg, known as the Capua leg, dated to approximately 300 BC.
The Cairo toe is currently at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. For more information and to view photos of the Cairo toe, go here
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