2700 B.C.: Merit Ptah The Egyptian physician was the first woman in medicine, and perhaps all of science, mentioned by name in texts. Her son, a high priest, called her “the chief physician,” and her portrait appears in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings. 2300 B.C.: Enheduanna A Sumerian woman appointed as high priestess of the moon goddess. Her prestigious religious title included duties related to astronomy, such as establishing observatories and tracking the movements of the moon …