Gynaecology in the Medical Texts of Ancient Mesopotamia from the 1st Millennium BC (360G-Wellcome-094297_Z_10_Z)

The primary goal of the proposed research will comprise an up-to-date edition of the corpus of the gynaecological cuneiform texts from 1st millennium BC Mesopotamia, consisting of transliterations, translations and a philological commentary. The text edition will form the basis for a comparative and context analysis of the corpus: the specific features and contents of the gynaecological corpus will be investigated, but also internal and external references and information for the socio-cultural contexts in which the gynaecological texts were written down and used, and the factors that have contributed to their form and features, will be analysed. Here, the position of gynaecological texts within the 'stream of tradition' of Mesopotamian medicine, the cultural belief system and social practice, will be investigated, concentrating on a) the specialists, healers and practitioners involved in treating women who contributed to the formation and transmission of the gynaecological texts, b) the concepts of the female body, the functional processes of the female sexual organs, and the specific gynaecological complaints and problems found in these texts, c) the ways of treating and healing women described in these texts.