David19
January 16th, 2009, 07:57 AM
I thought this article was really interesting, and quite cool.
From here (http://www.christiansofiraq.com/medicine10245.html):
In the world's first cities 4,000 years ago, people came to doctors for help with much the same problems they do today--everything from impotence, depression, tuberculosis and cancer to gluten hypersensitivity, hemorrhoids, narcolepsy and migraines.
The treatment they received in ancient Mesopotamia is also familiar in many respects, with medical specialists writing prescriptions for pills, potions and patches that patients would take to a pharmacist.
Studying medical texts inscribed in cuneiform, the first system of writing, Chicago researchers JoAnn Scurlock and Burton Andersen found the physicians of the earliest civilizations were delivering surprisingly sophisticated, knowledgeable and effective health care 2,000 years before Christ lived.
In fact, citizens received treatment superior to what Americans got in George Washington's time, according to the researchers. The first president died in 1799 after doctors bled him in an effort to rectify the "imbalance" of his bodily "humors."
I think it's really interesting that the ancient Mesopotamians knowledge of medicine is also, in part anyway, what is used today, and even more advanced than the ancient Greeks (who are normally seen as being "the best of the best" of the ancient world).
Anyway, any thoughts?. I definitely want to get the book that is mentioned, although, like the article said, at $150, and 900 pages long, not many people will be reading it. Still, it definitely sounds good, and could help clear up the misconceptions that Mesopotamian's were just "superstitious", or "not as advanced" as the ancient Greeks and Romans (I remember one topic on a Religio Romana forum, or Yahoo Group, where some people there seemed to believed all ancient Mesopotamians were just "superstitious" or weren't "as great as ancient Rome").
From here (http://www.christiansofiraq.com/medicine10245.html):
In the world's first cities 4,000 years ago, people came to doctors for help with much the same problems they do today--everything from impotence, depression, tuberculosis and cancer to gluten hypersensitivity, hemorrhoids, narcolepsy and migraines.
The treatment they received in ancient Mesopotamia is also familiar in many respects, with medical specialists writing prescriptions for pills, potions and patches that patients would take to a pharmacist.
Studying medical texts inscribed in cuneiform, the first system of writing, Chicago researchers JoAnn Scurlock and Burton Andersen found the physicians of the earliest civilizations were delivering surprisingly sophisticated, knowledgeable and effective health care 2,000 years before Christ lived.
In fact, citizens received treatment superior to what Americans got in George Washington's time, according to the researchers. The first president died in 1799 after doctors bled him in an effort to rectify the "imbalance" of his bodily "humors."
I think it's really interesting that the ancient Mesopotamians knowledge of medicine is also, in part anyway, what is used today, and even more advanced than the ancient Greeks (who are normally seen as being "the best of the best" of the ancient world).
Anyway, any thoughts?. I definitely want to get the book that is mentioned, although, like the article said, at $150, and 900 pages long, not many people will be reading it. Still, it definitely sounds good, and could help clear up the misconceptions that Mesopotamian's were just "superstitious", or "not as advanced" as the ancient Greeks and Romans (I remember one topic on a Religio Romana forum, or Yahoo Group, where some people there seemed to believed all ancient Mesopotamians were just "superstitious" or weren't "as great as ancient Rome").