'Dreckapotheke' in Ancient Mesopotamia and the Graeco-Roman World

FAIN: FT-278800-21

Maddalena Rumor
Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH 44106-1712)

Research and writing leading to a book about how ancient Mesopotamian medical knowledge influenced later Greco-Roman scholars.

This project uses a novel methodology of identifying likely mistranslations of pharmaceutical ingredients to expand the current thinking about the interrelation between Babylonian and Graeco-Roman medicine. It challenges the commonly-held notion that no textual parallels can be found in their respective medicinal/pharmacological literature. These findings not only contribute to the broader reconstruction of the social and intellectual context within which ancient medicine developed, but also lead to a better grasp of the often elusive connection between academic and popular healing practices. This study thus develops our understanding of how ideas circulated, developed, created a tradition, and eventually were transmitted in the Ancient World.