Freie Universität Berlin

Woraus besteht die Seele, wie steuert sie den menschlichen Körper und wo ist ihr Sitz im Körper? Was geschieht, wenn ein Mensch krank wird, und was trägt zu seiner Heilung bei?

Die Ausstellung „Die Seele ist ein Oktopus. Antike Vorstellungen vom belebten Körper“ stellt zentrale antike Auffassungen von physischen und seelischen Vorgängen vor, die zwischen ca. 500 vor und 200 nach Christus entwickelt wurden. Die Ausstellung wird im Präparatesaal des Medizinhistorischen Museums der Charité gezeigt. Hier hatte bereits der Pathologe Rudolf Virchow die präparierten Beispiele gesunder und kranker Organe quasi topographisch angeordnet und den menschlichen Körper als einen begehbaren Ort inszeniert. Die Ausstellung wird hier nun als eine „friedliche Intervention“ eingetragen und ergänzt Virchows Programm um eine psychische Dimension.

Die Interventions-Objekte wie antike medizinische Instrumente aus der Zeit des 1. Jh. v. Chr. bis zum 3. Jh. n. Chr. oder anatomische Körperteilvotive hängen mit der Lokalisation von körperlichen und seelischen Vorgängen im Körper zusammen, Beispiele attischer Vasenmalerei bringen uns die antiken Menschen und ihren Lebensstil näher. Unter den Objekten sind zahlreiche Leihgaben aus Privatbesitz und wichtigen Museen und Universitätssammlungen. Vor allem aber setzt die Ausstellung auf großformatige Bilder, die der Berliner Graphiker Christoph Geiger in enger Zusammenarbeit mit Wissenschaftlern des Topoi-Forschungsprojektes (D-2) Mapping Body and Soul für die zehn Ausstellungsthemen geschaffen hat.

AUSSTELLUNG 11. Mai–11. September 2016
Eröffnung 10. Mai 2016, 17:30h, Charitéplatz 1, Berlin-Mitte

Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charitè,
Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin

BEGLEITENDE RINGVORLESUNG

10.5.2016, 17:30 – 20:30
Heinrich von Staden – Princeton University, USA
Eröffnung der Ausstellung „Die Seele ist ein Oktopus. Antike Vorstellungen über den belebten Körper“

.

17.5.2016, 17:30 – 19:00
The Mystery of Presence and the Comparative History of the Soul
Shigehisa Kuriyama – Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA)

Textauszüge aus: NEOPTOPIA 03/2016

Das Treffen des Interdisziplinären Arbeitskreises „Alte Medizin“, ausgerichtet von Prof. Dr. Tanja Pommerening, findet am 2. und 3. Juli 2016 im Institut für Geschichte, Theorie und Ethik der Medizin der Universität Mainz, Am Pulverturm 13, Untergeschoss (Hörsaal U1125) statt.

Das Oberthema der Tagung lautet: „Medizin und Tod in der Alten Welt“.

Für ein Programm der Veranstaltung klicken Sie bitte hier.

Scholars, Priests and Temples – Babylonian and Egyptian Science in Context
12-14 May 2016
TOPOI – Humboldt University Berlin, Hannoversche Strasse 6, Room 1.03

Late Babylonian, Late Egyptian and Greco-Roman Egyptian scholarship and its institutional and social contexts:
In the last few decades our understanding of scholarship, priesthood and temple institutions during the late periods of Babylonian and Egyptian history has greatly expanded.

However, the results that were obtained in each area are not always noticed across disciplinary boundaries, and the same may be true for some of the innovative approaches that were adopted in research. The conference will bring together specialists in Late Babylonian, Late Egyptian and Egyptian Graeco-Roman science as well as experts in the temple institutions and the social and institutional contexts in which scholarship was practiced. The conference focuses on the time between 600 BCE and 200 CE, roughly corresponding to the Neo Babylonian, Achaemenid, Seleucid and Parthian eras in Babylonia and the Late Egyptian, Ptolemaic and Roman eras in Egypt. During this period there were significant developments in the sciences as well as major changes in the role of the temples as loci of scholarship, the notion of priesthood and the practice of royal patronage.

Speakers include Brian Muhs (Chicago), Caroline Waerzeggers (Leiden), David Klotz (Basel), Markham J. Geller (FU Berlin), Heather Baker (Toronto), Johannes Hackl (Leipzig), Joachim Quack (Heidelberg), Alexandra von Lieven (FU Berlin), Alexander Jones (New York University), John Steele (Brown University), Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum (FU Berlin), Damien Agut (Paris) / Philippe Clancier (Paris), Geert de Breucker (Groningen), Paul-Alain Beaulieu (Toronto), Mathieu Ossendrijver (HU Berlin), Marvin Schreiber (HU Berlin), Andreas Winkler (Oxford), Julia Krul (Durham).

Please see at the TOPOI website for full conference programme.

Agnes Kloocke

W.G. Lambert: Ancient Mesopotamian Religion and Mythology Selected Essays Ed. by A.R. George and T.M. Oshima [Mesopotamische Religion und Mythologie der Antike. Ausgewählte Aufsätze.] 2016. XVI, 279 pages. Cloth.

Orientalische Religionen in der Antike 15
ISBN 978-3-16-153674-8
Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen

Published in English.

The late W.G. Lambert (1926–2011) was one of the foremost Assyriologists of the latter part of the twentieth century. His principle legacy is a large number of superb critical editions of Babylonian literary compositions. Many of the texts he edited were on religious and mythological subjects. He will always be remembered as the editor of the Babylonian Job ( Ludlul bel nemeqi, also known as the Poem of the Righteous Sufferer), the Babylonian Flood Story ( Atra-hasis) and the Babylonian Creation Epic ( Enuma elish). Decades of deep engagement with these and other ancient Mesopotamian texts gave direction to much of his research and led him to acquire a deep knowledge of ancient Mesopotamian religion and mythology. The present book is a collection of twenty-three essays published by the scholar between the years 1958 and 2004. These endure not only as the legacy of one of the greatest authorities in this specialist field, but also because each makes statements of considerable validity and importance. As such, many are milestones in the fields of Mesopotamian religion and mythology.

Survey of contents
Preface and Acknowledgements – Introduction by A.R. George

I: Introductory Considerations
Morals in Mesopotamia – Ancient Mesopotamian Gods: Superstition, Philosophy, Theology

II: The Gods of Ancient Mesopotamia
The Historical Development of the Mesopotamian Pantheon: A Study in Sophisticated Polytheism – Goddesses in the Pantheon: A Reflection of Women in Society? – The Mesopotamian Background of the Hurrian Pantheon – The Pantheon of Mari – The God Assur – Ishtar of Nineveh

III: The Mythology of Ancient Mesopotamia Der Mythos im Alten Mesopotamien, sein Werden und Vergehen – The Cosmology of Sumer and Babylon – The Theology of Death – The Relationship of Sumerian and Babylonian Myth as Seen in Accounts of Creation – Ninurta Mythology in the Babylonian Epic of Creation – Myth and Ritual as Conceived by the Babylonians

IV: The Religion of Ancient Mesopotamia
The Reign of Nebuchadnezzar I: A Turning Point in the History of Ancient Mesopotamian Religion – Syncretism and Religious Controversy in Babylonia – Donations of Food and Drink to the Gods in Ancient Mesopotamia – The Cult of Ishtar of Babylon – The Qualifications of Babylonian Diviners – Devotion: The Languages of Religion and Love

V: Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel
Old Testament Mythology in its Ancient Near Eastern Context – Destiny and Divine Intervention in Babylon and Israel – The Flood in Sumerian, Babylonian and Biblical Sources

—

W.G. Lambert (1926–2011): 1959–64 Associate Professor and Chair of Oriental Seminary, Johns Hopkins University; 1970–93 Professor of Assyriology, University of Birmingham; 1971 Fellow of the British Academy; 2010 identification of pieces from a cuneiform tablet that was inscribed with the same text as the Cyrus Cylinder with Irving Finkel; also noted for his new discoveries in relation to the Gilgamesh text.

A.R. George Born 1955; 1985 PhD in Assyriology under the supervision of Wilfred G. Lambert; since 1983 he has taught Akkadian and Sumerian language and literature at SOAS, University of London, where he is now Professor of Babylonian; 2006 Fellow of the British Academy; 2012 Honorary Member of the American Oriental Society.

T.M. Oshima Born 1967; PhD in Assyriology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel; 2008–10 Alexander-von-Humboldt fellow at the University of Leipzig in Germany; 2010–13 research fellow at the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena (project of the German Research Foundation (DFG); since 2015 another DFG project at the University of Leipzig.

posted by
Agade@listserv.unc.edu
on 21/03/2016

Papers are invited on the theme of the “Concepts of Disease in traditions of (Late) Antiquity”, extending from biblical and apocryphal texts, into later Jewish, rabbinic and early Christian contexts. We are especially interested in presentations on rabbinic-talmudic traditions against the foil of their literary and socio-cultural background(s). Discussions of earlier discourses in the Bible and the post-biblical literature and medicine in later medieval traditions are also welcome, as far as they relate to the transfer of knowledge on different paths. We aim to offer a comparative perspective by keeping an eye on the embeddedness of medical discourses on illness and disease in their surrounding cultures (ancient Babylonian, Greco-Roman, Early Christian, Syriac and Muslim-Arabic). Such a perspective will allow for assessing Talmudic medical ideas of disease within a broader history of medicine and to determine their particular Jewishness. While addressing the interaction between various medical discourses, papers may consider different strategies (borrowing/ camouflage/ negation) which may relate to questions of the transcultural history of science(s) and knowledge in (Late) Antiquity.

Please send your proposals to both chairs:

Markham J. Geller: mark.geller@fu-berlin.de

Lennart Lehmhaus: lennart.lehmhaus@fu-berlin.de

Abstracts should be submitted also via a free account at the EABS website’s application system.

DATE FOR SUBMISSION: 31.03.2016

Lennart Lehmhaus
SFB 980 Freie Universität Berlin, Project A03
The Transfer of Medical Episteme in the ‘Encyclopaedic’ Compilations of Late Antiquity

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

Sixth Dahlem Seminar for the History of Ancient Sciences: Genres and Beyond

The “Dahlem Seminar for the History of Ancient Sciences” is being convened by M. J. Geller (History of Knowledge and BabMed Principal Investigator) and K. Geus (Ancient Geography) within TOPOI excellence cluster at Freie Universität Berlin.

“Genres and Beyond” is the thematic framework for the summer 2016 series of the sixth Dahlem Seminar. Open to discussion are questions such as to how literary genres influence the presentation as well as form and content of scientific texts in the different cultures of the ancient world.

The weekly series will commence on 26 April, 2016. Speakers include Giusto Traina (Paris), Andrew George (London), Francesca Rochberg (Berkeley), Heinrich von Staden (Princeton), Daniel Boyarin (Berkeley), Peter Machinist (Harvard), Lorenzo Verderame (Rome), Victor Gysemberg (Reims/Paris), Michael Streck (Leipzig), Mary Bachvarova (Salem, Oregon), Nathan Wasserman (Jerusalem) und David Warburton (Berlin).
Working languages are English and German. Attendance is free of charge, no advance notification is required.

Freie Universität Berlin – Summer semester 2016 – Tuesdays from 18–20, TOPOI-Bibliothek at TOPOI house Dahlem

A detailed programme will be made available online at www.topoi.org.
For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Klaus Geus (klaus.geus@fu-berlin.de).

The Dahlem Seminar for the History of Ancient Sciences is made possible by TOPOI Excellence Cluster.

Agnes Kloocke

BabMed Post Doc Ulrike Steinert has been awarded a Wellcome Medical Humanities Small Grant and is currently involved in research at Oxford University during January to March 2016.

She is hosted by the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology (ISCA) and affiliated with Wolfson College as a visiting scholar. During her stay, she is working on a paper which analyses views and evaluations of menstruation and female bodily discharges in ancient Mesopotamian medicine (https://www.isca.ox.ac.uk/research/medical-and-ecological-anthropology/eastern-medicines-and-religions/argo-emr/ongoing-research/blood-womens-bodies-and-gender-in-ancient-mesopotamian-medicine/).

Together with Professor Elisabeth Hsu (ISCA), Ulrike is co-convenor of this term’s seminar of the Anthropology Research Group Oxford, on Eastern Medicines (ArgO-EMR), which focuses on Divination in ancient Mesopotamia and China.

She will be the speaker of the Feb 11 session of this term’s Language and Anthropology Seminar at ISCA, focusing on Writing Systems.

Ulrike will also present a paper about her current research at a session of the Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Egyptology Seminar, on Feb 23, 4.30pm at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of Oxford University.

Agnes Kloocke

Annie Attia, also project advisor of BabMed, announced the publication of the 26^th issue of Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes.

The first contribution is by András Bácskay (Budapest) deals with magico-medical prescriptions against fever and presents an edition of the new or late babylonian tablet BM 42272. The tablet contains twenty prescriptions and is one of the most comprehensive sources for the phylacteries against fever. The article includes transliterations and translations of the respective texts as well as paying a special attention on the fever prescriptions, and their parallels in other medical texts.

The second contributor, Susanne Beck (Tübingen), addresses the question of “sāmānu as a human disease”. By means of different medical cuneiform sources, she analyses the descriptions of sāmānu not only as a demon, but also as a disease associated with particular parts of the human body. The author proposes a deeper insight into the medico-magical sources of these descriptions as well as possible identifications of this disease in modern terms of medical practice.

Eric Schmidtchen

The implementation of a CDLI search-renderer feed of an online viewer now accommodates the RTI images of cuneiform artifacts that Oxford co-PI Jacob Dahl and research associate Klaus Wagensonner (now at the Free University of Berlin) created, working in the collections of the Ashmolean Museum and the Louvre, and in smaller numbers in those of Oslo (Schøyen), Manchester (JRL) and Philadelphia (UPenn); Bruce Zuckerman’s West Semitic Research Project at USC also imaged for the Khorsabad reliefs of the Oriental Institute Museum (Chicago). These files currently document 2,279 surfaces of 1,085 individual artifacts—in 8,570,000 discrete jpg’s.
You can read more about RTI images in CDLI here.
If you don’t know what RTI images are, then you can find it out here.

Marius Hoppe