Thank you for this introduction. So this lecture I'm presenting the first result of my research

conducted here at the IKGF. However, it's still a research in progress. My main purpose today

will be to give you an overview of what one can learn regarding

health in the ancient Nearest from the study of

haemralogical cuneiform texts.

First, a few words about the contexts.

Etymologically, the term Mesopotamia refers to

the region between the two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates,

but it is agreed to be extended to the territory corresponding to

the maximal extension of the Aegean Empire,

but it mean roughly from the Taurus range in the south

– in the south of Turkey to the Christian gulf and from the

Mediterranean sea coast to the gross mountain,

which form the natural border between Iraq and Iran.

This region provided us with an enormous amount of texts

written on clay tablets in cuneiform scripts.

Among them, some have a neurological content.

The first testimony of a neurological text

in Mesopotamia takes us back to the old Babylonian period,

that is, the early second millennium BC,

with tablets discovered in the ancient city of Nippur,

Meturhan, or Ur, for example.

At that time, emeralogical texts could be written in Sumerian,

or they could be bilingual, also presenting

an Akkadian translation.

This tradition of an emeralogical text

went on during the second millennium BC

with Akkadian texts.

However, the majority of the emeralogical corpus

known to us was written later, during the first half

of the first millennium BC.

And here you have on the map some

of the sites where this kind of documentation

has been found, all periods included.

The purpose of emeralogy and meneology

is to define the right moment to conduct

certain activities, such as ritual, building activity,

trading activities, farming, traveling, and so on.

But these texts could also, on the contrary,

dissuade people from doing certain action that

could lead to unpleasant results.

Indeed, the realization of an undertaking

during a nil-time moment could lead

to serious consequences, financial loss,

wrath of the god, illness, and so on.

Among these regulated daily activities

that can be either personal, either professional,

some can directly be related to health.

Indeed, some therapeutic ritual appear

to have more chances of success on certain days