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====Medical Texts==== | ====Medical Texts==== | ||
- | blah blah blah | + | ====Introduction==== |
- | [[Thearpeutic | + | Medical |
- | [[Diagnostic | + | The Kassite, or Middle Babylonian, period was especially important in the long-term process of standardisation and canonisation of such texts. Although the process by which works of the scientific disciplines reached their final form is not explained or even mentioned in the sources, it is thought to be the work of Kassite period transcribers and editors, since many representative texts of the scholarly tradition emerged from the library of Tiglath-Pileser I (who ruled from 1115-1107 BC) – so they emerged in essentially the same form in which they are attested in the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian copies. |
- | blah blah | + | The oldest known complete medical text is from about 2000 BC and is in Sumerian ([LINK]; see also Civil). A therapeutic text that deals with many types of misfortunate, |
+ | |||
+ | ====Basic Typology==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Diagnostic Texts==== | ||
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+ | The text SA.GIG, or Sakikkû, which translates loosely to “symptoms”, | ||
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+ | A typical entry from the Diagnostic Handbook employs the casuistic formula, whereby the protases presents information about symptoms, patients, and the course of the illness, and the apodosis gives some combination of a diagnosis, cause, and prognosis. Below is an excerpt from Tablet 9, which forms part of the second chapter of the Diagnostic Handbook and deals with symptoms relating to the face. The entries from this excerpt showcase the typical structure of a diagnostic entry: | ||
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+ | "If [symptom(s)], | ||
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+ | The excerpt also shows how entries relate to one another in a typical sequence. A typical series of entries will elaborate on a basic symptom by adding variables to it or varying the symptom itself to attempt to account for all possible permutations. For example, in lines 9-13 below, the basic symptom is that one side of the body is "let down". The entries begin with the right side, elaborate this as referring to the entire right side, and then move on to the left side. This expansion is typical of scholarly texts more generally, which follow certain schemata in order to cover all observed and imagined scenarios. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Sample Text ==== | ||
+ | SA.GIG 26, 1-13 (Manuscripts: | ||
+ | |||
+ | |1. | [DIŠ NA // | ||
+ | |2. | DIŠ // | ||
+ | |3. | mu-kil˺// SAG-//šu// nu //pa-ṭir |(it is) his providing spirit; it will not be released.| | ||
+ | |4. | DIŠ // | ||
+ | |5. | DIŠ // | ||
+ | |6. | ŠU.SI.MEŠ// | ||
+ | |7. | ˹NINDA˺(!) //u// KAŠ NU TAR-//us// DIB GUD DIŠ(!) EDEN III KAM NI ŠI |he does not...bread or beer: seizure by a Spirit of the Plains; three...he will recover.| | ||
+ | |8. | DIŠ // | ||
+ | |9. | DIŠ ZAG-// | ||
+ | |10. | [DIŠ] ˹ZAG˺ LU< | ||
+ | |11. | [DIŠ] ˹GUB< | ||
+ | |12. | DIŠ ˹GUB< | ||
+ | |13. | MAŠKIM // | ||
+ | ====Therapeutic Texts==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | While the Diagnostic Handbook provided an important tool to physicians, it lacked instructions for the treatment of illnesses and conditions, which come from therapeutic texts. The main component of a therapeutic text is the therapy itself. Other components can appear in a therapeutic text, and the following basic structure can be identified where these components occur: | ||
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+ | |1. | Symptomatology |e.g., "If a man suffers from headache and chills" | ||
+ | |2. | Diagnosis |e.g., "It is lubāṭu-illness" | ||
+ | |3. | Aetiology |e.g., "He was struck by Ghost Wandering at Night" | ||
+ | |4. | Treatment |e.g., instructions for applying a salve; performing a ritual with an incantation; | ||
+ | |5. | Prognosis |e.g., "He will recover" | ||
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+ | In general, while therapeutic texts can be diverse in format and content, they most often include elements 1,2, and 3, which together can be grouped under the label of a diagnostic introduction, | ||
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+ | With respect to canonical works of medical therapies, a Therapeutic Handbook is now known from Neo-Assyrian copies. | ||
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+ | ==== Sample Text ==== | ||
+ | The following example of a therapeutic text preserves all of the elements listed above. | ||
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+ | ==== Sample Text ==== | ||
+ | [[http:// | ||
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+ | ====Medical Commentaries==== | ||
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+ | These are commentaries on specific words, phrases, or passages from the Diagnostic Handbook and other medical texts. Because these texts come from periods much later than those in which their source text -- or the original text on which they comment, such as the Diagnostic Handbook -- were written down, they must be treated with care. At times, they reflect a lack of understanding on the part of later scribes. However, they can also reveal aspects of medical theory and principles of scholarly interpretation more generally. | ||
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+ | Typically, a medical commentary will give a sign, word, or phrase from the source text, followed by a synonym, definition, exegesis, or explanation. For example, if the sign or word from the source text is Sumerian, an Akkadian equivalent may be given. The hermeneutic principles and other features of commentaries are treated extensively in Frahm' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Sample Text ==== | ||
+ | The following excerpt from an Uruk commentary [[http:// | ||
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+ | |1. | SI.DARA< | ||
+ | |2. | < | ||
+ | |3. | // | ||
+ | ====Other==== | ||
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+ | There are numerous other sources for the study of medical traditions, practices, illness, and health in ancient Mesopotamia. Letters, for example, can include descriptions of medical problems, especially those between the Neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon and his royal physicians and scholars. Literary texts contain references to illnesses and symptoms that can sometimes be linked with those that appear in the Diagnostic Handbook. In addition, there is one lexical series dedicated to the human body known as UGU.MU, and lists of diseases, including the Old Babylonia List of Diseases and a Standard Babylonian recension of the same. However, strictly speaking, medical texts are confined to the ones detailed in the above typology. |