The new book “Healing Magic and Evil Demons” by Markham J. Geller, Principal Investigator of BabMed-Babylonian Medicine, and Luděk Vacín is now available. It brings together ancient manuscripts of the large compendium of Mesopotamian exorcistic incantations known as Udug.hul (Utukkū Lemnūtu), directed against evil demons, ghosts, gods, and other demonic malefactors within the Mesopotamian view of the world. It is the result of forty years of work and it allows for a more accurate appraisal of variants arising from a text tradition spread over more than two millennia and from many ancient libraries.
This book is part of the BAM series, Franz Köcher’s magnum opus on Babylonian and Assyrian medicine, which was envisioned to include cuneiform copies, translations, and commentary. Unfortunately, it was unfinished at his death in 2002 with six volumes of cuneiform copies accompanied by brief introductory comments and citation of parallels and duplicates. Publication of the series is being resumed, under the editorship of Robert Biggs and Marten Stol, beginning with Renal and Rectal Disease Texts (BAM 7). The new volumes include full translations and philological commentary, thus making Babylonian and Assyrian medical texts accessible to historians of ancient medicine in up-to-date studies.
You can order the book here.
Marius Hoppe
Die