Medicine & Diagnosis (the Asû and the Sa-gig)
Herbs and the knife for the body, but first the diagnosis: which god, demon, or ghost had struck the patient?
Mesopotamia had a developed medical tradition. The physician (asu) prescribed drugs from a large herbal and mineral pharmacopoeia, dressed wounds, and performed minor surgery, while the exorcist (ashipu) addressed the supernatural side of illness. Their knowledge was organized in great reference works — above all the diagnostic and prognostic series Sa-gig ('symptoms'), traditionally arranged by the scholar Esagil-kin-apli, which listed symptoms a healer might observe and the divine, demonic, or ghostly cause and likely outcome of each. Medicine and the reading of signs were intertwined: to heal the body, one had also to identify which unseen power had struck it.
Key passages(20)
(If) a person's breathing is burdensome (and he has) diarrhoea: sunstroke [... ]. In the morning, on an empty stomach, you wipe out his mouth with nīnû - plant. You pour alum into his nostrils. [... ]
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You cook lapis lazuli, ašgigû - stone,...- stone, antimony, dāmātu - paste [... ] (and)... equally in šīrīsu - beer. Afterwards, you cook (them) in milk. You... the dāmātu - paste (and).... You... the
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[... ]... [... ] feet (or) himself [... ] " falling sickness " [... ]. [... ] " falling sickness " [... ] rocks [... ]. [... ] and he sees and [... his ] garment [... ] hurts [... ]. [... ] hurt him;
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[... ]' s appearance is like an ummedu - lesion: its name is ašû - disease. (If) a sore's appearance is like an ummedu - lesion, it is reddish and itches a lot (and) the sore's surface produces liquid
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[... ]... liʾbu - disease (gloss: break) [... ]: hand of a ghost. [... ] he trod on a [... ] - bird: he will recover. [... ] (gloss: new break). [... ] Šamaš; he will recover. [... ]: hand of Ištar; h
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(If) a patient's right ear hurts him: [... ] of his father. He will be ill for 1 day and then he will recover. Hand of his father's god [... ]... [... ]...: [... ]... he will recover. esertu means [..
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(If) he is ill for 1 day and his head hurts him: heat stroke; hand of the god of his father; he will die. (If) he is ill for 1 day and he continually puts his hands on his belly, cries out in pain (an
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(If) a woman's bleeding continually flows and does not cease: to block (it) you give her alum, kalgukku - paste, [... ] for softening. Afterwards you give her (this) for softening and closing up. Afte
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[... ] his right hand hurts him [... ]. (If) his left hand hurts him [... ]. (If) his hands hurt him [... ]. (If) the palm of his hands for 5 days... [... ]. (If) his right hand hurts him: hand of Šam
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From the belly (comes): distress. Ditto (from the belly comes): " falling sickness ". Ditto (from the belly comes): hand of a god. Ditto (from the belly comes): hand of Ištar. Ditto (from the belly co
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kukuru - tree, juniper... [... ]... [... ] linseed, grass, seeds of samēdu - plant, ṣaṣumtu - plant aromatic substance from the ballukku - tree, parched grain, opopanax, malt, mustard, cress, šumuttu
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[... ]... [... ] [... ]... branches of...- wood [... ] [... ] you anoint [... ] with bowl-oil... [... ] [... ] until [... ] day [... ]. 5'. You put [... ]... tamarisk, lupin [... ] his neck. You anoin
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[... ]... [... ] Ea the potter moulded [... ] a pot into a potsherd [... ] and mankind died. The reaper of [... ] knows a clay image of mankind.: She broke off (a piece) of clay [... ] (and) threw (it
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[... ] is cold: hand of Kubu. [... ] his intestines AL.DU (means): his intestines blow. [... ] DU: (syllabic spelling): alāku (means): to swell up (or): to blow. [... ] temple seizes him and (means):
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[... ] a patient, his right hip is red: he will recover. His illness will linger and [... ]. (That) it (the hip) will become very dark: MUD: to become dark: that (is) [... ] flows from....: UŠ₂ GE₆ (m
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[... ] cold, 3 akalu of old barley-beer on the fire... [... ] he drinks it [... ]. In the evening, after... bread [... ] he swallows... in front of his bed, 3 akalu of date-beer... [... ]. You pound [
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(traces) [... ] nuhurtu - asafoetida [... ] maštakal - plant, tamarisk [... ] he eats [... ]. [... ] date, isqūqu - flour [... ] (gloss: new break). You anoint [... ] 1/2 qû of opopanax. You cool down
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[... ] [... you put ] inside [ his ] ears [ and the evil ] afflicting his head [ will be eradicated ]. [ (If) a man while ] walking down the street tumbles head first, his eyes open wide, he does not
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[... ]... [... that ] is said [... ] month: he will die. [... ]... [... ] alternatively [... ] face of [... ] meaning he (sexually) approached a man's wife [... ]. [... ] a donkey tramples it: RA (mea
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[... ] twitches, his illness [... ] [... ]... twitch, [... ] [... of ] his [ right ] is undone [... ] [... of ] his left is undone... [... ] [... ] his... are undone the face... [... ] [... ] his righ
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