She will give birth easily: therapeutic approaches to childbirth in 1st millennium BCE cuneiform sources

Abstract

1.-Conceptualizing women's healthcare in ancient Mesopotamia: an introduction; 2.-(Difficult) Childbirth in therapeutic cuneiform sources.2.1.-Terminology.2.2.-Difficult childbirth and therapy.3.-The text BAM 248; 3.1.Rituals in BAM 248.3.2.-Othertherapeutic approaches in BAM 248.3.2.1.-Thepotions in BAM 248.3.2.2.Ointments and salves.3.2.3.-Dieteticprescriptions.3.2.4.A peculiar band.4.-Childbirth, therapy, and agency: some conclusions.5.-Appendix 1: Diseases affecting women according to herbals BAM 381 and BAM 380.6.-Appendix 2: An overview on the tropes of birth.7.-Appendix 3: Therapies in BAM 248.ABSTRACT: This article offers, in the first place, an overview on women's healthcare in relation to childbirth in ancient Mesopotamia, as an introduction that helps to evaluate the meaning of the 7th century Assur text BAM 248 within therapeutic cuneiform texts on childbirth.We proceed to analyse the variety of therapeutic approaches to childbirth present in BAM 248, which brings together various healing devices to help a woman give birth quickly and safely.We analyse the text in its entirety as an example of intersection between different medical approaches to childbirth, given the number of differences in the complexity of remedies, in the materia medica employed, in the methods of preparation and application, even in the technical knowledge required and also, most probably, in the social origin and/or use of the remedies in question. PALABRAS CLAVE:

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