Medicine in Ancient Assur

Medicine in Ancient Assur PDF

Author: Troels Pank Arbøll

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-09-25

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 9004436081

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In Medicine in Ancient Assur Troels Pank Arbøll offers a microhistorical study of a single exorcist named Kiṣir-Aššur who practiced medical and magical healing in the ancient city of Assur (modern northern Iraq) in the 7th century BCE. The book provides the first detailed analysis of a healer’s education and practice in ancient Mesopotamia based on at least 73 texts assigned to specific stages of his career. By drawing on a microhistorical framework, the study aims at significantly improving our understanding of the functional aspects of texts in their specialist environment. Furthermore, the work situates Kiṣir-Aššur as one of the earliest healers in world history for whom we have such details pertaining to his career originating from his own time.

Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine

Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine PDF

Author: Jo Ann Scurlock

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2010-10-01

Total Pages: 916

ISBN-13: 0252092384

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

To date, the pathbreaking medical contributions of the early Mesopotamians have been only vaguely understood. Due to the combined problems of an extinct language, gaps in the archeological record, the complexities of pharmacy and medicine, and the dispersion of ancient tablets throughout the museums of the world, it has been nearly impossible to get a clear and comprehensive view of what medicine was really like in ancient Mesopotamia. The collaboration of medical expert Burton R. Andersen and cuneiformist JoAnn Scurlock makes it finally possible to survey this collected corpus and discern magic from experimental medicine in Ashur, Babylon, and Nineveh. Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine is the first systematic study of all the available texts, which together reveal a level of medical knowledge not matched again until the nineteenth century A.D. Over the course of a millennium, these nations were able to develop tests, prepare drugs, and encourage public sanitation. Their careful observation and recording of data resulted in a description of symptoms so precise as to enable modern identification of numerous diseases and afflictions.

Assyrian and Babylonian Scholarly Text Catalogues

Assyrian and Babylonian Scholarly Text Catalogues PDF

Author: Ulrike Steinert

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2018-06-11

Total Pages: 750

ISBN-13: 1501504878

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The reconstruction of ancient Mesopotamian medical, ritual and omen compendia and their complex history is still characterised by many difficulties, debates and gaps due to fragmentary or unpublished evidence. This book offers the first complete edition of the Assur Medical Catalogue, an 8th or 7th century BCE list of therapeutic texts, which forms a core witness for the serialisation of medical compendia in the 1st millennium BCE. The volume presents detailed analyses of this and several other related catalogues of omen series and rituals, constituting the corpora of divination and healing disciplines. The contributions discuss links between catalogues and textual sources, providing new insights into the development of compendia between serialization, standardization and diversity of local traditions. Though its a novel corpus-based approach, this volume revolutionizes the current understanding of Mesopotamian medical texts and the healing disciplines of "conjurer" and "physician". The research presented here allows one to identify core text corpora for these disciplines, as well as areas of exchange and borrowings between them.

Assyrian and Babylonian Scholarly Text Catalogues

Assyrian and Babylonian Scholarly Text Catalogues PDF

Author: Ulrike Steinert

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2018-06-11

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 1501504916

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The reconstruction of ancient Mesopotamian medical, ritual and omen compendia and their complex history is still characterised by many difficulties, debates and gaps due to fragmentary or unpublished evidence. This book offers the first complete edition of the Assur Medical Catalogue, an 8th or 7th century BCE list of therapeutic texts, which forms a core witness for the serialisation of medical compendia in the 1st millennium BCE. The volume presents detailed analyses of this and several other related catalogues of omen series and rituals, constituting the corpora of divination and healing disciplines. The contributions discuss links between catalogues and textual sources, providing new insights into the development of compendia between serialization, standardization and diversity of local traditions. Though its a novel corpus-based approach, this volume revolutionizes the current understanding of Mesopotamian medical texts and the healing disciplines of "conjurer" and "physician". The research presented here allows one to identify core text corpora for these disciplines, as well as areas of exchange and borrowings between them.

Sourcebook for Ancient Mesopotamian Medicine

Sourcebook for Ancient Mesopotamian Medicine PDF

Author: JoAnn Scurlock

Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit

Published: 2014-07-11

Total Pages: 785

ISBN-13: 1589839714

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" html meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="content-type" body An introductory guide for scholars and students of the ancient Near East and the history of medicine In this collection JoAnn Scurlock assembles and translates medical texts that provided instructions for ancient doctors and pharmacists. Scurlock unpacks the difficult, technical vocabulary that describes signs and symptoms as well as procedures and plants used in treatments. This fascinating material shines light on the development of medicine in the ancient Near East, yet these tablets were essentially inaccessible to anyone without an expertise in cuneiform. Scurlock’s work fills this gap by providing a key resource for teaching and research. Features: Accessible translations and transliterations for both specialists and non-specialists Texts include a range of historical periods and regions Therapeutic, pharmacological, and diagnostic texts

Ancient Babylonian Medicine

Ancient Babylonian Medicine PDF

Author: Markham J. Geller

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2015-07-21

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1119062543

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Utilizing a great variety of previously unknown cuneiform tablets, Ancient Babylonian Medicine: Theory and Practice examines the way medicine was practiced by various Babylonian professionals of the 2nd and 1st millennium B.C. Represents the first overview of Babylonian medicine utilizing cuneiform sources, including archives of court letters, medical recipes, and commentaries written by ancient scholars Attempts to reconcile the ways in which medicine and magic were related Assigns authorship to various types of medical literature that were previously considered anonymous Rejects the approach of other scholars that have attempted to apply modern diagnostic methods to ancient illnesses

Holism in Ancient Medicine and Its Reception

Holism in Ancient Medicine and Its Reception PDF

Author: Chiara Thumiger

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-11-30

Total Pages: 461

ISBN-13: 9004443142

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This volume aims at exploring the ancient roots of ‘holistic’ approaches in the specific field of medicine and the life sciences, without, however, overlooking the larger theoretical implications of these discussions. Therefore, the project plans to broaden the perspective to include larger cultural discussions and, in a comparative spirit, reach out to some examples from non Graeco-Roman medical cultures. As such, it constitutes a fundamental contribution to history of medicine, philosophy of medicine, cultural studies, and ancient studies more broadly. The wide-ranging selection of chapters offers a comprehensive view of an exciting new field: the interrogation of ancient sources in the light of modern concepts in philosophy of medicine, as justification of the claim for their enduring relevance as object of study and, at the same time, as means to a more adequate contextualisation of modern debates within a long historical process. Contributors are: Hynek Bartoš, Sean Coughlin, Elizabeth Craik, Brooke Holmes, Helen King, Giouli Korobili, David Leith, Vivian Nutton, Julius Rocca, William Michael Short, P. N. Singer, Konstantinos Stefou, Chiara Thumiger, Laurence Totelin, Claire Trenery, John Wee, Francis Zimmermann.

Epilepsy in Babylonia

Epilepsy in Babylonia PDF

Author: Marten Stol

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 1993-01-01

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 9789072371638

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Stol's comprehensive exploration of the Babylonians' conception and treatment of epilepsy adds a new chapter to the history of this ancient disease. The author presents the sources, examines the terminology and places epilepsy in context among kindred illnesses. A full edition (transliteration, translation, commentary and cuneiform copy) of the relevant parts of the Diagnostic Handbook is included. According to the Ancients, epileptics are 'struck by the moon'. An examination of the relationship between epilepsy and the moon yields surprising results. This volume deals with material that was unavailable to O. Temkin, author of the classic "The Falling Sickness; A history of epilepsy from the Greeks to the beginning of modern neurology," (1971). It show that traditional views of the Ancient Near East lived on among the Greeks and Romans.

Mesopotamian Medicine and Magic

Mesopotamian Medicine and Magic PDF

Author: Strahil V. Panayotov

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-10-22

Total Pages: 968

ISBN-13: 9004368086

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Mesopotamian Medicine and Magic. Studies in Honour of Markham J. Geller offers 34 brand-new text editions and analytical studies concerned with diverse healing traditions and practices in Ancient Western Asia.

The Healing Goddess Gula

The Healing Goddess Gula PDF

Author: Barbara Böck

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2013-10-10

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 900426146X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Providing a comprehensive examination of the traits and areas of authority Ancient Babylonians attributed to their healing goddess, this book draws on a wide range of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform sources, including god lists, literary compositions, lexical lists, prognostic texts, incantations, and prescriptions. Analysing the use of selected metaphors associated with the goddess, a new perspective is offered on the explanation for disease as well as the motivation for particular treatments. Special chapters deal with the cuneiform handbook on prognosis and diagnosis of diseases, medical incantations appealing to the healing goddess, and the medicinal plants attributed to her. For the first time a body of evidence for the use of simple drugs is brought together, elaborating on specific plant profiles. The result is a volume that challenges many long-held assumptions concerning the specialized cuneiform medical literature and takes a fresh look on the nature of Ancient Babylonian healing.