Ancient Babylonian Medicine Theory and Practice

by Geller, Markham J.

• ISBN13: 9781444319996
• ISBN10: 144431999X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2010-03-19
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

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

Author Biography

Markham J. Geller is Professor of Semitic Languages at University College London and Guest Professor at the Freie Universität Berlin. He is the author of Evil Demons: Canonical Utukkū Lemnūtu Incantations (2007) and co-editor of Disease in Babylonia (2007) and Imagining Creation (2008).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations.

List of Abbreviations.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction to Babylonian Medicine and Magic.

1 Medicine as Science.

2 Who Did What to Whom?

3 The Politics of Medicine.

4 Medicine as Literature.

5 Medicine and Philosophy.

6 Medical Training: MD or PhD?

7 Uruk Medical Commentaries.

8 Medicine and Magic as Independent Approaches to Healing.

Appendix: An Edition of a Medical Commentary.

Notes.

References.

Subject Index.

Selective Index of Akkadian and Greek Words.

Index of Akkadian Personal Names.