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Accepted Paper:
Healing in ancient Mesopotamia – the reliance on aquatic elements in magical-medical practices
Ana Satiro
(CHAM - Centro de Humanidades)
Isabel Gomes de Almeida
(CHAM (FCSHUNL))
Cristina Brito
(CHAM - Centre for the Humanites, NOVA FCSH)
The present paper proposes to examine Mesopotamian therapeutic texts from the II and I millennia BC., highlighting the role of aquatic agents within the healing practices of ancient Mesopotamia.
Paper long abstract:
The ancient Mesopotamian corpora regarding healing practices clearly show how fauna, flora, and other natural elements were closely examined, transformed, and exploited, becoming materia magica and materia medica (i.e., ingredients required for remedy preparation). Naturally, not only the specialists who developed them but also the patients who received them became deeply dependent on these elements. Given the rich aquatic environment that characterized the Mesopotamian territory, the magical-medical repertoire comprised diverse references to aquatic elements. In this regard, we have been trying to intertwine the postulates of History of Religions and Environmental History to be applied to the study of ancient Mesopotamian healing practices. As such, with this paper we aim to present some considerations on the referred dependency, particularly focusing on aquatic elements (e.g., crabs, turtles) changing the traditional analytical focus which highlights the human specialists/patient’s relationship, to the human/non-human one.