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According to an uncited Wikipedia paragraph, Merit-Ptah is the earliest known female scientist.

An ancient Egyptian, Merit-Ptah (c. 2700 BC), described in an inscription as "chief physician", is the earliest known female scientist named in the history of science.

is this true? Are there figures that could be (even debatable) be described as preceding her as a female scientist?

Edit: As mentioned in the comments, there were no "scientists" in 2700BC or earlier in the modern sense. What I was effectively asking was whether there were any women who made known interesting contributions to medicine, mathematics, biology or any other field at this time.

An example of an early(ish) interesting contribution would be Galen's description of the difference between motor and sensory nerves, despite his other mix of partly through & partly incorrect observations & statements.

Carl Witthoft
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Róisín Grannell
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    Which part? Merit-Ptah is indeed mentioned there, but the use of the word "scientist" before 17th centiry AD is highly dubious, see When and why did people stopped using “natural philosophy” term and started using “science”? So no, even figures way after her can not be described as "scientists", female or otherwise. – Conifold Feb 04 '19 at 23:06
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    Physicians were not scientists thousands, or even hundreds, of years ago. Today medicine is grounded in scientific ideas from biology and chemistry (rather than whatever voodoo mysticism it was based on earlier), but even today most physicians are not scientists. – KCd Feb 04 '19 at 23:23
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    There was no voodoo mysticism hundreds or thousands of years ago. Greek school of herbal medicine is still practised in South Asia. Thousands of years ago people were pretty intelligent - they could build the pyramids. Unfortunately, voodoo mysticism is still practised in the modern world. – AChem Feb 05 '19 at 00:45
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    Medical practice was not based on a proper understanding of the scientific basis for disease. Maybe "voodoo mysticism" is an exaggeration, but physicians did not have scientific training. – KCd Feb 05 '19 at 01:37
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    Agreed. Maybe after a few hundred years, people might say that physicians in 2019 didn't have any scientific training. Our current knowledge is so limited that it frightens me to make any claims. – AChem Feb 05 '19 at 02:34
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    We have no enough "records" with names of ancient "practicioners" to produce a meaningful answer. Galen lived in 2nd Century BCE; thus around 3.000 years later and was definitely a "proto-scientist" in the sense that we can read his works (we have them) and we can find problems similar to current ones. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Feb 05 '19 at 12:21
  • Greek math developed from the 7th century BC to the 4th century AD and we have names and (some) works of Greek mathematicians : Euclid, Arichimedes, Apollonius, Pappus. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Feb 05 '19 at 12:24
  • Gor Ancient Babylon and Egypt, we have some documents but it is useless to speak of individuals. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Feb 05 '19 at 12:24
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    I suppose it would be highly disrespectful to suggest that the very first female scientist was Eve? She had a premise in mind: "Apple, digested, provides knowledge," and tested it. – Carl Witthoft Feb 05 '19 at 13:23
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    Unless you adhere to "intelligent design", presumably there were similar female testers way before Eve entered the scene ☺ – Hermann Gruber Feb 05 '19 at 21:55
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    Not 2700 BCE but about 400 CE is Hypatia of Alexandria -- mathematics. A 2010 movie about her is titled Agora. – BackwoodsMath Feb 09 '19 at 18:23

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