Ancient Babylonian Medicine - Theory and Practice
Ancient Cultures
1. Edition June 2015
240 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Short Description
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.
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 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