Freie Universität Berlin

In this collection of essays, edited by Catherine M. Chin and Moulie Vidas, scholars from a range of disciplines explore the activity of knowing in late antiquity by focusing on thirteen major concepts from the intellectual, social, political, and cultural history of the period. They ask two questions about each of these concepts: what did late ancient people know about them, and how was that knowledge expressed in people’s actions? Each chapter treats its main concept as a problem both of knowledge and of practice or behavior. The result is a richly imagined description of how people of this time understood and navigated their world, from travel through the countryside and encounters with demons to philosophical medicine and the etiquette of imperial courts.

“In the chapter on medicine, Heidi Marx-Wolf documents the transdisciplinary nature of late ancient medical inquiry; she concludes that Porpyhry’s tractate ‘on the fetus ‘participates on in a very broad, flexible, universal, even totalizing understanding of scientia’ that renders philosophical and medical knowledge indistinguishable (Introduction, p.6).”

The Book was published in May 2015 by University of California Press

Tanja Hidde

Toiletry kits have been found around the ancient world from the Indus Valley to Britain, and range in time from the 3^rd millennium BCE to the modern day, albeit in varied forms. The article focuses on the toiletry kits found at the sumerian city of Ur, dating to the Early Dynastic Period (ca. 2750-2600 BCE). However, three different functions are put forth in the interpretation of the toiletry kits: cosmetic, hygienic and medical.

Read the full article here.

Marius Hoppe

Scientists have traced multiple tuberculosis strains back to a single late Roman ancestor. The findings support current scientific estimates that indicate tuberculosis (TB) emerged only 6.000 years ago. Previous theories suggested that the ancestral microbe was much more ancient, perhaps 70.000 years old.

Read the full article here.

Marius Hoppe

There will be a BabMed Workhop panel at the 61st RAI in Bern named “Descriptivism and Probative Metaphor in Cuneiform and Post-Cuneiform Technical Literature”.

In line with the theme of the RAI 61, namely ‘Text and Image’, the Descriptivism and Probative Metaphor workshop will look at the contrast between metaphor and descriptive language in the technical disciplines.

This panel will be the third BabMed workshop panel and like previous BabMed panels it will strive to include talks dealing with commensurable materials from postcuneiform Mesopotamia and the broader history of technical literatures.

Full program of the 61st RAI

Detailed program of the BabMed panel

Marius Hoppe

The act of using parts of deceased humans for medical purposes is defined by the term “medical cannibalism” or “corpse medicine”. Blood transfusions and organ transplants are modern forms of “corpse medicine”. In the past, parts of corpses were thought to be able to cure nearly everything from a nosebleed to epilepsy and as such were used in various medical traditions.

It is interesting to note that this wasn’t the case in Babylonian medicine, except for human bones which were a very rare ingredient in some recipes and sometimes used in rituals.

Read the full article here.

Marius Hoppe

AJS – Association for Jewish Studies – is seeking participants for a panel on medical discourse(s) in Jewish traditions throughout (Late) Antiquity. The focus of the session(s) is on medical knowledge in rabbinic traditions (i.e. Talmudic literature and Midrash) against the foil of their literary and socio-cultural background(s). However, within a broader thematic focus also their relation to earlier traditions from the Bible and the post-biblical (Second Temple) literature can be discussed. Moreover, contributions on the legacy of those rabbinic medical discourses in post-Talmudic, early medieval (Sefer Assaf/ Targumim/ Late Midrash/ Geonic literature etc.) traditions may shed light on various ways of the transfer of knowledge on different paths.

The panel is organized by Lennart Lehmhaus as part of the research project about “Talmudic Medicine” (A03) in comparison with Greek medical compilations in the early Byzantine period. The project is conducted by Markham J. Geller collaborating with specialists in Early Byzantine Medical Encyclopedias (head:  Philip J. van der Eijk) at Humboldt University and in a complementary project (BabMed) with scholars from Israel.

The AJS-Conference takes place December 13-15, 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts. Paper proposals or ideas are welcome and should be submitted not later than April 7, 2015. For further information please click here.

Tanja Hidde

“Take cropleek and garlic, of both equal quantities, pound them well together… take wine and bullocks gall, mix with the leek… let it stand nine days in the brass vessel…”

The modern recreation of this Anglo-Saxon recipe from 9th century A.D., now housed in the British Library as part of the old English medical compendium “Bald’s Leechbook”, has proven to be indeed a remedy against MRSA. MRSA are antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can lead to deadly infections of patients in modern hospitals.

Since leek, garlic and onions were common in Mesopotamia as well, this research can give hints on how effective Mesopotamian recipes might have been.

Read the full article here.

Marius Hoppe

As in other civilizations of the time, various types of healing practices co-existed in imperial China, performed by just as many different groups of experts. Shamans and Buddhist or Daoist monks or nuns practicing religious healing, midwives, imperial physicians in official positions at court, itinerant folk-healers, practicing scholar-physicians trained in the Confucian classics, hereditary physicians, or scholarly laymen devoted to the study of medicine all had their part in the daily healthcare of the population.

In her dissertation “Competition among Medical Experts in Imperial China (10th to 19th centuries)” the TOPOI doctoral fellow Nalini Kirk focusses on those groups of mostly male healers that practiced medicine among the common people in order to make a living. Nalini Kirk follows Paul Unschuld in regarding competition for these resources as one major factor for the development of medical theory and practice.

Read further…

Agnes Kloocke

In Babylonian medicine, various minerals and stones were used as materia medica. Studying later periods and texts such as Arabic manuscripts can prove that Babylonian medical lore survived for a long time in different cultures and can be very useful for understanding Babylonian medical practice: Dutch publisher Brill has announced a new monograph by Fabian Käs entitled “Al-Maqrīzīs Traktat über die Mineralien” scheduled for May 2015.

Dr. Fabian Käs works at the Martin-Buber-Institute at the University of Cologne as part of the DFG-Project “Erstmalige kritische Edition des Kitāb at-Talḫīs von Marwān ibn Ǧanāḥ nebst englischer Übersetzung, Kommentar und Analyse des iberoromanischen Wortschatzes”.

Read the full announcement by Brill here.

Marius Hoppe

Das niederländische Verlagshaus Brill hat für Mai 2015 die Veröffentlichung eines neuen Buches von Tzvi Abusch mit dem Titel “The magical ceremony Maqlû” angekündigt.
Hier finden Sie die Ankündigung des Verlagshauses Brill.

Weiterführende Informationen zum Autor finden Sie hier: Tzvi Abusch

Marius Hoppe