Article Titled-

Healthcare in Mesopotamia

PRESENTED BY-
AKANSHA MISHRA-20IN604
ASHWIN PRAKASH-20IN610
DISHA GUPTA-20IN616
KARAN TYAGI-20IN622
MAYANK KUMAR-20IN629
NALLAM VENKATA CHETAN-20IN635
INTRODUCTION

Mesopotamia, “the land between two rivers “refers to the geographical area near the
rivers Tigris and Euphrates. The first civilization developed in Mesopotamia which
included features like agriculture, cuneiform writing, temples, healing techniques etc.
It is marked as the beginning of human civilisation.
The Mesopotamians are using medicines as early as 3,500 B.C. and developed
enemas, suppositories, lotions, pills, inhalations, ointments, snuffs, poultices, and
infusions. They are thus considered the originators of medication.
All this led to the foundation of healthcare in Mesopotamia.

PHILOSOPHY

In Mesopotamia, the gods were a part of every aspect of daily life, and also health
care. Spirits were blamed and each spirit or god was held responsible for one
disease. Specific offerings were made to a particular god or ghost when it was
considered to be a causative factor. Assyrian, the huge winged bulls were
considered as the guardians against illness carrying demons. 
There were two different types of medical practitioners: Ashipu and Asu:

Ashipu: Also accounted as “sorcerer” or exorcist used to diagnose the ailment. They
also determined that the illness is the sign of any sin or err by the patient. The cure
was by means of charms and spells that were designed to pull out the spirit causing
the disease. They also referred the patient to a different type of healer called Asu.

Asu: They were accounted as “physician” who were specialist in medical herbal
remedies. They dealt with empirical applications of medicine. For treating wounds
the Asu generally relied on washing, bandaging, and making plasters. 

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FAMOUS PRACTITIONERS

The code of Hammurabi mainly regulated the judicial law based on social status, but
also partly provides guidelines the medicine’s concept of non-malfeasance or “do no
harm.” The laws that were relevant to physician’s regulated malpractice and
compensation.

The practice of medicine was regulated by the state and malpractices were
punishable by law. Hammurabi's Code of Law specified that if a surgeon performs a
major operation on an 'awelum' (nobleman), with a lancet and caused the death of
the man, they shall cut off his hands". Hammurabi also specified fees for lifesaving
operations like ten shekels of silver for 'awelum', five shekels for 'mushkenu' (poor
man) and two shekels for a slave."

CONCEPT OF SURGERY

During those times operations were done by doctors for superficial lesions and
snakebites. Plastic operations were done by barbers to remove slaves branding
marks. A veterinary surgeon was also available to perform operations on animals.

Other prescriptions give detailed instructions for surgery with a scalpel, including
post-operative care such as the dressing of operations sites with oil soaked linen
bandages. “Prescriptions for Diseases of the Head” involves operating on an
abscess beneath the scalp, and scraping away sick bone if the infection has affected
the skull. Knives were used by the doctors to perform operations to the injured.

The opium poppy grew in Mesopotamia, and it had been used for obtaining relief
from painful conditions.

RITUALS AND BELIEVES

The Mesopotamians patterned their gods on themselves and their own communities,
however they believed that just as a king might choose to forgive one's offense, so
could the gods. A person who was suffering simply had to confess the sin they
committed and submit to the proper treatment to remove the effect of whatever
demon had been sent by the gods to impose the punishment on the patient.

Illness was referred to as “the hand of a divine entity”. Illness was seen and
connected to a sin, and a cure for that illness required some form of confession of
that sin, an acknowledgment that one had done wrong, and an oath to do right in the
future.
Spirit

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They believed it was because that if one god intended only the best for the sick
person, another god could have been offended and would refuse to be appeased, no
matter what offerings were made. 

RELEVANCE IN THE CURRENT CONTEXT

Talking about the relevance of Mesopotamian healthcare practises in today's time,

when the world is suffering from the menace of Pandemic, it is quite remarkable to
know that the written sources rarely mention epidemics and pandemics in the
Mesopotamian civilisation. Even though some cities were densely crowded at some
points. This is probably due to several factors, one of them being the well-
established health care system where families that had to keep their houses clean
and the dust and other filth was to be swept outside the home.

This shows that public and personal hygiene and nutrition were some of the key
elements that sustained a healthy life and lifestyle during the Mesopotamian
civilisation which are still relevant today.

It is also interesting to note that the idea of Professional indemnity is still in picture
today which was a part of Mesopotamian civilisation once where the failed surgeon's
liability were determined by the status of his patient. This can be learned as if as a
result of surgery a person of high status dies the surgeon risked having his hand cut
off. While if a slave died from receiving the treatment, the surgeon only had to pay to
replace the slave. 

CONCLUSION

Thus, it can be seen that the people of the Mesopotamian civilisation were well-
versed with the concepts of healthcare and its practises. Mesopotamians were
methodically trained, and had the required facilities and tools to treat patients with
both pharmaceutical medicine and surgery. However they lacked what is called a
well-defined scientific approach to deal with diseases as worshiping to god was a
major part of their healing practises.

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CITATIONS

https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1056&context=gvjh#:~:text=Mesopotamia%20were%20methodically
%20trained%2C%20had,asu%20physicians%20in%20ancient%20Mesopotamia

https://www.ancient.eu/article/687/health-care-in-ancient-mesopotamia/

http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub363/entry-
6081.htmlhttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/6429561_Mesopotamian_medici
ne

https://www.asunaturals.com/blog/sumerian-healing

https://cdli.ox.ac.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=medicine