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Diseases of Babylon: an examination of selected texts. V Kinnier Wilson MA FSA. RSocMoo1996;89:135-140. Keywords: Babylonian medicine; Assyrian medicine; diseases if ancient Mesopotamia. INTRODUCTION.
In ancient times, Mesopotamian diseases were often blamed on pre-existing spirits: gods, ghosts, etc., and each spirit was held responsible for only one disease in any one part of the body. Ancient mythologies tell stories of diseases that were put in the world by supernatural forces.
Sep 19, 2023 · Founded in London in 2013 by Ali Parsa, a British-Iranian ex-banker, Babylon had a lofty goal: It wanted to do with health care what Google did with information; that is, make it freely and...
- Grace Browne
Jul 4, 2005 · Babylon Disease ( Babylonsjukan ), an urban film about sentimental and existential exile, opens on a televised report on demonstrators fought against by the police. These violent images, a blunt version of the tensions in the Western society, are followed by a zoom on the sad, pure, and defenceless-looking face of Maja ( Nina Wähä ).
- Introduction
- The Babylonian Dynasties
- Writing
- Medicine and Healing
- Babylonian Accounts of Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders
- Neurological Disorders
- Psychiatric Disorders
- Discussion
- Funding
Western scientific medicine is rooted in Greek and Roman medicine, conveyed and modified by Islamic medicine. Recent research, however, has revealed earlier origins in Mesopotamia (‘the land between the rivers’) and Egypt (Nunn, 1966; Finkel and Seymour, 2008). In the fields of neurology and psychiatry the earliest detailed clinical descriptions ca...
There were several Babylonian Dynasties with their capital at Babylon on the River Euphrates, south-west of modern Baghdad on the River Tigris (Fig. 1). Best known is the neo-Babylonian Dynasty (626–539 BC) associated with King Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562 BC) and the capture of Jerusalem (586 BC). Babylonia was finally overrun and absorbed into the ...
The Babylonians made important contributions to mathematics, astronomy, law and medicine, conveyed in the cuneiform script, which is thought to have begun in the Uruk region of Mesopotamia in the late fourth millennium BC, roughly contemporary with the earliest known Egyptian hieroglyphs. Figure 3 illustrates the evolution of this script in the thi...
The Babylonians were remarkable observers and documentalists of human illness and behaviour. However, their knowledge of anatomy was limited and superficial. Some diseases were thought to have a physical basis, such as eye and intestinal infections, worms, snake bites and trauma. Much else was the result of evil forces that required driving out, or...
It must be emphasized that the Babylonians would have had no understanding of our modern concepts of neurological and psychiatric disorders. They knew nothing of brain or psychological function. They simply documented many remarkably detailed and objective descriptions of what in retrospect we can clearly recognize today as neurological and psychia...
Epilepsy
We first studied a Babylonian tablet in the British Museum (BM 47753), number 26 of 40 in the ‘diagnostic’ series, wholly concerned with epilepsy (Kinnier Wilson and Reynolds, 1990) (Fig. 4). The Babylonian word for the falling sickness or epilepsy is miqtu. The tablet describes in accurate detail most of the common seizure types we recognize today, some of which we illustrate below, and even rare types such as a gelastic seizure (obverse, line 11). Also described are prodromal symptoms, aura...
Stroke
Tablet 27 in the ‘diagnostic’ series is in the Louvre in Paris (A06680) and is concerned with stroke, the Babylonian word for which is šipir misǐtti (Reynolds and Kinnier Wilson, 2004; Kinnier Wilson and Reynolds, 2007). The first line of the text states: The Babylonians recognized the unilateral nature of stroke involving limbs, face, speech and consciousness. They distinguished the facial weakness (‘mouth paralysis’) of stroke from that of uncomplicated unilateral facial paralysis, which is...
The spinal cord
Before leaving neurological disorders we draw attention to the beautiful bas-relief in the British Museum of a wounded lioness from an Assyrian Palace in Nineveh (Fig. 5). Although they had no knowledge of the spinal cord the Babylonians and the Assyrians clearly understood that an arrow in the centre of the back led to paralysed hind legs, another important clinical observation.
Our knowledge of Babylonian descriptions, understanding and treatment of psychiatric disorders is derived from various tablets and texts unrelated to the medical ‘diagnostic’ and ‘therapeutic’ series, but again probably dating from the first half of the second millennium BC (Kinnier Wilson, 1965, 1967). Two major cuneiform texts known as Maqlû and ...
We have endeavoured to construct an overview of Babylonian descriptions, concepts and treatment of what, in modern terms we call neurological and psychiatric disorders. On a brief background of Babylonian history and culture we have illustrated this review with examples from our original translations of Babylonian accounts of epilepsy, stroke, psyc...
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
- Edward H. Reynolds, James V. Kinnier Wilson
- 2014
Nov 26, 2023 · Babylon Health was a London-based startup that aimed to "revolutionise healthcare" by putting an AI-powered "doctor in your pocket". Founded in 2013 by Ali Parsa, a British-Iranian banker, it was...
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Sep 28, 2004 · The Babylon Disease. The first Swedish film produced under Nordisk Film's low-budget Director's Cut concept, "The Babylon Disease" is a charming and energetic film, depicting a summer among...
