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This post is part of hand-picked stories from across the web, curated by the editors of the Assyria Post.
The sanctuaries referred to in the text instructed patients to seek out sanctuaries of various gods, including Sîn, Ninurta, Šamaš, Ištar, and Marduk. These sanctuaries included personal shrines likely located in the homes of the patients.
Once there, "Presumably, the patient would recite one or more prayers and various ritual actions, such as present offerings," says Dr. Arbøll.
"In the healing goddess Gula's temple in the Babylonian city Isin, remains of votive figurines suggest that patients could have visited the temple with these, and the objects somehow related to their affliction. Such patients may have left votive figurines at the temple as acts of supplication."
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Ancient Mesopotamian medical texts reveal the role of divine sanctuaries in treating ear and spleen ailments
In a study published in the journal Iraq, Dr. Troels Arbøll analyzed medical prescriptions from ancient Mesopotamia to understand and re-evaluate the role sanctuaries played in the healing process. The study found that specific ailments, particularly those linked to the ear and spleen/pancreas (ṭulīmu), were associated with prescriptions instructing the patients to seek out sanctuaries of deities to receive good fortune.
Sandee Oster
