This book presents the first in-depth analysis of Mesopotamian healing goddesses and their relationship to asûs, “healers”. Through this, Sibbing-Plantholt provides unprecedented insight into the diverse Mesopotamian medical marketplace and how professional healers operating within it legitimized themselves.

In The Divine/Demonic Seven and the Place of Demons in Mesopotamia, Gina Konstantopoulos analyses the Sebettu, a group of seven divine/demonic figures found across a wide range of Mesopotamian textual and artistic sources in Mesopotamia from the late third to first millennium BCE. The Sebettu appeared both as fierce, threatening demons and as divine, protective, figures. These seemingly contradictory qualities worked together, as their martial ferocity facilitated their religious and political role. When used in royal inscriptions, they became fierce warriors attacking the king’s enemies, retaining that demonic nature. This flexibility was not unique to the Sebettu, and this study thus provides a lens through which to examine the place of demons in Mesopotamia as a whole.

This in-depth exploration of emotions in the ancient Near East illuminates the rich and complex worlds of feelings encompassed within the literary and material remains of this remarkable region, home to many of the world’s earliest cities and empires, and lays critical foundations for future study. Thirty-four chapters by leading international scholars, including philologists, art historians, and archaeologists, examine the ways in which emotions were conceived, experienced, and expressed by the peoples of the ancient Near East, with particular attention to Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the kingdom of Ugarit, from the Late Uruk through to the Neo-Babylonian Period (ca. 3300–539 BCE). The volume is divided into two parts: the first addressing theoretical and methodological issues through thematic analyses and the second encompassing corpus-based approaches to specific emotions. Part I addresses emotions and history, defining the terms, materialization and material remains, kings and the state, and engaging the gods. Part II explores happiness and joy; fear, terror, and awe; sadness, grief, and depression; contempt, disgust, and shame; anger and hate; envy and jealousy; love, affection, and admiration; and pity, empathy, and compassion. Numerous sub-themes threading through the volume explore such topics as emotional expression and suppression in relation to social status, gender, the body, and particular social and spatial conditions or material contexts. The Routledge Handbook of Emotions in the Ancient Near East is an invaluable and accessible resource for Near Eastern studies and adjacent fields, including Classical, Biblical, and medieval studies, and a must-read for scholars, students, and others interested in the history and cross-cultural study of emotions.

This dissertation is aimed at providing new perspectives on Mesopotamian medicine by reconstructing its social history and paving a path for interdisciplinary research. The strategy chosen for this dissertation is to investigate and define transitions in the role and appearance of healing goddesses--the representations of Mesopotamian medicine and illness in the divine realm--and their relationship with the asû in order to gain understanding of the medical marketplace and how Mesopotamian professional or scholarly healers perceived their expertise, knowledge and role. The study consists of three sections. First, it presents a survey of textual, archaeological and iconographical evidence from three millennia in order to analyze the individual origins, cults and personae of the Mesopotamian healing goddesses. The healing goddesses considered are those who were called asû and were associated with each other through shared features and households: Gula/Meme, Ninkarrak, Ninisina, Bau and Nintinuga. A synchronic and diachronic analysis is given for each goddess, as well as of her healing qualities over time and her relationship with the asû. The second part is an examination of the asû and his role in the Mesopotamian medical marketplace throughout Mesopotamian history based on sources outside the medical scholarly literature, such as administrative texts and letters. This reveals that the asû was a term applied to healers operating in different segments of society and different sectors of the health care system alongside a variety of other healers. In the Kassite period, some asûs developed a scholarly identity. In the third part, this phenomenon is considered against the parallel development of Gula, who at this time became the healing goddess per excellence and embodied medical scholarship. It is shown that from the Kassite period on, Gula was employed as a divine legitimizing model for the scholarly asûs in the textual and iconographic material in order for the latter to become more competitive in the Mesopotamian medical marketplace. This tension between different kinds of healers and the legitimization of professional healers can be demonstrated in a wide range of times and places, including the modern western world, which lays a foundation for future comparative research.

A systematic study of how royal illnesses in the Hebrew Bible are evaluated and integrated in literary and historiographical contexts.

Babylonian medicine is the most important corpus of ancient medicine prior to the Greeks. This volume provides a comprehensive picture of how gasrtrointestinal illness, jaundice and related fevers, as well as diarrhea were treated in ancient Mesopotamia. The editions include transliterations, straightforward translations and essential commentary, and are divided into three main sections: the standard corpus for the treatment of gastrointestinal illness in Royal Library in Nineveh (otherwise known as the sualu subcorpus), the related group of texts that attribute intestinal disturbances to malevolent ghosts and a third group of texts focused on diarrhea. In addition to the standard compendia, isolated precursor texts, which were incorporated into these compendia, are included here in appendices. This volume provides an overarching picture of the entire field of gastrointestinal illnesses and related conditions in ancient Mesopotamia.

A fascinating tour of cities that have been lost to history—from the Neolithic period to the late Roman Empire—that offers a fresh perspective on the roots of urban life. The ruins of ancient Athens, Luxor, and Rome are familiar cornerstones of world history, visited by travelers from across the globe. But what about the cities that have dropped off the map? That have been submerged under water, or swallowed up by the sands of time? Where are they, and what can they tell us about our past? In this compendium of forgotten cities, Philip Matyszak exploresthe trials, tribulations, and triumphs these cities faced, revealing how people have embarked on the shared endeavor of living together since we first settled down twelve thousand years ago. Illustrated throughout with important artifacts, ruins, and maps, Lost Cities of the Ancient World brings to life the sites and settlements across Europe, the Middle East, and beyond that time forgot, from the sunken city of Pavlopetri in the Mediterranean to the deep cave dwellings of Derinkuyu in Turkey. Four thousand years of human history are covered in this volume, offering unique insights into forgotten cities and ways of life. Matyszak reveals a dynamic network of peoples and cultures who fought and traded between themselves, exchanging inventions, ideas, and philosophies, with the result that people as far apart as Catalhöyükin Turkey and Skara Brae in Scotland’s Orkney Islands shared a common heritage. By examining the motivations that first drew populations to gather and settle together, as well as the challenges that led to their cities’ abandonment, this visually striking and often surprising book offers us a fresh perspective on our urban origins.