The ancient East was the cradle of the world history of human civilizations, class societies and states. Here, earlier than anywhere else on the globe, the transition from the primitive communal system to early slavery took place.

For the first time the class stratification of society occurred in Egypt and Sumer (IV millennium BC. E.). In other regions of the globe, this process developed at a later date: in India, in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e., in China - II millennium BC. e., among the peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean — III — II millennia BC. e., in Western and Central Europe - I millennium BC. e., in America — in the first millennium n. e.

The development of empirical knowledge (which includes healing)> in the countries of the ancient world, on the one hand, had common features, and on the other hand, each region of the world had its own characteristic features associated with the historical and cultural development of this region.

Among the general features of the development of healing in the slaveholding states of the ancient world are the following:

- invention of writing (with IV millennium BC. e.) and creation (from the end of the 3rd millennium BC.) first medical texts containing (scheme) 3 c 4);

- the formation of two directions underline: empirical physician based on practical experience of the people, and cult (theurgists based on religious beliefs;

- development of ideas about pro origin of disease (associated with moral, ethical, religious ozno-mystical);

- training of healers (families traditional tradition, training in general schools lah at temples);

- the creation of the oldest sanitary technical structures; development hygiene skills;

- the development of a class approach to healing;

- the formation of the foundations of medical ethics;

- development of mutual influences and continuity in the field of healing between different ancient civilizations by

DRIVING IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMY

(Schumer, Babylonia, Assyria)

Story

The fertile valley of the Lower Euphrates * in Western Asia (as well as the valley of the Nile River in Egypt) was the birthplace of the oldest human civilizations. The first large villages in Front Asia (Jericho in Palestine, Chatal-hüyuk in Asia Minor, Amuk in Syria, etc.) appeared as early as VIII – VI millennia BC. e. However, in civilization they did not develop and perished, never becoming states.

The most ancient city-states of the Sumerians (Eridu, Uruk, Lagash, Ur, Nippur and others) were formed in the lower Euphrates valley at the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. e. (Fig. 7).

Since the beginning of the II millennium 'BC. Oe., after the rise of the city of Babylon in Lower Mesopotamia, the history of the Babylonian kingdom began, which existed for 15 centuries with small interruptions (the 20th – 16th centuries BC - the old Babylonian period, the 16th – 12th centuries. AD - Middle-Avivonian, or Kassitian, period, and XI — VI centuries BC, —Novovavilonian period). In 538, the Babylonian kingdom was captured by the Persians and ceased to exist.

In the upper Mesopotamia from the XV to the VII. BC e. there was another great power of Mesopotamia - the Assyrian kingdom, destroyed in 614-605. BC e. as a result of the Medes' trespasses.

Sources on history and healing

The history and healing of ancient Mesopotamia is evidenced by authentic texts of the time, made by cuneiform on clay tablets, objects made of clay, stone, metal (Table 5), as well as archaeological research data and evidence from historians (Herodotus, Beros) and scholars of various eras.

The term "Mesopotamia" (Greek. Interfluve, or Mesopotamia) was introduced by the Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Herodotos, ca. 484–425 BC), who visited the countries of the Tigris and Euphrates basin in the middle of the 5th c. BC e.

DOCTORS IN SHUMER (III millennium BC.)

Story

From ancient times, the land of Mesopotamia was inhabited by two peoples: the Sumerians, who occupied the Southern Mesopotamia and around 3000 BC. e. created the first in Mesopotamia, the city-states, and their northern neighbors - the tribes of the eastern Semites, who from the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. became known as Akkadians (according to the name of their main settlement, the city of Akkad). The heyday of the Sumerian-Akkadian culture falls on the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e.

The territory of Sumer was no more than 15 thousand square kilometers. The population of the country, even in its heyday, did not exceed one million people (and for those times was quite numerous). The Sumerians knew pottery skill, burned tiles and bricks, built city walls and temples, laid canals and irrigated fields, spun and weaved, built chariots and ships, forged from copper and bronze, created masterpieces of jewelry art, composed music and composed verses. They laid the first foundations of arithmetic, geometry and astronomy, learned to calculate time, and created the first written language in the history of mankind.

During the formation of cuneiform, the population of Mesopotamia spoke two languages: Sumerian and East Semitic (Akkadian). The oldest Mesopotamian texts (2900-2500 BC) are almost without exception written in Sumerian language. By the end of III — the beginning of the II millennium BC. e. Sumerian language became the "dead" language of scientific texts, but it was not stopped studying until the 1st century AD. n e.

The creation of writing led to the emergence of schools that were secular in Sumer. They were called “houses of tablets” - e-Dubba (akkad. E-dub-da). Information on the teaching of medical knowledge in Sumerian schools is currently not available.

The development of medical knowledge

During the archaeological excavations of one of the most ancient Sumerian cities, Nippur (160 km from present-day Baghdad) in 1889, a cuneiform tablet containing 15 recipes was found. Its text is written in the Sumerian language at the end of the III millennium BC. e. Thus, it is the oldest surviving medical content and at the same time the oldest pharmacopoeia in the history of mankind.

The analysis of the text of this tablet showed that the healers of Sumer used in their practice medicinal products primarily of plant origin: mustard, fir, pine, thyme, fruits of plum tree, pear, fig, willow, plant lecanor ("manna"), etc. The composition of drugs included oil, natural asphalt resin, salt (i.e., minerals), as well as animal products: milk, internal organs of water snakes, tortoiseshell, wool, etc.

The Sumerian healer who composed the Nippur tablet, in his practice, proceeded from empirical experience - there is not a single word about gods or demons; it does not contain spells or plots that are found in the medical texts of ancient Mesopotamia of a later period. The plate had practical application in the preparation of medicines. Its text is extremely concise. For example:

Recipe 12. Sift and mix thoroughly the crushed tortoise shell, the shoots of the naga plant (soda is extracted from it), salt [and] mustard; wash [sore] strong beer [and] with hot water; rub [sore spot] with this [prepared composition], and then rub with vegetable oil [and] put over fir needles pounded into powder.

Unfortunately, the tablet does not contain instructions on what ailments these medicines should have been used. The knowledgeable physician probably knew this, especially since during that period of the history of Mesopotamia, a considerable amount of knowledge continued to be transmitted orally; only specific, accurate information was recorded, the increasing amount of which human memory could no longer hold.

One of the Mesopotamian plates retained an impression of the seal of the Sumerian healer Ur-lugal-edinne *, who lived in the city of Lagash in the XXIV century. BC e. It depicts healing tools and medicine vessels (Fig. 8).

Every free man had a seal in ancient Sumer. It was a small carved cylinder made of stone with a hole along the longitudinal axis through which the cord passed. It was worn around the neck and was always with her. When drafting important documents, the print rolled over a wet clay tablet and performed the functions of the signature that appeared later in ancient Sumer.

In Sumer, long hygienic traditions based on the collective experience of the people have been developed: not to drink water from unclean dishes, not to wash unwashed hands to gods, to limit oneself to a certain kind of food, etc. The most stringent requirements were placed on the priest: Sumer the priest had to appear thoroughly washed and clean-shaven from head to toe (one of the reasons for this custom was the prevention of lice, that is, pediculosis).

Thus, the texts that have come down to us testify that healing in that period (the end of the 3rd millennium BC., Sumer) did not develop in connection with magic and religion, which by that time had not been sufficiently formed, but grew out of practical experience. and daily human activities - the period of early slavery was primarily the time of accumulation of empirical knowledge in the field of healing.

The achievements of the Sumerians (their arithmetic and geometry, healing and agriculture, literature and art) formed the basis for the further development of knowledge among the peoples of Babylonia, Assyria and other states of the region.