Two medical conditions at night

Klaus Wagensonner

Two medical conditions at night

2021

Two medical conditions at night Klaus Wagensonner* 1 Introduction The small tablet YBC 4955 (YPM BC 019019; measurements: 50.6 × 42.6 × 14.0 mm) is inscribed with eight lines of text on its obverse and six lines on its reverse. Damage is confined to the upper left corner (see Fig. 1). One line on top of the reverse was erased by the scribe. The tablet is slightly oval and rather thin. Its text is not ruled except for a single ruling after line 5, which separates the content into two sections. The text itself is quite intriguing. Each of the two sections appears to deal with medical conditions that happen during the patient’s sleep (lines 3 and 8: ina mušīti). 1 Each “case” is introduced by a date. The first case happened on the 25 th , the second on the 24 th of the second month (Ayyāru). Occasionally, similar dates occur in medical texts in therapeutic descriptions after the identification of symptoms. Thus we read in one of these texts as follows: 2 “If a man, his right ear hurts him intensely, is full of ‘clay’ and is continually swollen, on the eighth of Abu (V), you extract the juice of a sweet nurmû-pomegranate, …” Case 1 (lines 1-5) describes an incident from the point of view of the speaker: “in my dream/night-time” (line 3: ina mušītiya). While the patient sleeps, the nose started to bleed (line 4-5: damū ina appiya illikū). The Assur Medical Catalogue, which contains all the medical treatises a first millennium BC physician needed to master, refers also to a tablet that deals with nosebleed: “If blood [flows from] a man’s nose, [in order to] stop the nosebleed” (line 19: ˹DIŠ NA MUD2 ? ina˺ KIR4-šu2 [DU-ku ana] ˹MUD2˺ KIR4 TAR-[si]). 3 Nosebleed is a comparatively common condition and is frequently referred to in medical texts. See, for instance, TDP 56:19 šumma ina appišu damū illakū, “if blood runs from his nose.” Case 2 (lines 6-14) is not concerned with nosebleed, but with a more elusive condition. This case happens on the 24 th of the second month, again during night-time, but this time the condition happens to a woman named Lamassāni. This name, (lit.) “our guardian deity,” is not uncommon, at least in Babylonia, and still occurs in the Kassite period. 4 As pointed out by Klaas Veenhof (1968: 197-198), names such as Lamassī, Lamassāni, and Lamassatum are often found with nadītum-priestesses. Apart from the Old Assyrian period, names of this type appear to be rather uncommon in the north in later periods. This might be indicative for the place of origin of our text (see below). According to the text, Lamassāni’s affliction is of a different nature than the first case. She is “filled with water” (line 10: mê maliat). “Filled with water” in a medical sense is attested in *Yale University; klaus.wagensonner@yale.edu. 1 For ina mušītiya, “in my dream,” compare the Old Babylonian manuscript of Gilgamesh IM 58451 (3N-T 376) o,16; see George 2003: 244. Akk. mušītu, “night,” is here to be understood as “night-time, sleep.” 2 K 4023 (CDLI P395359 = AMT 105/1 col. iv): (7’) DIŠ NA GEŠTU ZA3-šu2 TAG-su IM DIRI-at u MU2 meš º U4 8º.KAM2 : U4 9.KAM2 ša iti NE (8’) geš NU.UR2.MA KU7.KU7 ša2 ina UGU GEŠ-ša2 zaq-pat A meš -ša2 ta-še-ṣa-’; see also Scurlock 2014: 387-388. 3 See Steinert 2018: 210 and her remarks on p. 226. A photograph of the tablet is published in Steinert 2019: 131, Fig. 10.5. 4 See, for instance, a Kassite seal in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which mentions this name in the same spelling; see Konstantopoulos 2018: 98, fig. 1. Lamassāni is certainly a female name, which also becomes clear from the suffix -ša and the feminine stative forms. See, for instance, the Old Babylonian letter AbB 1, 98, that uses 2. sg. f. suffixes throughout the letter, or f la-ma-sa3-ni LUKUR d UTU in AbB 14, 54 (line 30). Le Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes (2021) n°37, 4-8 4

both medical as well as divinatory texts. Occasionally it qualifies the state of a body part or organ such as in YOS 10, 31: (iv,29) šum-ma mar-tum (30) me-{×}-e (31) im-˹ta-na-al˺-la-ma (…), “If the gall bladder is constantly filled with water.” 5 The present text, however, does not specify any body part. 6 It is therefore plausible to assume that Lamassāni suffers from aganutillû-disease. 7 Lexical texts such as the List of Diseases (K 207+) describe this disease as malia mê, “filled with water:” 8 (ii,1) a-mud-a-se 3 -ga ma-li-a me-e (ii,2) a-ša 3 -ga-si KI.MIN (ii,3) a-gal-la-ti-la KI.MIN (ruling) (ii,4) a-gal-la-ti-la ra-ah im-tu Similar descriptions of this disease occur in royal inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, as for instance in the following passage: 9 (iv,56) md MUATI-MU-KAM-eš lu2 GU2.EN.NA la na-ṣir a-de-e (iv,57) iš-ši a-ga-nu-til-la-a A meš SA5 meš “Nabû-šuma-ēreš, the šandabakku who did not honor (my) treaty, he suffered from dropsy, (that is) ‘full water’.” In curse formulae gods often cause dropsy for the evildoer who, for instance, effaces an inscription. A Kassite Kudurru-inscription dating to the reign of Marduk-nādin-ahhē states as follows: 10 (v,29) d AMAR.UTU be-lu4 GAL-u2 (v,30) ša qi2-bi-is-su la ut-tak-ka-ru (v,31) A.GA.NU.TIL.LA-a (v,32) ša ri-ki-is-su la ip-paṭ-ṭa-ru (v,33) li-šeš-ši-šu-ma (vi,1) a-di bal-ṭu ki-ma ka-re-e (vi,2) lu-u2 na-šu-u2 lib2-bu-šu “May Marduk, the great lord, whose command cannot be altered, impose on him dropsy, whose bond cannot be loosened, and as long as he is alive, his innerds shall be swollen like sheaves.” 5 YBC 4638 (YPM BC 018703 = CDLI P293400; collated); see also CAD M/I, 177, 2’-3’. 6 Probably unlikely, but worth mentioning is the possibility that la-ma-sa3-ni is a corrupt or sandhi spelling for the pupil of the eye, lamassat īni. Compare the Old Babylonian medical text TLB 2, 21: (11’) šum-ma mar-ṣum i-na-a-šu da-ma-am ma-li-a, “If a man’s eyes are full of blood”; see Geller 2001–2002: 73-74. 7 I would like to thank Mark Geller for this suggestion. For this disease or condition see Scurlock and Andersen 2005: 170. 8 See MSL IX, 93 and CAD A/I, 144 s.v. agannutillû. 9 Ashurbanipal 3; see Novotny and Jeffers 2018: 67. 10 Sumer 38, 128 (Fig. 1.c) and 129 (2.b); see Paulus 2014: 558. Le Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes (2021) n°37, 4-8 5

Le Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes (2021) n°37, 4-8 Two medical conditions at night Klaus Wagensonner* 1 Introduction The small tablet YBC 4955 (YPM BC 019019; measurements: 50.6 × 42.6 × 14.0 mm) is inscribed with eight lines of text on its obverse and six lines on its reverse. Damage is confined to the upper left corner (see Fig. 1). One line on top of the reverse was erased by the scribe. The tablet is slightly oval and rather thin. Its text is not ruled except for a single ruling after line 5, which separates the content into two sections. The text itself is quite intriguing. Each of the two sections appears to deal with medical conditions that happen during the patient’s sleep (lines 3 and 8: ina mušīti).1 Each “case” is introduced by a date. The first case happened on the 25th, the second on the 24th of the second month (Ayyāru). Occasionally, similar dates occur in medical texts in therapeutic descriptions after the identification of symptoms. Thus we read in one of these texts as follows: 2 “If a man, his right ear hurts him intensely, is full of ‘clay’ and is continually swollen, on the eighth of Abu (V), you extract the juice of a sweet nurmû-pomegranate, …” Case 1 (lines 1-5) describes an incident from the point of view of the speaker: “in my dream/night-time” (line 3: ina mušītiya). While the patient sleeps, the nose started to bleed (line 4-5: damū ina appiya illikū). The Assur Medical Catalogue, which contains all the medical treatises a first millennium BC physician needed to master, refers also to a tablet that deals with nosebleed: “If blood [flows from] a man’s nose, [in order to] stop the nosebleed” (line 19: ˹DIŠ NA MUD2? ina˺ KIR4-šu2 [DU-ku ana] ˹MUD2˺ KIR4 TAR-[si]). 3 Nosebleed is a comparatively common condition and is frequently referred to in medical texts. See, for instance, TDP 56:19 šumma ina appišu damū illakū, “if blood runs from his nose.” Case 2 (lines 6-14) is not concerned with nosebleed, but with a more elusive condition. This case happens on the 24th of the second month, again during night-time, but this time the condition happens to a woman named Lamassāni. This name, (lit.) “our guardian deity,” is not uncommon, at least in Babylonia, and still occurs in the Kassite period. 4 As pointed out by Klaas Veenhof (1968: 197-198), names such as Lamassī, Lamassāni, and Lamassatum are often found with nadītum-priestesses. Apart from the Old Assyrian period, names of this type appear to be rather uncommon in the north in later periods. This might be indicative for the place of origin of our text (see below). According to the text, Lamassāni’s affliction is of a different nature than the first case. She is “filled with water” (line 10: mê maliat). “Filled with water” in a medical sense is attested in *Yale University; klaus.wagensonner@yale.edu. For ina mušītiya, “in my dream,” compare the Old Babylonian manuscript of Gilgamesh IM 58451 (3N-T 376) o,16; see George 2003: 244. Akk. mušītu, “night,” is here to be understood as “night-time, sleep.” 2 K 4023 (CDLI P395359 = AMT 105/1 col. iv): (7’) DIŠ NA GEŠTU ZA3-šu2 TAG-su IM DIRI-at u MU2mešº U4 8º.KAM2 : U4 9.KAM2 ša itiNE (8’) gešNU.UR2.MA KU7.KU7 ša2 ina UGU GEŠ-ša2 zaq-pat Ameš-ša2 ta-še-ṣa-’; see also Scurlock 2014: 387-388. 3 See Steinert 2018: 210 and her remarks on p. 226. A photograph of the tablet is published in Steinert 2019: 131, Fig. 10.5. 4 See, for instance, a Kassite seal in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which mentions this name in the same spelling; see Konstantopoulos 2018: 98, fig. 1. Lamassāni is certainly a female name, which also becomes clear from the suffix -ša and the feminine stative forms. See, for instance, the Old Babylonian letter AbB 1, 98, that uses 2. sg. f. suffixes throughout the letter, or fla-ma-sa3-ni LUKUR dUTU in AbB 14, 54 (line 30). 1 4 Le Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes (2021) n°37, 4-8 both medical as well as divinatory texts. Occasionally it qualifies the state of a body part or organ such as in YOS 10, 31: (iv,29) šum-ma mar-tum (30) me-{×}-e (31) im-˹ta-na-al˺-la-ma (…), “If the gall bladder is constantly filled with water.” 5 The present text, however, does not specify any body part. 6 It is therefore plausible to assume that Lamassāni suffers from aganutillû-disease. 7 Lexical texts such as the List of Diseases (K 207+) describe this disease as malia mê, “filled with water:” 8 (ii,1) (ii,2) (ii,3) (ii,4) a-mud-a-se3-ga a-ša3-ga-si a-gal-la-ti-la (ruling) a-gal-la-ti-la ma-li-a me-e KI.MIN KI.MIN ra-ah im-tu Similar descriptions of this disease occur in royal inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, as for instance in the following passage: 9 (iv,56) mdMUATI-MU-KAM-eš lu2GU2.EN.NA la na-ṣir a-de-e (iv,57) iš-ši a-ga-nu-til-la-a Ameš SA5meš “Nabû-šuma-ēreš, the šandabakku who did not honor (my) treaty, he suffered from dropsy, (that is) ‘full water’.” In curse formulae gods often cause dropsy for the evildoer who, for instance, effaces an inscription. A Kassite Kudurru-inscription dating to the reign of Marduk-nādin-ahhē states as follows: 10 (v,29) (v,30) (v,31) (v,32) (v,33) (vi,1) (vi,2) d AMAR.UTU be-lu4 GAL-u2 ša qi2-bi-is-su la ut-tak-ka-ru A.GA.NU.TIL.LA-a ša ri-ki-is-su la ip-paṭ-ṭa-ru li-šeš-ši-šu-ma a-di bal-ṭu ki-ma ka-re-e lu-u2 na-šu-u2 lib2-bu-šu “May Marduk, the great lord, whose command cannot be altered, impose on him dropsy, whose bond cannot be loosened, and as long as he is alive, his innerds shall be swollen like sheaves.” YBC 4638 (YPM BC 018703 = CDLI P293400; collated); see also CAD M/I, 177, 2’-3’. Probably unlikely, but worth mentioning is the possibility that la-ma-sa3-ni is a corrupt or sandhi spelling for the pupil of the eye, lamassat īni. Compare the Old Babylonian medical text TLB 2, 21: (11’) šum-ma mar-ṣum i-na-a-šu da-ma-am ma-li-a, “If a man’s eyes are full of blood”; see Geller 2001–2002: 73-74. 7 I would like to thank Mark Geller for this suggestion. For this disease or condition see Scurlock and Andersen 2005: 170. 8 See MSL IX, 93 and CAD A/I, 144 s.v. agannutillû. 9 Ashurbanipal 3; see Novotny and Jeffers 2018: 67. 10 Sumer 38, 128 (Fig. 1.c) and 129 (2.b); see Paulus 2014: 558. 5 6 5 Le Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes (2021) n°37, 4-8 Similarly, a short contemporaneous votive inscription by a governor of Ur to Šamaš-šumaukīn, reads: 11 (10) (11) (12) (...) dAMAR.UTU EN GAL-u2 d EN.LIL2 EN KUR.KUR a-ga-nu-til-la-a še-ret-su ša2 la pa-ṭa-ru lu-šar-šiš “May Marduk, the great lord, Enlil, lord of the lands, afflict him with dropsy (as) his punishment which cannot be alleviated.” After introducing Lamassāni’s condition, our text continues to mention an offering at the gate of Marduk (lines 11-12: ina bāb Marduk naqiat). The mentioning of Marduk, again, points to a Babylonian origin of the text, but not necessarily to Babylon itself. Returning to the name of the inflicted person, Lamassāni, one might entertain the possibility that she could have been a nadītu of Marduk. This type of nadītu co-existed with the nadītu of Šamaš in Sippar in the Old Babylonian period. 12 The last two lines of the text, obviously describing the outcome of her offering, remain elusive. The reading šalmat (line 14) is tentative, but not unlikely. 2 Edition Obverse 1 [i+na] ˹itiGU4˺.SI.SA2 2 [U4] 25.KAM 3 [i]+˹na˺ mu-ši-ti-ia 4 ˹da˺-mu i+na ap-pi2-ia 5 il-li-ku (ruling) 6 i+na itiGU4.SI.SA2 7 U4 24.KAM 8 i+na mu-ši-ti-ša Reverse 9 ša la-ma-sa3-ni 10 meº-e ma-li-a-at-ma 11 ˹i+na˺ KA2 dAMAR.UTU 12 [n]a?-qi2-a-at 13 [–] ˹× ak? ti ma?˺ 14 [ša]-˹al?˺-ma-at [In] the month Ayyāru (II), (on) the 25th, during my sleep (lit. my night) blood ran out of my nose. In the month Ayyāru, (on) the 24th, during her sleep, 13 that of Lamassāni, she was full of water and at Marduk’s gate she made an offering. … she will be well. RIMB 6.33.2001 (CDLI P387078). This composition is preserved on two manuscripts, TCL 12, 13 and HE 144. 12 See Harris 1975: 315-323. 13 The feminine suffix -ša is added here parallel to the first case and can be considered redundant due to what follows. 11 6 Le Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes (2021) n°37, 4-8 Fig. 1 Photo and handcopy of YBC 4955 3 Palaeography and date Putting a specific date on a text like the present tablet is rather difficult. Palaeographic considerations alone do not help to pinpoint its date and possible provenience, but at least seem to point clearly to a date after the Old Babylonian period. Some consideration also needs to be given to the writing of the month name Ayyāru. Texts dating to the first millennium BC would conventionally abbreviate its orthography to itiGU4 instead its full form itiGU4.SI.SA2 as it appears on the tablet. Since this text lies at the margin of scholarship, archaisms are not impossible. While Middle Assyrian royal inscriptions use abbreviated month names, Neo-Assyrian inscriptions frequently use the full form in their date formulas, but not in the main text. Tentatively it may be proposed that the current text dates to the second half of the second millennium. The shapes of the signs IL and LI (line 5) seem to confirm that. Middle Assyrian appears to be less likely due to the text’s orthography: ap-pi2-ia instead of ap-pi-ia. 7 Le Journal des Médecines Cunéiformes (2021) n°37, 4-8 References al-Admi K. (1982). A New Kudurru of Marduk-nadin-ahhe: IM 90585, Sumer 38, 121-133. Geller M. J. 2001-2002. West Meets East: Early Greek and Babylonian Diagnosis, Archiv für Orientforschung 48/49, 50-75. George A. R. 2003. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic. Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts, 2 vols., Oxford. Harris R. 1975. Ancient Sippar. A Demographic Study of an Old Babylonian City (1894– 1595 B.C.), Publications de l’Institut Historique et Archéologique Néerlandais de Stamboul 36, Leiden. Konstantopoulos G. 2018. Inscribed Kassite Cylinder Seals in the Metropolitan Museum, Metropolitan Museum Journal, 97-113. Novotny J., Jeffers J. 2018. The royal inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (668–631 BC), Aššuretel-ilāni (630–627 BC), and Sîn-šarra-iškun (626–612 BC), kings of Assyria, The Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period 5, University Park. Paulus S. 2014. Die babylonischen Kudurru-Inschriften von der kassitischen bis zur frühneubabylonischen Zeit. Untersucht unter besonderer Berücksichtigung gesellschaftsund rechtshistorischer Fragestellungen, Alter Orient und Altes Testament 51, Münster. Scurlock J.A. 2014. Sourcebook for Ancient Mesopotamian Medicine, SBL Writings from the Ancient World 36, Atlanta. Scurlock J.A., Andersen B. R. 2005. Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine. Ancient Sources, Translations, and Modern Medical Analyses, Urbana/Chicago. Steinert U. 2018. The Assur Medical Catalogue (AMC), in U. Steinert (ed.) Assyrian and Babylonian Scholarly Text Catalogues. Medicine, Magic and Divination, Die Babylonisch-Assyrische Medizin in Texten und Untersuchungen 9, Boston/Berlin, 203291. Steinert U. 2019. Mesopotamian Medicine and the Body, in A. W. Lassen, E. Frahm, K. Wagensonner (eds.) Ancient Mesopotamia Speaks. Highlights of the Yale Babylonian Collection, New Haven, 126-137. Veenhof K. R. 1968. Review of BaM 3, Bibliotheca Orientalis 25, 195-198. 8

In a growing Own Voices era, Jewish fantasy has been pushing for more diversity. Disney has joined in lately, with Elena of Avalor hosting a Sephardic (Spanish heritage) heroine for Hannukah in “Festival of Lights.” Some fans speculate that the Encanto family are Jewish, based on their generational trauma and traditional surname. The Wish family have similar hallmarks. This has all culminated with Daniel Jose Older’s Ballad & Dagger (2022), the first teen Rick Riordan Presents book. Mateo doesn’t remember his birthplace. “And because I was gone from Little Madrigal for so much of my childhood, mine feels like a double diaspora, my own personal haunting” (15). The Brooklyn characters are refugees from San Madrigal, a magical Caribbean island founded by a Sephardic rabbi, a pirate, and a Santero (painter of saints). They fascinatingly blended these traditions with others like African-derived worship. This novel shows the potential of intermingled fantasy settings—creating an entirely new mythology on the question of What If. Pirate law and Jewish ethics combine with saints and destiny as the young people discover their magical gifts. Inclusion of Spanish and Ladino along with Hebrew and Cubanized Yoruba (not to mention a glossary!) adds more depth. In Brooklyn, they live in diaspora, maintaining the traditions of their lost island even as they hope to revive it. As such, they mirror so many immigrants today, maintaining their cultures in the modern melting pot of America. After the climax, the rabbi describes La Convivencia, a time when Jews, Muslims, and Christians lived together peacefully in Spain. He adds that on their new island, they tried to create such a society again from so many disparate cultures. It will always be a fantasy but also always true “as we clean up, heal, mourn. Most of all, as we love” (361). With this, he expresses hope for a world of inclusion. Other teen fantasies like Ruth Tenzer Feldman’s The Blue Thread and Leigh Bardugo’s The Ninth House likewise reveal Sephardic diaspora culture, a minority within the minority population. These, however, offer realism, while a Sephardic original fantasy land is a more intriguing choice. Exploring how Ballad & Dagger touches on real traditions of Jewish pirates and modern refugees, this paper will consider the imaginative scope of multicultural fantasy.

Log In

Two medical conditions at night