This book presents the first in-depth analysis of Mesopotamian healing goddesses and their relationship to asûs, “healers”. Through this, Sibbing-Plantholt provides unprecedented insight into the diverse Mesopotamian medical marketplace and how professional healers operating within it legitimized themselves.
Author(s): Irene Sibbing-Plantholt
Series: Cuneiform Monographs, 53
Publisher: Brill
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 425
City: Leiden
Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Chapter 1. Newly Understanding Healing Goddesses and asûs: Theory and Methods
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Rethinking Healing Goddesses
1.2.1. Healing Goddesses as a Category
1.2.2. A Brief History of Scholarship on Healing Goddesses
1.3. Rethinking Mesopotamian Healers
1.3.1. Health Care Systems and the Medical Marketplace
1.3.2. The Development of the “Medical Profession” in Ancient Mesopotamia
1.3.3. Indigenous vs. Scholarly Medicine and Hegemonic/Theistic vs. Domestic/Holistic Domain
Part 1. The Various Healing Goddesses and Their Relationship to asûs
Chapter 2. The Origins of the Healing Goddess Gula
2.1. Gu₂-la₂ and Gula in the 3rd millennium B.C.E.
2.2. Disentangling Gula, Gu₂-la₂ and (U)kulla(b)
2.2.1. Trans-Tigridian Snake and Healing Deities
2.2.2. Ab-u₂ as Spouse of Gu₂-la₂, Gula and/or (U)kulla(b)?
2.2.3. (U)kulla(b), Gu₂-la₂, and Gula
2.2.4. Conclusion: Who Is Who?
2.3. Gula’s Involvement in Healing and Midwifery in the Ur III Period
2.3.1. Association with asûs through Cult
2.3.2. Association with Other Healing Goddesses
2.3.3. Gula and Childbirth
Chapter 3. Gula in the 2nd and 1st Millennia B.C.E.
3.1. Gula in the Old Babylonian Period
3.1.1. Gula’s Cult Centers in the Old Babylonian Period
3.1.1.1. Nippur
3.1.1.2. Larsa and Isin
3.1.1.3. Sippar
3.1.2. Gula as asû and Different Healing Domains in the Old Babylonian Period
3.1.3. Other Healing Settings
3.2. Gula in the 2nd Half of the 2nd Millennium B.C.E.
3.2.1. Gula’s Increased Significance in Babylonia
3.2.1.1. Nippur
3.2.1.2. Dūr-Kurigalzu
3.2.1.3. Isin
3.2.1.4. Sippar and Ḫilpu
3.2.2. Gula in Image in Babylonia
3.2.3. Gula in Assyria and the Periphery
3.2.3.1. The Temple of Gula at Aššur
3.2.3.2. Gula and asûs at Mardaman
3.2.3.3. (Scholarly) Sources from the Western Periphery
3.2.4. Gula and Her Connection to Healing
3.2.4.1. The Title asû/azugallatu and Healing Qualities
3.2.4.2. Requests for Healing: Figurines and Votive Inscriptions
3.3. Gula in the 1st Millennium B.C.E.
3.3.1. Gula’s Cult in Babylonia and Assyria
3.3.1.1. Temples, Their Names, and Related Divine Epithets
3.3.1.2. Gula and/as Bēlet-balāṭi, the “Mistress Who Provides Life”
3.3.1.3. Gula as asû/azugallatu, and Her Power over Life
3.3.1.4. Gula as Other Healers: The Domestic, Motherly Healer and Midwife
3.4. Conclusion
Chapter 4. Gula Compared to Other Healing Goddesses
4.1. Ninkarrak
4.1.1. Ninkarrak: The Name
4.1.2. The Origins of Ninkarrak: A Liminal Curse and Oath Deity
4.1.3. Ninkarrak in the Mesopotamian Heartland: Becoming a Healing Deity
4.1.4. Ninkarrak after the Old Babylonian Period
4.2. Ninisina
4.2.1. Ninisina in the 3rd and Early 2nd Millennia B.C.E.
4.2.1.1. Cult and Divine Relationships of Ninisina
4.2.1.2. Ninisina as the Epitomy of Healing
4.2.2. Ninisina after the Old Babylonian Period
4.3. Bau
4.3.1. Bau in the 3rd and Early 2nd Millennia B.C.E: Mother and Healer
4.3.2. Bau after the Old Babylonian Period
4.4. Nintinuga
4.4.1. The Name and Origins of Nintinuga
4.4.2. Nintinuga in the 2nd and 1st Millennia B.C.E.
4.5. Meme
4.6. Comparative Analysis of the Healing Goddesses
Part 2. Asûs in the Mesopotamian Medical Marketplace
Chapter 5. An Overview of the Mesopotamian Medical Marketplace
5.1. Lay and Domestic Healing
5.2. Folk Healing
5.2.1. Specialists in Plants, Food and Healing
5.2.2. Clothes Menders or Stitchers: the lu₂tug₂-kal-kal-la/mukabbû
5.2.3. Snake Handlers: the mušlaḫḫu
5.2.4. Barbers and Hairdressers: The šu-i/gallābu
5.2.5. Female Healers
5.2.6. The munaʾʾišu and mušallim(ān)u
5.3. Professional Healers: The Scholars
5.3.1. A New Development of Scholarly Identity in the Late 2nd Millennium B.C.E.
5.3.2. (Professional) Healers among the Scholars: bārû, āšipu, and asû
Chapter 6. Rethinking the Term “asû”
6.1. Asû as a General Term: “Healer”
6.2. Different Types of asûs and Intersections with other Healers
6.2.1. Asûs as Healers of Humans and Animals
6.2.2. Specializations of asûs
6.2.3. Female asûs
6.3. The Functions and Work Environments of asûs
6.3.1. Public Duties and Private Practice of asûs
6.3.2. Asûs of the City/State Administration and the asûs from the Periphery
6.3.3. Royal Recognition: asûs Working Directly for Palace and King
6.3.4. Asûs as Scholars
6.3.5. The Organization of asûs: Overseers, Apprentices, and Guilds
6.3.6. Asûs and the Temple
6.3.7. Asû as an Occupation in the Late 1st Millennium B.C.E.
6.4. Conclusion
Part 3. Legitimacy in the Medical Marketplace: Divine and Human Professional asûs
Chapter 7. Legitimization as a Response to Competition and the Demands of Clientele
7.1. Medical Competition and the Need for Legitimization
7.2. Promoting Erudition as a Scholarly Response to Medical Competition
7.2.1. Antagonism between the Educated/Competent and the Uneducated/Incompetent
7.2.2. “The Incompetent Other” in Medical Satire
7.2.3. Exclusive Knowledge of Exotic and Rare Healing Products
7.3. The Professional asûs’ Solution to Competition: A Divine Image
Chapter 8. The Process of Gula becoming the Divine Legitimization of Professional asûs
8.1. Healing Goddesses and Legitimization before the Middle Babylonian Period
8.2. Gula Legitimizing Professional asûs from the Middle Babylonian Period
8.3. Gula Representing Competition between Professional asûs and Other Healers
8.3.1. Competition among Scholars: Gula Increasing Power of Professional asûs
8.3.2. Gula Incorporating (Female) Lay and Folk Healers and Their Healing Practices
8.3.3. Gula and the Knife: Gula Incorporating the Art of the gallābus
Chapter 9. Conclusion and Suggestions for Future Research
Bibliography
Temple Names
Selected Akkadian Terms
Selected Sumerian Terms
Geographical Names
Names of Deities, Demons, Spirits and Monsters
Seals and Seal Impressions
Text References
