Suchergebnisse

This book brings together ancient manuscripts of the large compendium of Mesopotamian exorcistic incantations known as Udug.hul (Utukku Lemnutu), directed against evil demons, ghosts, gods, and other demonic malefactors within the Mesopotamian view of the world.It allows for a more accurate appraisal of variants arising from a text tradition spread over more than two millennia and from many ancient libraries.

Assyriology; Mesopotamia; Ancient Near East

This volume is the first English edition of the Nineveh Series on eye disease from the royal library of Ashurbanipal, 7th century BCE. It is the longest surviving ancient work on opthalmology, anticipating by centuries the Hippocratic treatise on the eye. The Nineveh series represents a systematic array of eye symptoms and therapies, also showing commonalities with Egyptian and Greco-Roman medicine.

This paper looks at how empirical knowledge was assembled and interpreted in Babylonian academies and investigates two Neo-Assyrian plant lists: KADP 2 and KADP 4. These two lists are not simple collections of scholastic information but represent examples of theoretical botany and pharmacology. It is suggested that KADP 4 is a kind of proto-commentary, in which glosses represent key-words for hermeneutical elaborations. The paper concludes with an annotated transliteration and translation of KADP 4.

Mesopotamian Medicine and Magic. Studies in Honour of Markham J. Geller is a thematically focused collection of 34 brand-new essays bringing to light a representative selection of the rich and varied scientific and technical knowledge produced chiefly by the cuneiform cultures. The contributions concentrate mainly on Mesopotamian scholarly descriptions and practices of diagnosing and healing diverse physical ailments and mental distress. The festschrift contains both critical editions of new texts as well as analytical studies dealing with various issues of Mesopotamian medical and magical lore. Currently, this is the largest edited volume devoted to this topic, significantly contributing to the History of Ancient Sciences