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[German version] I. Mesopotamia Magic formulae - such as spells, apotropaea, and prophylacterics - and rational elements, i.e. empirically derived treatment methods with plant, mineral, or animal substances, characterize the image of medicine in a Mesopotamia. The treatment of diseases - seen as either caused by demons, or as a punishment sent by…

I. Ancient Orient [German version] A. I. Sources The main source for Mesopotamian dentistry consists in two chapters from the medical manual ‘When the top of a person's head is feverishly hot’ (1st millennium BC; cf.  Medicine I) and there are also isolated texts of prescriptions. The oldest textual ev…

[German version] I. Definition a) A riddle is an encrypted formulation, related to the figurative speech of metaphor and posing a question; its answer (= solution) requires - indeed, provokes - the memory and imagination of the person addre…

I. Mesopotamia [German version] A. Concept According to lexical texts (1st half of the 2nd millennium BC), the Sumerian term for proverbs was i-bi-lu. The Akkadian …

I. The Ancient Orient [German version] A. Sources Indirect: The Akkadian collection of Ḫammurapi’s laws (18th cent. BC) mentions the…

[German version] I. Term Ritual refers to an elaborate sequence of individual rites which, following an established ritual syntax, are logically connected within a certain functional context. Rituals are not limited to religious contexts but exist in other cultural contexts, political as well as social. The significance of rituals for those who participate in them can be reduced neither to an integrative function (legitimation ritual) nor to a temporary disabling of the regular structure - the two e…

I. Ancient Near East [German version] A. Definition When applying the term wisdom literature (WL) to ancient Mesopotamian literature we need to distinguish between the idea of wisdom (Akkadian …

[German version] I. Ancient Orient No evidence exists of there being a term for the fable itself either in the Sumerian or the Akkadian fable. The fable is a short, fictitious story with an inherent moral, the characters of which are personified animals. Reduced to the moral, several fables have attained the status of a proverb. The fable has its origin in oral literature; it represents a simple form of the allegory. Rank disputes/tenzons (main protagonists: personifie…

I. Mesopotamia [German version] A. Concept and sources The is no accurate or systematic, zoological or botanical classification of the animal and plant kingdoms from the Ancient Orient. The main source is one of the most voluminous Mesopotamian lexical texts with 24 chapters, known from its initial line as ḪAR-ra =  …