Archaeologists were able to decipher the ancient Egyptian text, which contained a description of the test. The method of checking pregnancy turned out to be original.
The papyrus with the text was found in the ancient Egyptian city of Tebtunis. Its age is about 3500 thousand years. As it turned out, an ancient document described a way to check for pregnancy, as well as find out the sex of the unborn child.
The ancient Egyptian "gynecologist" advises women to use bags with two types of straw - wheat and barley, respectively. You need to urinate on them and wait for the first shoots to appear. Depending on which of the sacs begins to germinate faster, and the sex of the child was established. If none of them sprouted, the ancient Egyptians had to try again and again.
During the decline of ancient Egyptian civilization, the recipe was not lost. It was adopted by at least the Europeans. Archaeologists have already found a similar version of a pregnancy test in a 17th century German document.
In addition to describing a pregnancy test, archaeologists have been able to decipher another ancient Egyptian document. It deals with kidney disease. This papyrus is the oldest text that mentions the kidneys as a separate organ.