Through a novel approach of shotgun DNA sequencing, a group of researchers from the University of Copenhagen has analysed the content of excavated human feces from Denmark, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Jordan and Bahrain. The only antique samples were those from Bahrain (5-400 B.C.E.). All others date from the 7th century C.E. to as late as […]
Archiv der Kategorie 'Allgemein'
Drug use in the ancient Near East
The Science magazine has published an article on recent residue analyses that suggest the use of psychoactive drugs in the ancient Near East such as opium and cannabis. While there is of course a good chance that these drugs were used in a ritualistic context, a medical use seems to be just as likely. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/did-ancient-mesopotamians-get-high-near-eastern-rituals-may-have-included-opium
Hans Sloane Lecture 2019 with Markham J. Geller
The Hans Sloane Lecture 2019 will be given by BabMed PI Markham J. Geller exactly one year from now. The event is hosted by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London and named after Sir Hans Sloane, an Irish physician and philantropist who was born on April 16th 1660. The lecture’s venue is the Apothecaries’ […]
Troels Arbøll, Copenhagen, on how to become a Mesopotamian doctor: the case study of Kisir-Ashur.
In his PhD thesis, Troels Arbøll, Univ. of Copenhagen, retraces the making of a doctor in Mesopotamia. He analyses the notes and writings of a healer called Kisir-Ashur at the end of the seventh century BCE. More about his findings is given in an article at ScienceNordic, a Scandinavian online magazine on scientific research. […]
AOAT 447 by András Bácskay – Therapeutic Prescriptions against Fever in Ancient Mesopotamia
Therapeutic Prescriptions against Fever in Ancient Mesopotamia – Volume 447 of AOAT is available now. András Bácskay of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest offers transliterations, translations and philological notes for fever-related Assyrian and Babylonian therapeutic texts. Please see the Ugarit-Verlag webpage for further information.
Call for Papers: Rome Conference on Religions and Medicine
Religions and Medicine: From Antiquity to Contemporary Age June 5-9, 2018 Velletri (Rome) Call for Papers In the contemporary Western world, medicine constitutes a specific branch of knowledge, with its own characteristics and methods of cure and research, and it’s tendentially autonomous, not linked with religious or folklore beliefs, even though there are still […]
Markham J. Geller in Spektrum der Wissenschaft
The latest issue of Spektrum der Wissenschaft features an article on BabMed focused on the project PI Markham J. Geller. It is titled “Mit dem Herzen denken” (thinking with the heart) and gives an insightful overview on the understanding of human anatomy in the ancient Near East as it can be deducted from the medical […]
Helsinki Workshop ‘Ancient Digital Humanities’, March 6, 2018
In recent years, a growing number of scholars of ancient history have started to explore the possibilities offered by digital humanities. The workshop “Ancient Digital Humanities” aims to accelerate these developments and enter into the conversation already in progress in the larger field of history. The session brings together leading scholars who apply computational methods […]
Call for Papers: 2018 meeting of EABS and SBL, Helsinki
For the 2018 meeting of EABS and SBL in Helsinki, Finland (July 30 – August 3) the convenors invite proposals for papers or for panel-sessions, preferably with a comparative perspective, on the theme “The ways of the amorites – magico-medical knowledge and practices among Jews and others in (Late) Antiquity”. Please send any proposals and/or […]
Talk by J. Cale Johnson at the University of Bologna
“Archaic Texts and Early State Economies in Mesopotamia” is the title of a workshop at the Dipartimento Storia Culture Civiltà of the University of Bologna, where J. Cale Johnson, Deputy Head of BabMed, gives a talk about “Food, status and institutional mechanics in the Uruk IV-III texts” on February 15th, 2018. Please see the department’s website […]
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