Background
Georg was born on March 1, 1837, in Berlin, Germany.
egyptologist novelist university professor writer
Georg was born on March 1, 1837, in Berlin, Germany.
He was educated at the universities of Göttingen,Gottingen, Berlin, and Jena, at the last of which he graduated in Egyptian language and antiquities in 1865.
1550 BCE, named for him (see Ebers Papyrus) at Luxor (Thebes) in the winter of 1873–74. Now in the Library of the University of Leipzig, the Ebers Papyrus is among the most important ancient Egyptian medical papyri. It is one of two of the oldest preserved medical documents anywhere—the other being the Edwin Smith Papyrus (ca 1600 BCE).
Having made a special study of Egyptology, he became in 1865 Dozent in Egyptian language and antiquities at Jena, becoming a professor in 1868. In 1870 he was appointed a professor in these subjects at Leipzig. He had made two scientific journeys to Egypt, and his first work of importance, Ägypten und die, Bücher Moses, appeared in 1867–1868.
In 1874 he edited the celebrated medical papyrus (Papyrus Ebers) which he had discovered in Thebes (translation by H Joachim, 1890). Ebers early conceived the idea of popularizing Egyptian lore by means of historical romances. Eine ägyptische Königstochter was published in 1864 and obtained great success. His subsequent works of the same kind—Uarda (1877), Homo sum (1878), Die Schwestern (1880), Der Kaiser (1881), of which the scene is laid in Egypt at the time of Hadrian, Serapis (1885), Die Nilbraut (1887), and Kleopatra (1894), were also well received, and did much to make the public familiar with the discoveries of Egyptologists. The state of his health led him in 1889 to retire from his chair at Leipzig on a pension. Ebers's Gesammelte Werke appeared in 25 vols. at Stuttgart (1893–1895). Many of his books have been translated into English. For his life see his Die Geschichte meines Lebens (Stuttgart, 1893). Also R. Gosche, G. Ebers, der Forscher und Dichter (2nd ed, Leipzig, 1887).