Cosmogonic Myths and Theoretical Science - Medical Arts in Ancient Mesopotamia

The ancient Babylonians developed a systematic practice of the Medical Arts. Writings found on cuneiform tablets include specific herbal remedies to treat eye infections, intestinal disorders and other maladies. In 1990, archeologists working in Iraq discovered the remains of an enormous temple (c. 1300 bce), nearly the size of a football field, dedicated to the ancient goddess of medicine, Gula. Pilgrims travelled to the temple, it is believed, to secure healing. Often they brought figures or figurines with them to register their complaint. These figures are from the Temple of Gula, goddess of Medicine, excavated at Nippur (ancient Mesopotamia), Iraq. Earlier known as Bau, or Ninkarrak, in Mesopotamian religion, city goddess of Urukug in the Lagash region and, under the name Nininsina, the Queen of Isin, city goddess of Isin, south of Nippur.

McGuire Gibson, director of the University of Chicago project, says of the ancient Mesopotamians:

In their attitude toward medicine, as in other things, I would suggest that the ancient people of Nippur and of Mesopotamia in general, rather than having "mythopoeic minds" [Frankfort 1946], were only a little less complex than we are and probably just as sensible. McGuire Gibson, NIPPUR - SACRED CITY OF ENLIL SUPREME GOD OF SUMER AND AKKAD * (This article originally appeared in Al-Rafidan, Vol. XIV, 1993, and is made available electronically with the permission of the editor.)

The Code of Hammurabi (1795-1750 BCE)

[Hammurabi, the king of righteousness, on whom Shamash has conferred right (or law) am I. My words are well considered; my deeds are not equaled; to bring low those that were high; to humble the proud, to expel insolence.]

The great lawgiver Hammurabi, who was the first known ruler to provide a written systematic legal code for his people, included in the law a section dealing with physicians (surgeons) most of which involve compensation and compensatory damages:

215. If a physician make a large incision with an operating knife and cure it, or if he open a tumor (over the eye) with an operating knife, and saves the eye, he shall receive ten shekels in money.

216. If the patient be a freed man, he receives five shekels.

217. If he be the slave of some one, his owner shall give the physician two shekels.

218. If a physician make a large incision with the operating knife, and kill him, or open a tumor with the operating knife, and cut out the eye, his hands shall be cut off.

219. If a physician make a large incision in the slave of a freed man, and kill him, he shall replace the slave with another slave.

220. If he had opened a tumor with the operating knife, and put out his eye, he shall pay half his value.

221. If a physician heal the broken bone or diseased soft part of a man, the patient shall pay the physician five shekels in money.

222. If he were a freed man he shall pay three shekels.

223. If he were a slave his owner shall pay the physician two shekels.

224. If a veterinary surgeon perform a serious operation on an ass or an ox, and cure it, the owner shall pay the surgeon one-sixth of a shekel as a fee.

All of Hammurabi's Code

Medical Arts in Ancient Mesopotamia

The Code of Hammurabi (1795-1750 BCE)

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