The Cuneiform Texts from the Danish Excavations of Ḥamā in Syria (1931-1938)

In The Cuneiform Texts from the Danish Excavations of Ḥamā in Syria (1931-1938) Troels P. Arbøll offers the first complete publication and examination of 20 unique clay tablets and objects inscribed with cuneiform writing from the Syrian city Ḥamā, known in the Bible and ancient times as Hamath. Among the most significant finds are the remains of political correspondences and manuscripts with medical prescriptions, magical recitations, and birth omens from the 9th century BCE. The latter group can be classified as ancient scientific texts, and they are interpreted as the remains of a scholarly library. Overall, the texts represent a substantial contribution to the very limited corpus of manuscripts from the Levant dated to the early first millennium BCE. Furthermore, the surprising discovery of ancient scientific cuneiform tablets from this period necessitates a reevaluation of prevailing understandings of the transmission of cuneiform knowledge in the western periphery of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
Forfatterbeskrivelse: Troels Pank Arbøll, Ph.D. (2017) from the University of Copenhagen, is Assistant Professor in Assyriology at that university. His first monograph, Medicine in Ancient Assur (2021), was an innovative microhistorical study of the training and career of a healer from the 7th century BCE in the city Assur (located in northern Iraq), and he has published articles on ancient conceptions of illness, the reality behind medical ingredients, zoonosis, as well as the iconography of demons and animals. He is currently engaged in research on Mesopotamian medicine, magic, epidemics, the transmission of knowledge in the ancient world, and the study of ancient DNA. By combining traditional and interdisciplinary approaches, his research aims to increase the temporal depth of humanity’s scientific history while broadening our understanding of early therapeutic practices, disease conceptualization, and knowledge production.