Cuneiform texts reveal two types of information on the "hand-work" in healing. One is references scattered throughout the cuneiform corpus. Selected examples will be discussed below. The other is ancient catalogues of texts, pointing towards cuneiform data that is yet to be discovered and/or pieced together. The latter reveals that a collection (or treatise) with an emphasis on "hand-work" in Mesopotamian healing did exist. The Ashur Medical Catalogue – crucial for the reconstruction of the Nineveh Medical Encyclopedia (see a description there) – mentions a handbook on healing injuries and wounds caused by animals and humans. It includes therapies for injuries caused by falls from chariots and boats, or by the hazards of epileptic seizures. This treatise incorporated also drugs and treatments for snake-bites and scorpion-stings. Intriguingly, the military context of Mesopotamian medicine, which has only been guessed at so far, is revealed by prescriptions regarding wounds by arrows, spears and daggers.
"X number tablet(s) of the treatise: "If a lion attacks a man in the steppe." Including (prescriptions for the case that) a man is wounded whether by a dagger or by a spear, or by ..., (including prescriptions) for the case that a man falls(?) in front of a boat, ... for the case that a man falls off a chariot, including (prescriptions for) ... bennu-epilepsy, miqtu-stroke, rimûtu-paralysis, (prescriptions for the case that) ... it constantly seizes him, (prescriptions for the case that) ... a man – a snake has bitten him, ... (including) drugs for apislat-disease, drugs for relieving snakebite, dogbite or ... (for scorpion sting (and) for wounds (caused) by an arrow" (AMC 70'-78', modified after Steinert et. al. 2018)
Remarkably, this collection can be traced back to the Old / Middle Babylonian period, roughly mid-second millennium BCE (Finkel 2018). Like other medical works, this treatise devoted to the "hand-work" in Mesopotamian healing was widespread, surviving over thousands of years. This must have been the Mesopotamian equivalent to the Egyptian text known today as the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. If one day scholars discover and reconstruct this treatise, it will significantly enrich our understanding of Mesopotamian surgery.
Finkel, I. 2018. "On Three Tablet Inventories", in Assyrian and Babylonian Scholarly Text Catalogues: Medicine, Magic and Divination, ed. U. Steinert. Die babylonisch-assyrische Medizin in Texten und Untersuchungen 9. Walter de Gruyter: 25-41.
Steinert, U., Panayotov, S. V., Geller, M. J., Schmidtchen, E., and Johnson, J. C. 2018. "The Assur Medical Catalogue - Text Edition", in Assyrian and Babylonian Scholarly Text Catalogues: Medicine, Magic and Divination, ed. U. Steinert. Die babylonisch-assyrische Medizin in Texten und Untersuchungen 9. Berlin-Boston: Walter de Gruyter: 207-217.
Strahil V. Panayotov
Strahil V. Panayotov, 'Information from Catalogues', The Nineveh Medical Project, The Nineveh Medical Project, Department of the Middle East, The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG, 2022 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/asbp/NinMed/surgery/informationfromcatalogues/]