Diagnosis in Ancient Mesopotamia

[us4-he2-gal2]

Hey enenuru:






I have made a sub-board and a thread in order to suggest a new topic for inquiry at enenuru, that being Mesopotamian medicine. There are 2 primary concerns in this study 1. the diagnostic texts and 2. the therapeutic texts. The first category of text pertain to the Āšipu, who we often discuss on enenuru as "the exorcist" but who was just as much "the doctor." The second category of texts, the therapeutic, pertain both to the Āšipu and to the Asû, sometimes they seem intended for the use of one, sometimes for the other.


In order to begin this study, I would like to submit my MA thesis work, a fairly brief overview of the problem of diagnosis and it place in the magical-medicinal and intellectual setting of Mesopotamia. An MA thesis is intended as a preparation for later work, in contrast to a PhD dissertation which is more less a finished study, a book. I think my thesis does succeed in being a primer for the reader, sketching the development of both the diagnostic text and the diagnostician (the Āšipu) before moving to the primary attestations we have of both in the 1st millennium. In the 1st millennium, the diagnostic texts were canonized and known by the name SA.GIG (among other names). Interested readers will find a more detailed abstract on page. i:



www.enenuru.net/pdfs/McGrath-SA.GIG.pdf