Monday, December 15, 2025

Women’s Healthcare in Ancient Mesopotamia in the First Millennium BCE: An Edition of the Textual Sources

 Edited by:  Ulrike Steinert
book: Band 12 Women’s Healthcare in Ancient Mesopotamia in the First Millennium BCE 
  • Funded by: European Research Council (ERC)
Languages: English, Multiple languages
Published/Copyright: 2026

Treatments for women from ancient Mesopotamia form the most extensive medical corpus on female health from antiquity beside the Hippocratic gynaecological works. This volume presents a comprehensive edition of cuneiform texts from the first millennium BCE concerned with women's health issues.

The book, which includes numerous hitherto unpublished tablets, contains diagnostic and therapeutic texts, ranging from medical prescriptions to incantations, rituals and fertility tests. Selected texts from the second millennium BCE as well as scholarly commentaries on diagnostic or therapeutic texts from the first millennium BCE are also included in the volume. While the main thematic focus of Mesopotamian women’s healthcare lies on female fertility, pregnancy and birth, the corpus covers an impressive range of health problems spanning from haemorrhage to cosmetic treatments. Complemented by philological commentaries and an introduction that provides an overview of the textual history and a discussion of medical concepts and practices, this textbook forms an up-to-date survey for both specialists and non-specialist readers interested in ancient Mesopotamian healing traditions.

eBook ISBN: 9781501506475
Hardcover ISBN: 9781501515255
Audience(s) for this book
All those interested in Assyriology, ANE Studies, Ancient History, History of Medicine, Gender Studies, Medical Anthropology
Creative Commons
BY-NC-ND 4.0
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