Today’s blog post is inspired by yesterday’s post on artificial body parts of the future. But today, we are traveling back in time to look at man-made body parts (also known as prosthetics) from the past—parts that, in some cases, were way ahead of their time! When do you think the first artificial body parts were invented? Maybe a few hundred years ago? Nope, we are going to have to go back way further than that. Scientists have uncovered (Literally, since scientists dug it out of the ground. It is now in a museum in Egypt!) an artificial toe that is over three thousand years old! On top of that, there is evidence that the person who had the toe, an elderly Egyptian woman, actually used it to help her walk. There are markings on it that show the toe was used to walk the Earth thousands of years ago. Wow! Who would have thought that Egyptian prosthetics would be so advanced? But then again, this is coming from the culture that raised the mighty pyramids. And those were pretty amazing design accomplishments as well. 

So back to the ancient fake toe…what did it look like? The toe was made out of a cloth called linen and was covered with plaster. Then to top it off, a fake toenail was added for looks (after all, ancient Egyptians wore sandals and needed to have all their toes). In the end, the material felt a lot like leather. To make the toe functional, there was a moveable joint in it so it could bend as the person walked. It was held to the foot with leather straps. Other fake limbs have also been found in ancient Egypt, such as an arm and feet. But this toe was the oldest fake body part ever found to date!