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MEDICAL TABLETS FROM THE ARCHIVE OF THE EGIBI FAMILY? AN EDITION OF BM 30918 AND BM 31071

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2021

Krisztián Simkó  and
András Bácskay
Krisztián Simkó
Affiliation:
Assyrian Medicine Project Department of the Middle East British Museum Great Russell Street LondonWC1B 3DGKSimko@britishmuseum.org
András Bácskay
Affiliation:
Department of Ancient History Pázmány Péter Catholic University Piliscsaba – Budapest bacskay.andras@btk.ppke.hu
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Abstract

Building on recent advances in the field of Neo- and Late Babylonian medicine, this paper presents the edition and thorough analysis of two unpublished medical tablets from the collections of the British Museum (BM 30918 and BM 31071). In the first part, the archival and social context of these tablets will be explored, while also reporting on findings about how they might fit into the larger corpus of Late Babylonian medical texts. The two tablets are published in the second part of the paper. The aim of this paper is to illustrate that the discussed tablets contribute a lot to our understanding of how medicine as a scientific field worked in the latter half of the first millennium B.C.E. It advances further and draws up more comprehensively the thesis about the “personalisation” of medical knowledge, put forward only recently in the scholarly literature. In addition, it also collects evidence that ties Itti-Marduk-balāṭu, an important member of the Egibi family, to the craft of incantation priests (āšipūtu); this person has so far been known mostly for his activity as a businessman.

بناء على التطورات الحديثة في مجال الطب البابلي الحديث والمتأخر، يقدم هذا البحث الإضافة والتحليل الدقيقين لثلاثة لم يتم نشرها سابقا من الرُقَم الطبية من مجموعات المتحف البريطاني رقم (BM 30918 و BM 31071). يتم في الجزء الأول استكشاف السياق الأرشيفي والاجتماعي لهذه الرُقَم، وفي نفس الوقت الإبلاغ أيضًا عن اكتشافات حول كيفية تناسقها مع المجموعة الأكبر للنصوص الطبية البابلية المتأخرة. هذا وتم نشر كلا الرقمين الإثنين في الجزء الثاني من البحث . هدف هذا البحث هو التوضيح بأن الرقم التي هي موضوع هذا البحث قد ساهمت الكثير في فهمنا عن كيف تم استخدام الطب كمجال علمي في النصف المتأخر من الألف الأول قبل التاريخ . ويتقدم البحث أكثر ويضع بشكل أكثر شمولاً الأطروحة حول "إضفاء الطابع الشخصي " على المعرفة الطبية، والتي تم طرحها مؤخرًا فقط في الأدبيات العلمية . إضافة الى ذلك يقوم البحث بجمع الأدلة التي تربط إتي مردوخ بالاطو، وهو عضو مهم من عائلة إيجيبي Egibi، الى حرفة كهنة التعويذات (أسيبوتو āšipūtu)؛ حيث ان هذا الشخص يعرف لحد الآن فقط بفضل فعالياته كرجل أعمال .

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 83 , December 2021 , pp. 183 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2021

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