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Markham J. Geller, Strahil V. Panayotov
Mesopotamian Eye Disease Texts
Die babylonisch-assyrische
Medizin in Texten und
Untersuchungen

Begründet von Franz Köcher

Herausgegeben von
Robert D. Biggs und Marten Stol

Band 10
Markham J. Geller, Strahil V. Panayotov

Mesopotamian
Eye Disease Texts

The Niniveh Treatise

The work on this volume as part of the project BabMed – Babylonian Medicine has been funded by
the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme
(FP7/2007–2013; Project No. 323596).

ISBN 978-1-5015-1527-9
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-5015-0655-0
DOI https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501506550

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0

International License. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020938883

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.

© 2020 Markham J. Geller, Strahil V. Panayotov, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
The book is published open access at www.degruyter.com.

Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck

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Acknowledgments
This contribution to the Babylonisch-assyrische Medizin series was conceived as part of
the original application to the European Research Council for an Advanced Grant on an-
cient Babylonian medicine, which developed into the project known as BabMed (2013–
2018) at the Freie Universität Berlin and led by M. J. Geller.
A deep debt of gratitude must go to Irving Finkel and Eric Schmidtchen, who con-
tributed their own texts to this volume, and to Marten Stol, who sent extensive correc-
tions and comments on the work before being sent to press. Moreover, Dr. Annie Attia,
a professional ophthalmologist, scrutinized the progress of the IGI edition from its
begining to end, and offered invaluable suggestions and discussions on eye ailments.
Тhanks are due to F. Badalanova-Geller, A. A. Fadhil, A. Giannese, M. Guichard,
E. Jiménez, and E. Schmidtchen for providing joins and/or photos. Diverse comments
from T. Kwasman, F. Wiggermann, and K. Simkó were also helpful.
This volume also owes thanks to those who helped design the original ERC applica-
tion, in particular Cale Johnson, as well as administrators at the Freie Universität, Eva-
Marie Silies, Michael Vallo, Sebastian Brocksch, Hauke Ziemssen, and Agnes Kloocke,
among others, who advised and coordinated the ERC Project so efficiently and effec-
tively.
Work on the present volume would not have been possible without European Re-
search Council funding of the Advanced Grant Project No. 323596 BabMed, with the full
title, ‘Fragments of cuneiform medicine in the Babylonian Talmud: Knowledge Transfer
in Late Antiquity’.
It is also important to acknowledge the Wellcome Trust, which awarded the sabbat-
ical funding to allow Geller to spend the 2005–2006 academic year in Paris, as Visiting
Professor at the EPHE. Funding for the indexing of the volume was provided by a grant
from the Institute of Jewish Studies at University College London.
Thanks also go to colleagues from Walter de Gruyter who have seen this volume
through to publication, in particular Albrecht Doehnert, Katrin Mittman, and especially
to Florian Ruppenstein.
Thanks are due to J. Eule, M. Hilgert, and J. Marzahn, who facilitated work in the
Vorderasiatisches Museum zu Berlin; to I. L. Finkel and J. Taylor for assistance in the
British Museum, and to C. B. F. Walker and M. C. Ludwig for their hospitality. We
acknowledge the Trustees of the British Museum for allowing reproductions of tablets in
their collections.
Personal thanks must also be extended to Mancho Vekov, Daniel Vatchkov, Valery
Stoyanov and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, which has funded Strahil Panayotov’s
research after the completion of BabMed, and especially to Florentina Badalanova
Geller, who has supported this work continually and faithfully over many years.
Last but not least, gratitude is also due to Gergana Francis.

Open Access. © 2020 Markham J. Geller and Strahil V. Panayotov, published by De Gruyter. This work
is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501506550-201
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments | v

Preface | xi

1 Overview of Cuneiform Eye Disease Texts (Panayotov) | 1

1.1 3rd Millennium BCE | 1
1.1.1 Incantations | 1
1.1.2 Therapeutic prescriptions | 2
1.2 2nd Millennium BCE | 3
1.2.1 Incantations | 3
1.2.2 Therapeutic prescriptions | 4
1.2.3 Old Babylonian Medicine from Ur by Irving L. Finkel | 5
1.2.4 Therapeutic prescriptions (continued) | 6
1.3 1st Millennium BCE | 8
1.3.1 Incantations | 8
1.3.2 Therapeutic prescriptions | 8
1.4 Eye Disease Texts meet Royal Letters in Nineveh | 10
1.5 Cuneiform Eye Disease Texts in Near Eastern and Greco-Roman
Perspective | 13

2 Introduction: Eye Disease in Mesopotamia (Geller) | 17

2.1 Diagnosis of symptoms | 17
2.2 Comparative material | 27
2.3 Materia Medica | 31
2.4 Treatments | 33
2.5 Comparative material | 33
2.6 Medical incantations: etiology, not magic | 34
2.7 IGI ‘incantations’ | 36
2.8 Medical ‘rituals’ or magical application | 43

§I The Nineveh Manuscripts of Chapter One (IGI 1) | 45

§ I.1 Related Manuscripts containing IGI 2 and 3 from Nineveh | 46
§ I.2 Related other Manuscripts from Nineveh | 46
§ I.3 Related Manuscripts from Different Cities | 47
§ I.4 Synopsis of the Prescriptions of Chapter One (IGI 1) | 51

Edition of IGI 1 | 56
viii | Table of Contents

§ II The Nineveh Manuscripts of Chapter Two (IGI 2) | 108

§ II.1 Related Manuscripts containing IGI 1 and 3 from Nineveh | 108
§ II.2 Related other Manuscripts from Nineveh | 109
§ II.3 Related Manuscripts from Different Cities | 109
§ II.4 Synopsis of the Prescriptions of Chapter Two (IGI 2) | 111

Edition of IGI 2 | 116

Ashurbanipal’s Colophon, BAK no. 329 | 150

§ III The Nineveh Manuscripts of Chapter Three (IGI 3) | 152

§ III.1 Related Manuscripts containing IGI 1 and 2 from Nineveh | 152
§ III.2 Related other Manuscripts from Nineveh | 152
§ III.3 Related Manuscripts from Different Cities | 153
§ III.4 Synopsis of the Prescriptions of Chapter Three (IGI 3) | 155

Edition of IGI 3 | 158

§ IV Additional texts from Nineveh | 175

§ IV.1 NF (BAM 520) | 175
§ IV.1.1 Related Manuscripts containing IGI 3 from Nineveh | 176
§ IV.1.2 Related other Manuscripts from Nineveh | 176
§ IV.1.3 Related Manuscripts from Different Cities | 178

Edition of NF (BAM 520) | 180

§ IV.2 NK (BAM 518) | 188

§ IV.3 NP (BAM 517) | 190
§ IV.4 NQ (BAM 521) | 192
§ IV.5 NR (BAM 522) and NRa (K 19831) | 194
§ IV.6 NS (AMT 18/4) | 196
§ IV.7 NT (AMT 85/2) | 198
§ IV.8 NU (AMT 14/3) | 200
§ IV.9 NV (AMT 18/3) | 202
§ IV.10 NW (BAM 439) | 203
§ IV.11 NZb (AMT 17/2) | 204

§V From the Nineveh UGU treatise (BAM 480, 482) | 206

§ V.1 UGU 1 (BAM 480) | 206
§ V.2 UGU 2 (BAM 482) | 220
§ V.3 NY (AMT 25/8) | 224
§ V.4 NZ (AMT 5/3) | 225
§ V.5 NZa (AMT 13/5 + 14/5) | 228
 Table of Contents | ix

§ VI Diagnostic Medical Omens Concerned with Sick Eyes (Diagnostic

Handbook, Sakikkû Chapter 5) by Eric Schmidtchen| 229
§ VIa A Note on the Physiognomic Omens Alamdimmû Tafel 8 | 244

Notes | 245
§ I IGI 1 | 245
§ II IGI 2 | 271
Ashurbanipal’s Colophon, BAK No. 329 | 284
§ III IGI 3 | 285
§ IV.1 NF (BAM 520) | 291
§ IV.2 Ms. NK (BAM 518) | 298
§ IV.3 Ms. NP (BAM 517) | 299
§ IV.4 Ms. NQ (BAM 521) | 299
§ IV.5 Ms. NR (BAM 522) and NRa (K 19831) | 300
§ IV.6 Ms. NS (AMT 18/4) | 300
§ IV.7 Ms. NT (AMT 85/2) | 301
§ IV.8 Ms. NU (AMT 14/3) | 301
§ IV.9 Ms. NV (AMT 18/3) | 302
§ IV.10 Ms. NW (BAM 439) | 302
§ IV.11 Ms. NZb (AMT 17/2) | 303
§ V.1 UGU 1 (BAM 480) | 303
§ V.2 UGU 2 (BAM 482) | 306
§ V.3 Ms. NY (BAM 494 II 53-57 AND AMT 25/8) | 306
§ V.4 Ms. NZ (AMT 5/3) | 307
§ V.5 Ms. NZa (AMT 13/5 + 14/5) | 307
§ VI Diagnostic Medical Omens Concerned With Sick Eyes (Diagnostic Handbook,
Sakikkû Chapter 5) | 308

Glossaries and Logograms with Cuneiform Signs | 309

Uncertain Readings and Words | 309
Hurrian | 309
Numbers | 309
Dividing and Ditto Signs | 310
Divine Names | 310
Month Names | 311
Personal names | 311
Akkadian Words | 311
Sumerian Words | 350
Logograms with Cuneiform Signs | 353

Abbreviations and Literature | 375

Additional Abbreviations | 375
x | Table of Contents

Literature | 375

Indices | 391
Subject Index | 391
Index of Divine Names | 397
Index of Personal Names | 398
Index of Geographical Names | 398
Index of Texts | 399

Plates
Preface
Like all large text editions, the present work has a long and complex history. The plan
for a comprehensive modern edition and translation of Mesopotamian eye disease texts
began in 2005, when Geller was invited to spend a year in Paris as Visiting Professor at
the École Pratique des Hautes Études, supported by a research grant from the Wellcome
Trust. The decision to study eye disease texts was made jointly by Geller with Dr. Annie
Attia and Dr. Gilles Buisson, editors of the Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes and prac-
ticing physicians. Eye disease was chosen because of the existence of an extensive cor-
pus of texts in cuneiform script, and the study could take advantage of Dr. Attia's per-
sonal expertise as an ophthalmologist. The three collaborators met every Friday to read
through eye disease texts in the library of the Collège de France, throughout 2005–2006.
There was not much previous work to take advantage of, since the only modern study of
Mesopotamian eye disease had been a Würzburg dissertation from Jeanette Fincke
(2000), which was useful for its extensive discussion of relevant terminology and nu-
merous excerpts, but her work did not edit eye-disease texts. By the end of 2006, a pre-
liminary edition of the main eye-disease texts from Nineveh had taken shape, with a
translation in both English and French, but much work remained to be done.
Eye disease became one of the key texts to be studied in the programme of the ERC
Advanced Grant BabMed (2013–2018), in which Geller was the PI and Panayotov a post-
doctoral researcher. With the earlier preliminary edition from Paris as a starting point,
Panayotov assembled all exemplars of eye disease texts into an IGI corpus, with the cru-
cial decision being made to have Nineveh manuscripts as the basic exemplars – i.e. du-
plicates – and parallel witnesses from other sites treated as secondary. This is an im-
portant methodological innovation for working with serialized Nineveh texts. Geller and
Panayotov each collated IGI tablets, and they jointly read every line of every text to-
gether, agreeing on a translation and key points for an explanatory philological com-
mentary on the texts. Panayotov collated every relevant text in the British Museum and
the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin and Geller collated tablets in Istanbul as well.
In the few instances when a text could not be collated, photos were used instead.
Panayotov was responsible for the text layout and for the transliteration and transcrip-
tion of the eclectic text, and the basic draft of the translation and commentary was his
work, with additions and corrections made by Geller. Panayotov took photos, assembled
the plates, and composed a complete glossary of IGI as well as a list of Sumerian logo-
grams, with reproductions of the cuneiform signs for each logogram, which was novel.
He also composed the indicies. While the philological commentary was being written,
Panayotov incorporated many references to further work on IGI carried out by Annie
Attia, which appeared as a French translation and interpretation of IGI, in the Journal
des Médecines Cunéiformes in 2015. Finally, each co-author wrote his own introduction
to the volume, reflecting their individual interests in the material. Geller proofread and
corrected the whole volume on several occasions.

Open Access. © 2020 Markham J. Geller and Strahil V. Panayotov, published by De Gruyter. This work
is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501506550-202
xii | Preface

Neither author would have been able to produce this edition of IGI working alone,
and this text edition confirms the distinct advantages of collaborating in a large project,
while incorporating the assistance and support of other colleagues over many years. The
German capital proved to be an ideal working environment for the BabMed Project, with
many opportunities for consultation and collaboration with colleagues in the Topoi Ex-
cellence Cluster, from the Freie Universität, Humboldt Universität, and Max Planck In-
stitut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte. The broader context of ancient medicine often fea-
tured in these discussions, on Greek medicine and science with Philip van der Eijk,
Markus Asper, and Gerd Grasshoff, on Chinese medicine with Paul Unschuld, on Meso-
potamian intellectual culture with Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum, and on common sense sci-
ence with Klaus Geus. Glenn Most’s Anneliese Maier research colloquium addressing
methodological issues of editing ancient texts proved useful. The various discussions
and Topoi seminars all had an impact on the vision of Mesopotamian eye disease within
ancient science proposed in this volume. Furthermore, members of the BabMed research
team, together with students and visiting scholars such as Henry Stadhouders, Amar
Annus, András Bacskay, and Frans Wiggermann, participated in the weekly Keilschrift-
medizin Seminar, which advanced the work on cuneiform medicine and related texts.
Frans Wiggermann shared his personal research archive and Zettelkasten on Mesopota-
mian medicine. In addition, many scholars associated with BabMed, in particular Irving
Finkel, Marten Stol, Nils Heeßel, Daniel Schwemer, Martin Worthington, Annie Attia,
and Gilles Buisson, participated in BabMed workshops and lent their considerable ex-
pertise to a fuller understanding of Babylonian medicine.
It is gratifying to know that the present volume is not the end of the road for work
on eye disease texts within Babylonian medicine. A new project, NinMed, managed by
Jon Taylor of the British Museum and funded by the Wellcome Trust, will continue the
pioneering work of BabMed. The three-year project will create online editions and trans-
lations of the extensive medical treatises of the Nineveh Royal Library. Panayotov, who
designed the original project proposal, will be a primary contributor to NinMed, with
Geller and Irving Finkel as project collaborators. The transition from BabMed to NinMed
has already proved to be productive for the present edition. The Electronic Babylonian
Literature (eBL) tools, under the guidance of E. Jiménez, has proved to be particularly
useful in catching small inconsistences in the transliteration of IGI, which is being digi-
talised by Panayotov for the NinMed project. The shift in venue from the Freie Universi-
tät Berlin to the British Museum will bring the editions of Babylonian medicine closer to
the cuneiform tablets. Nevertheless, cross-border cooperation with colleagues in Berlin
and elsewhere will continue to play an important role in deciphering, interpreting and
contextualising ancient Babylonian medicine, and in particular its close associations
with other systems of medicine in the ancient world.
Overview of Cuneiform Eye Disease Texts
(Strahil V. Panayotov)
Cuneiform therapeutic prescriptions on eye disease form the largest surviving corpus of
ophthalmology from the Ancient Near East, sharing numerous comparable features with
medical practices from synchronic and diachronic neighbouring cultures. This volume
is the first complete edition and commentary on Mesopotamian medicine from Nineveh
dealing with diseases of the eye. This ancient work, languishing in the British Museum
since the 19th century, is preserved on several large cuneiform manuscripts from the
Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, from the 7th century BCE. In contrast to classical sources,
the material edited in this volume derives from original manuscripts and not from later
copies. Thus, the cuneiform texts in this volume are of utmost importance for the history
of ancient medicine.
Eye disease texts written on cuneiform tablets are represented by therapeutic pre-
scriptions and incantations, which are discovered mainly from the 1st millennium BCE.
However, scattered vestiges of their forerunners are known from the 3rd and 2nd millennia
BCE, showing that the textual production of the eye disease texts – most of which were
edited in this volume – were transmitted, collected and edited over two millennia.
Important works from other scholars have to be briefly mentioned. The relevant Ni-
neveh tablets from the British Museum were partially identified, copied and translated
by the British scholar Reginald Campbell Thompson. Later on, the material was system-
atized, joined and copied by Franz Köcher and published by 1980 in Die babylonisch-
assyrische Medizin in Texten und Untersuchungen, volume 6. The Grossmeister, Köcher,
produced hand copies and indices of cuneiform manuscripts which are extremely valu-
able for the current book, but Köcher hardly ever published editions or translations of
medical texts. Multiple therapeutic texts on eye disease were discussed in Fincke 2000:
6ff., which has a good introduction on textual history. Notably, Jeannette Fincke’s dis-
sertation concentrates on terminology, and does not edit entire texts. The IGI treatise
from Nineveh was translated and commented on for the first time by Annie Attia in 2015.
Dr. Attia’s work is of importance, since it is the only treatment of IGI from a professional
ophthalmologist. Thus, her work has been consulted together with our critical edition.

3rd Millennium BCE

Incantations

Sumerian incantations of the 3rd millennium BCE are the earliest witnesses to eye disease
therapy.
VAT 12597 originates from Fāra-Šuruppak, dating to ED IIIa, 2600–2500 BCE. A pas-
sage from this tablet (r. X 7 – XI 9) contains an incantation, which is the earliest example

Open Access. © 2020 Markham J. Geller and Strahil V. Panayotov, published by De Gruyter. This work
is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501506550-001
2 | Overview of Cuneiform Eye Disease Texts (Strahil V. Panayotov)

of an historiola on eye disease (Krebernik 1984: 54–63, No. 8; Cunningham 1997: 19, 37,
41; Rudik 2011: FSB 23). This genre is also known from the 2nd and 1st millennium BCE.
HS 1552 from Nippur is another incantation on eye disease, dating to the Ur III pe-
riod, ca. 2100–2000 BCE (van Dijk and Geller 2003: 26; Rudik 2011: FSB 24).

Therapeutic prescriptions

Beside incantations, there are a few Sumerian prescriptions for eye complaints from the
3rd millennium BCE, which are worth being re-edited and translated here, since they
were previously thought to be incantations.

CBS 6195
Origin and date: Nufar-Nippur. ED IIIb (2500–2340 BCE)
Copy: PBS 9/40
Photo: http://cdli.ucla.edu/dl/photo/P263932.jpg
Literature: van Dijk and Geller 2003: 77

1 x x ˹še-bar˺? utu ... (old reading [é]n ˹é˺-[nu-r]u / ˹d˺utu)

2 7 […] gi and 7 reeds?

4
3 u4-˹ten˺-ta you put 3in the evening

4 a-a ù-gar in water.

5 ge6-ba-a-ka At midnight

6 igi dutu-šè – before dawn –

7 igi-a gar-ra apply (the salve) onto the eye.

r.1 eme-ni lú The man who knows his language(-spell)

ì-ni-zu
r.3
r.2 a-rá-7-àm rubs his eye (with the salve) r.2seven times.

r.3 igi-na bí-íb-

ùr-e

This prescription shares similarities with a therapeutic ritual, see Rudik 2011: FBS 102.
FSB 82.

Another text with ‘defective’ Sumerian spellings exemplifies early therapeutic prescrip-
tions of eye disease in combination with treating with lice.
 Overview of Cuneiform Eye Disease Texts (Strahil V. Panayotov) | 3

HS 1357
Origin and date: Ur III (2100–2000 BCE)
Copy: TMH NF I 357
Photo: https://cdli.ucla.edu/dl/photo/P134667.jpg
Literature: van Dijk and Geller 2003: 75; Bauer 2007: 179; Attinger 2008: 10, 12

1 ì-nin (for ì-nun)

2 uh-uš-da ù- (sandhi for uh-huš) He mixes 1ghee 2with red louse.

da-hi

3 igi gi6-ga ù-gar (for igi gig) He applies (the salve) on the sick eye
ba-áš (and) he anoints (the sick eye).

4 nam-en-li He mixes prime quality juniper (resin)

uh-uš-da ù- with red louse.
da-hi

4 uh-huš ba-áš He rubs on the red louse.

2nd Millennium BCE

Incantations

By this period Sumerian and Akkadian incantations were addressing eye complaints
from different provenances. The evidence shows that incantations spread throughout
Mesopotamia and its periphery, as an integral part of medical procedures. Notably, part
of the material from the 2nd millennium BCE was transmitted into the 1st millennium BCE.
Incantations portray etiology and implicit theory of harm through metaphorical lan-
guage (see Panayotov 2017).
VAT 1413 is an Old Babylonian (1900–1600 BCE) incantation in Sumerian (CDLI
P342906; Falkenstein 1931: 44. Cunningham 1997: 141, No. 198). This text features a di-
vine dialogue between Enki and Asalluhi, which is a spiritual topic in incantations used
in Mesopotamian magic and medicine for three thousand years (Annus 2019). VAT 1413:
15 shows the earliest example of the rubric [ka-in]im-ma igi-gi[g-ga-kam] (if recon-
structed properly), which is common later on in Nineveh, e.g. IGI 1: 96’, 108’ and so on.
Ish. 35-T. 19 is an Old Babylonian forerunner in Akkadian of an historiola concern-
ing the creation of the merhu-kernel. The etiology of this harmful agent is also known
from the Nineveh eye disease treatise, which is briefly discussed with literature in the
notes to IGI 1: 194’.
BM 122691 is an Old Babylonian tablet from Tel Duweihes. Its lower edge reads ši-ip-
tum ša i-ni [(x)]. However, this incantation is directed against the ‘evil eye’ and is not
4 | Overview of Cuneiform Eye Disease Texts (Strahil V. Panayotov)

therapeutic, although intended to avert evil (discussed with literature in Geller 2003;
and SEAL 5.1.7.2).
BM 79022 rev. 19ff. (edited and discussed in Wasserman 2010) mentions a brief in-
cantation similar to an historiola. Its content suggests that it has been used for thera-
peutic purposes.
YBC 4616 is another historiola describing a worm causing eye reddening. A later ver-
sion of the very same incantation might have contained some of the broken parts of the
Nineveh IGI treatise, as did Ish. 35-T. 19 (translation modified after SEAL 5.1.26.2):

Anu begot the sky, the sky bore the earth, the earth bore the stench, the stench bore the mud, the
mud bore the fly, the fly bore the worm. The worm is the daughter of Gula, clad in a garment, thick
with blood – the devourer of child’s blood is reddening his eyes. Damu cast the incantation and
Gula slew the thick worm, slaughtered them for the (sake of the) child. He opened his mouth, took
the breast, raised his eyes, (and began to) suck. The incantation is not mine, it is the incantation of
Damu and Gula. Damu cast (it) and I (the medical practitioner) took (it).

In addition, several incantations from the Middle Babylonian period (1400–1100 BCE)
could be recognized as forerunners to the Nineveh material. The comparable texts – un-
der § I. 3 Related Manuscripts from Different Cities; Periphery – were found in Emar and
Ugarit, and might be considered either as a Babylonian import or local production.

Therapeutic prescriptions

Old Babylonian therapeutic texts (1900–1600 BCE) are written almost exlusively in syl-
labic orthography and are welcome counterparts to the encrypted material from the first
millennium BCE edited in this volume.
ASC 207 col. i has a passage on eye disease, which was initially transcribed during
BabMed seminars in Berlin 2017–2018, mainly by H. Stadhouders. This remedy illus-
trates internal medication for amurriqānu ‘jaundice’ of the eyes. Healing this eye condi-
tion is also known from IGI 2: 115f’.

27 AŠ a-wi-lum ‘If a man’s

28 i-na-šu a-wu-ri-qa- eyes 29suffer

28-29
29 -na-am ma-ar-ṣa from ‘jaundice’.
31
30 zi-bi-bi-a-nam You crush
30
31 ta-ha-aš-ša-al-ma zibibiānum-cumin 31and
34
32 a-na li-ib-bi pour (it)
32
33 ši-ka-ri-˹im˺ into
 Overview of Cuneiform Eye Disease Texts (Strahil V. Panayotov) | 5

33
34 ta-ša-ap-pa-[a]k beer.

35 ta-ša-aq-q[í] You give (to him) to drink (it).

36 i-ne-˹e-eš˺ He will get better.’

Notably, ASC 207 uses AŠ, either in place of the more common DIŠ for šumma (Fincke
2007: 134), or as a short hand for ašar used in HS 1883, see below and the notes to IGI 1:
55.
HS 1883 (BAM 393) is an Old Babylonian tablet from Nippur, which contains eye
prescriptions among others (Attinger 2008: 14, fig. 2; Geller 2006). However, I.L. Finkel
has suggested that this tablet might possibly be a later copy of an Old Babylonian text,
see Abusch and Schwemer 2011: 66. For the incipit style see the notes to IGI 1: 55.

Old Babylonian Medicine from Ur by Irving L. Finkel

Worth noting are some unpublished Old Babylonian medical texts in the British Mu-
seum, which were excavated by H.R. Hall (Finkel 2004: 26). Selected passages on eye
disease will be briefly presented below. The full edition of the tablets will follow in a
separate publication.

BM 113967+ col. ii (part of a two-column tablet)

17’ [šum-ma] a-wi-lum i-na-šu ṣí-i[l-la-am]
18’ me-e ˹šur-ni˺-im me-e am-ma-aš-tam?-[ka-al(?)]
19’ me-e pu-qú-ut-t[i-im .............................]
20’ ši-zi-ib [musukkati (?) ...........................]
21’ i-ni-šu te-qì-[ma]
22’ i-[ne-e-eš]
17’ If a man’s eyes (suffer) ‘shadow,’
18’ 21’you daub his eyes 18’with šurnû juice, maštakal juice
19’ puquttu juice [.......................................]
20’ milk from [a woman in maternity (?), and ...]
22’ and he will get better.

BM 113935+ col. iv (part of a three-column tablet)

18’ šum-ma a-wi-lum i-na-šu ši-ši-tum
19’ ma-ar-t[a-a]m ša ar-ab-b[i?]-x
20’ [t]e-le-eq-qí-ma
21’ a-na pu-ur-sí-ti-im wa-ru-[uq-ti-im]
22’ [ṭ]a-ab-ta-am za-ku-ta-a[m]
23’ [u]b-ta-al-la-˹al˺-[ma]
6 | Overview of Cuneiform Eye Disease Texts (Strahil V. Panayotov)

24f.’ fragmentary
18’ If a man’s eyes have a membrane
19’ 20’you procure 19’gall of a doormouse? …
21’ 23’He shall mix (it) 21’in a green bowl
22’ with pure salt.

BM 113938+ col. iii (?) (part of a three-column tablet)

3’ [šum-ma a-wi]-lum i-na-šu e-ši-a
4’ [....................]-am hu-šu-ul-ma
5’ [....................] pu-šu-uš-ma
6’ [....................] x šu-ku-um-ma
7’ [(...) n]i-iṭ-lam ú-ṣa-˹ab?˺
3’ If a man’s eyes are blurred,
4’ crush [....................], and
5’ anoint him [...........], and
6’ apply [...........], and
7’ [...] will increase eyesight.

Therapeutic prescriptions (continued)

Mesopotamian eye disease texts were transmitted in Hattuša. They are conveniently col-
lected on http://www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de /HPM/index.html, CTH 809. Passages
paralleling the IGI treatise from Nineveh have been included in the present edition in §
II.3 Related Manuscripts from Different Cities BoA (KUB 4/50) and in § III.3 Related Man-
uscripts from Different Cities BoB (KUB 37/2) and BoC (KUB 4/55).
More therapeutic texts on eye disease in the late Old Babylonian and/or Middle Ba-
bylonian period are still unknown, and their existence is acknowledged by the catalogue
BM 103690, line 39: ˹DIŠ NA˺ [x x] x dam? pa ˹IGI.MIN˺-š[ú? i]-bar-ru-ra ‘If a man … his
eyes flicker’ (Finkel 2018).
Middle Babylonian therapeutic prescriptions are rare, but recently some tablets
from Baghdad (IM 202631 and IM 202652, photos courtesy of Dr. A.A. Fadhil) show that
the period witnessed an abundance of therapeutic material. The exemplar IM 202631 is
faked to a great extent, although some original passages remain. The original signs of
the tablet are written in Babylonian script, most likely of Middle Babylonian origin, since
the shape of the signs is similar to BM 103690 (Finkel 2018). IM 202631 was a large six
column tablet, similar to IM 202652, a forerunner to BRONCHIA 5 (Panayotov 2018a: 90,
102). Probably, both tablets (IM 202631 and IM 202652) originate from the same unknown
provenance where fake text was added to the original tablets. Sadly, only a few genuine
passages of IM 202631 are preserved. The last prescription from the first column of IM
202631 shows a remedy against blood in the eyes (DIŠ.NA IGI.MIN-šú MÚD DIRI-ma).
Prescriptions against this condition are also known from IGI 1: 36’, 45’, 79’ and so on.
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