How was pregnancy detected in ancient Egypt?
rom about 1825 BC, the Egyptians recorded ways to determine if a woman was pregnant. Some seem quite rational to us today, such as observing if she was nauseous and vomiting, or if the veins of her breasts were dilated, but some were more unusual. The Berlin Papyrus (cl250 BC) prescribes that a woman should urinate daily on bundles of emmer wheat and barley; if they germinated, she was pregnant. If the emmer sprouted she would have a girl; if the barley did, it would be a boy. Another prescription recommends: “Mix a
