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Far from being a modernday health issue, contraception has been a concern of society for thousands of years. In fact, many contraceptives in use today had their beginnings in ancient times.
According to third millenium BC texts from Sumer--the Mesopotamian region near present-day Iraq credited as building the world's first civilization--humans have long been searching for effective methods of preventing pregnancy. Of course, some of these methods were more effective than others.
In April 1889, an ancient papyrus was discovered at Kahun, Egypt, detailing contraceptive methods and gynecological issues. Though Francis Llewellyn Griffith, an eminent Egyptologist of the time, dismissed the findings as "obvious quackery," modern science has since proven him wrong.
In fact, ancient medical texts show that the ancient Egyptians had a vast understanding of gynecological health. It is thought that Griffith, rather than reacting to the scientific knowledge presented in the text, was prejudiced, as a Victorian, against such a taboo subject.
The Kahun papyrus describes various barrier and spermicide methods, such as plugging the vagina with a mixture of honey and sodium carbonate, gum or a paste made of crocodile dung and sour milk. These mixtures would not only have interfered with the mobility of the sperm, but acidic qualities would have also acted as a spermicide. Other types of dung were also effective, such as elephant dung, as described in Islamic texts from the 13th century AD. Another historical document from Egypt, the Ebers Papyrus written in 1525 BC, recommends a different method: "To make a woman not become pregnant for one year, two years or three years, acacia leaves are ground...