When Mesopotamian physicians or diagnostic priests labelled a disease vector as a 'demon', the modern 'microbe' analogy often turns out to be inaccurate, since a virus is not a living organism but a particle comprising protein molecules and its own genetic materials. Moreover, it is important to avoid the common error of assuming that ancients had a notion of 'contagion', which is a modern idea from the 19th century. Mesopotamia physicians did, however, have the idea of 'contamination', which they referred to as either 'unclean' or 'unholy', meaning that all physical contact was to be avoided. Ironically, an ancient diagnosis of disease as 'contamination' often comes closer to how one needs to deal with the threat of a virus: rituals for washing, bathing, and general attention to hygiene, in addition to 'social distancing'. The use of quarantine was recommended in a recently published cuneiform tablet from the British Museum, from about 500 BCE, recommending assigning the patient with fever to separate quarters for at least three days, where he was wrapped in wool and sat in the dark, with a sign on the door indicating that he was ill. Drugs were applied, but what kinds of drugs? And how were causes of disease assessed in relation to a patient's habits and conduct: was the patient responsible in some measure for his or her illness? These questions will be addressed in our discussion.
Bibliographie für den Workshop:
1). I. L. Finkel 'Amulets Against Fever,' in Mesopotamian Medicine and Magic, Studies in Honor of Markham J. Geller, ed. S. Panayotov and L. Vacín (Berlin, 2018), 232-271.
2). A. Bácskay, Therapeutic Prescriptions against Fever in Ancient Mesopotamia (Münster, 2018)
3) V. Nutton, 'Did the Greeks Have a Word for It? Contagion and Contagion Theory in Classical Antiquity', in Contagion: Perspectives from Pre-Modern Societies, ed. L. Conrad and D. Wujastik (Aldershot, 2000), 136-162.
4) E. Schmidtchen, The Edition of Esagil-kīn-apli's Catalogue of the Series Sakikkû (SA.GIG) and Alamdimmû, in U. Steinert, Assyrian and Babylonian Scholarly Text Catalogues BAM 9 (Berlin, 2018), 313-333.
5) D. Tulodziecki, 'Shattering the Myth of Semmelweis,' Philosophy of Science 80 / 5, 1065-1075