Related Papers
2018. Magic and Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia— A New Collection of Translations, Journal of the American Oriental Society 138.3
Strahil Panayotov
Review article of Sourcebook for Ancient Mesopotamian Medicine. By Joann Scurlock. Writings from the Ancient World, vol. 36. Atlanta: Society of Biblical literature, 2014. Pp. xix + 764. $84.95 (paper).
Co-authored with Strahil V. Panayotov, Bibliography of Markham J. Geller, in Strahil V. Panayotov, Luděk Vacín (eds.): Mesopotamian Medicine and Magic: Studies in Honor of Markham J. Geller, AMD 14, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2018, pp. xvii-xxxi.
Luděk Vacín, Strahil Panayotov
Journal of the American Oriental Society
Magic and Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia—A New Collection of Translations
Strahil Panayotov
2018. Edited with Luděk Vacín. Mesopotamian Medicine and Magic: Studies in Honor of Markham J. Geller. Ancient Magic and Divination 14. Brill
Strahil Panayotov, Luděk Vacín
Mesopotamian Medicine and Magic: Studies in Honor of Markham J. Geller is a thematically focused collection of 34 brand-new essays bringing to light a representative selection of the rich and varied scientific and technical knowledge produced chiefly by the cuneiform cultures. The contributions concentrate mainly on Mesopotamian scholarly descriptions and practices of diagnosing and healing diverse physical ailments and mental distress. The Festschrift contains both critical editions of new texts as well as analytical studies dealing with various issues of Mesopotamian medical and magical lore. Currently, this is the largest edited volume devoted to this topic, significantly contributing to the History of Ancient Sciences.
Journal of Religion and Health
The Spiritual Dimensions of Healing Rituals in Ancient Mesopotamia
2020 •
Amar Annus
The spell formula called the Marduk–Ea incantation from ancient Mesopotamia is unique in history of medicine due to its documented use of almost 3000 years. The incantation was recited in exorcistic healing rituals. The formal structure of the spell is studied from the point of view of neuroscience of doctor–patient relationship and in the context of the decentring mechanism of religious experiences. The incantation structure is also analysed for decentring phenomenology in dreams. The structure of this incantation enables religious and spiritual experiences to occur both to healer and patient. These experiences generated a positive psychosocial context and facilitated placebo effects. The incantation structure is bound to stimulate brain mechanisms in prefrontal cortex that promote both executive functions and placebo responsiveness.
Panayotov
Healing in Images and Texts: The Sickbed Scene. In Patients and Performative Identities: At the Intersection of the Mesopotamian Technical Disciplines and Their Clients, edited by J. Cale Johnson. Eisenbrauns, the Pennsylvania state university press. 129-158.
2020 •
Strahil Panayotov
Review of Ildikó Csepregi and Charles Burnett (eds.) Ritual Healing. Magic, Ritual and Medical Therapy from Antiquity until the Early Modern Period, Firenze, Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2012, in Early Science and Medicine, 19, 2014, p. 191-193
Aurélien Robert
48th AJS Meeting, SAN DIEGO, DECEMBER 18–20, 2016
Everything which heals is not of the ways of the Amorites – doctors, medicine and healing magic in Talmudic texts and adjacent traditions in Late Antiquity
2016 •
Lennart Lehmhaus
This session explores interrelated aspects of discourses on medical experts, healing and magic in Jewish Late Antiquity in the light of their different cultural and religious milieux. The ambiguous relationship of the Talmudic rabbis as religious experts to other fields of expertise will be discussed. Competing experts and approaches challenged the rabbis' views, especially in delicate areas such as medicine, healing and magic. The comparison with non-rabbinic and non-Jewish healing cultures (magic bowls/ Christian texts/ Greco-Roman medicine) will help to figure out the particularities of the Talmudic approaches. All close readings will focus also on the literary or textual (re)presentations and the contextual integration of those discourses. Finally, the still strong dichotomy between religion and magic or (rationale) medicine and magic will be scrutinized. Shulamit Shinnar (New York) will discuss the relationship between doctors, rabbis and patients as described in the Palestinian rabbinic traditions. The talk addresses the sometimes tension-filled process of knowledge exchange between those groups with a special focus on the rabbinic attitudes. What kind of expertise do rabbis seek from doctors and in what particular circ*mstances? Furthermore, the particular rabbinic knowledge about the body will be evaluated through close readings against the backdrop of medical practice in the Greco Roman world. Monika Amsler (Zurich) revisits the rather puzzling question of the connections between medicine, magic and religion in Talmudic Judaism. Through a comparison with contemporary Christian attitudes to magic in the field of healing some of the distinct aspects of the pertinent discourse in the Babylonian Talmud will be fleshed out. Jason Mokhtarian (Bloomington) complements this discussion with a comparative analysis of a shared discourse on magic and medicine in late ancient Mesopotamia. By contextualizing the Jewish incantation bowls within a broader Aramaic culture of healing as attested in the Bavli, Syriac-Christian and Mandaic traditions, such knowledge and practices might have been rooted in the realm of endemic ancient Mesopotamian culture. The panel brings together fresh perspectives on complex interrelations between medicine and magic as cultural knowledge and practices in late ancient Judaism. All presenters provide innovative readings of rabbinic and other relevant sources equipped with a broad range of theoretical and methodological approaches. The presentations and the contribution of Charlotte Fonrobert, who will discuss the three papers in her response, intend to inspire lively discussions among the panelists as well as conversations with the audience interested in late ancient Jewish attitudes to medicine in Talmudic culture and beyond.
MATERIALITY, ORAL INCANTATIONS AND SUPERNATURAL AGENCY IN ANCIENT HEALING MAGIC
Francisco Marco Simón
In the Ancient World illness was thought to be the effect not of accidental or natural causes, but rather the result of a negative agency, an external attack on the victim's body. This paper focuses on the diverse strategies used in healing magic attested in the material and textual records from the ancient Near East to Late Antiquity, with special attention paid to how the cultural status of objects and substances was changed through ritual, a process that, along with the invocations of demons and gods, allowed objects to acquire agency to counterattack the harm inflicted on the victim's body.
Acta Antiqua
Magical elements of mesopotamian medical texts
2009 •
András Bácskay
The goal of this paper is to analise the magical elements of mesopotamian medical texts. The Mesopotamian concept of illness is interpreting physical complaints and pain, that is symptoms and illness, as messages from the gods (omens), claiming that medical texts deal with a specific type of this kind of message transfer, namely those cases when the bad omen occurs on the human body. In this article I introduce the sources and the cultural context of Mesopotamian medical texts, then I examine the magical elements in the process of healing treatment. We can conclude that the minor role of practice in the curing of illnesses is supported by the magic elements (e.g. aspects of numerology, or magic circles) identifiable in each step of healing with medicaments.
