Disease and Healing in Ancient Mesopotamia with Troels Arboll
Episode 105 - February 9, 2023
Troels Arboll (University of Copenhagen) joins the show to discuss his work on disease and healing in ancient Mesopotamia. Troels first defines ancient Mesopotamia both temporally and spatially and points out some of the sources we have for the period. The conversation soon reaches infectious diseases and how they were perceived and recorded by the inhabitants of Ancient Mesopotamia. This sets the stage for an overview of the difficulties of terminology in the surviving primary sources as well as the uncertainties of retrospective diagnosis that forces ambiguous ancient terms into modern-day categories. Troels subsequently surveys how the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia responded to infectious diseases, and touches upon the questions of healing. Finally, the conversation moves to Covid and its effects on discussions in the field.
Further Reading
- Arbøll, Troels Pank. Medicine in Ancient Assur: A Microhistorical Study of the Neo-Assyrian Healer Kiṣir-Aššur. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2020.
- Arbøll, Troels Pank. “Revisiting Epidemics in Cuneiform Sources: Ancient Attestations, Approaches, and Innovations.” In Plague in Antiquity, edited by Louise Hitchcock, Andrew Jamieson, and Caroline Tully, 13-33. Leuven, Paris and Walpole: Peeters Press, in press.
- Farber, Walter. “How to Marry a Disease: Epidemics, Contagion, and a Magic Ritual Against the ‘Hand of the Ghost’.” In Magic and Rationality in Ancient Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman Medicine, edited by Manfred Horstmanshoff and Marten Stol, 117-132. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2004.
- Heessel, Nils. “Seuche.” In Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie. Band 12. Samuha – Sililitu, edited by Michael Streck, 405-406. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009-10.
- Maul, Stefan. “Ein altorientalischer Pferdesegen – Seuchenprophylaxe in der assyrischen Armee.” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 103/1 (2013): 16–37.
Our Guest
Troels Pank Arbøll and others
Assistant Professor – Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen
