MEDICINE IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA Sources Of Mesopotamian Medicine Just about all of the medical information we find about ancient Mesopotamia today comes from cuneiform tablets found in the region, and few are about their medical practices. Pictures or diagrams depicting their medical practices are almost non-existent. Many of the tablets that do mention medical practices have survived from the library of Asshurbanipal, the last great king of Assyria. The library of Asshurbanipal was housed in the king's palace at Nineveh, and when the palace was burned by invaders, the tablets were baked. This made them a lot like modern day pottery, therefore they were preserved very well.
In the early 1920's, the 660 medical tablets from the library were published by Campbell Thompson. Many other medical texts have been published more recently. For example, Franz Kocher has published a series of volumes called Die Babylonishch-Assyrische Medizin. The first four volumes contain 420 tablets found from sites other than Asshurbanipal's library.
Medicine Drug Pills on Plate
Disease?
Diseased large intestineThe other two volumes of Kocher's work fill in what Campbell Thompson was missing. Which were bits and fragments of prescriptions and procedures. Many of the medical texts found are prescriptions but some are called "treatises." These treatises were used for medical diagnosis and prognoses. The diagnostic treaties is organized in head to toe order with separate subsections covering convulsive disorders, gynecology and pediatrics. It has been found that descriptions of diseases contained in the diagnostic treatise demonstrate their keen ability to observe and their diagnoses were usually right. Mostly all expected diseases can be found and described in parts of the diagnostic treatise. Some treatments are the same as modern treatments for the same condition.
Concepts Of Disease And Healing Mesopotamian diseases are often blamed on spirits, gods, ghosts, etc. Each spirit was held responsible for a specific illness...