Ancient Babylonian Medicine

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

List of Illustrations viii

List of Abbreviations x

Acknowledgments xii

Introduction to Babylonian Medicine and Magic 1

1 Medicine as Science 11

2 Who Did What to Whom? 43

3 The Politics of Medicine 56

4 Medicine as Literature 89

5 Medicine and Philosophy 118

6 Medical Training: MD or PhD? 130

7 Uruk Medical Commentaries 141

8 Medicine and Magic as Independent Approaches to Healing 161

Appendix: An Edition of a Medical Commentary 168

Notes 177

References 202

Subject Index 211

Selective Index of Akkadian and Greek Words 217

Index of Akkadian Personal Names 220

Markham J. Geller is Professor of Semitic Languages at University College London and Professor for the History of Science at the Free University Berlin. He is the author of Evil Demons: Canonical Utukkū Lemnūtu Incantations (2007) and Melothesia in Babylonia (2014), editor of Melammu, the Ancient World in an Age of Globalization (2014), and co-editor of Disease in Babylonia(2007) and Imagining Creation (2008).

Even in the twenty-first century, medicine remains something of a mystery. In a few significant areas we are hardly better informed than ancient and medieval practitioners. Yet when the topic of ancient medicine is broached, too often the tendency is to dismiss it solely as the product of ignorance and superstition. By delving into the way medicine was actually practiced by various Babylonian professionals of the 2nd and 1st millennium B.C., Ancient Babylonian Medicine: Theory and Practice shatters some of our preconceived notions about ancient medicine. Through the use of a great variety of extant cuneiform tablets -- many previously unknown -- noted Assyriologist and ancient language expert Markham J. Geller reveals the rich legacy of Babylonian healing techniques. Challenging the traditional view of ancient medicine that rigidly distinguishes between science and superstition, Geller shows how ancient healing methods and strategies embodied a vastly more complex relationship between medicine and magic. He theorizes that when viewed from the perspective of a patient concerned only with the efficacy of treatment, medicine and magic were simply dual approaches to healing. Geller also examines basic therapeutic concepts utilizing medical commentaries ascribed to physician-scribes among Babylonian scholars -- a source not previously researched. Original and provocative, Ancient Babylonian Medicine: Theory and Practice offers startling new insights into the dark and distant roots of modern medicine.