Ancient Mesopotamian Sanctuaries: Key to Ear and Spleen Health

In a study published in the journal Iraq, Dr. Troels Arbøll analyzed medical prescriptions from ancient Mesopotamia to understand and re-evaluate the role sanctuaries played in the healing process. The study found that specific ailments, particularly those linked to the ear and spleen/pancreas (ṭulīmu), were associated with prescriptions instructing the patients to seek out sanctuaries of deities to receive good fortune. The ancient medical texts Cuneiform tablets related to the second and first millennia BC rarely mention temples or sanctuaries. Similarly, the link that primary healers associated with treatment, such as the asû and āšipu/mašmaššu, had with these temples is unclear. Of the medical scripts available for study, only 12 prescriptions from six manuscripts mention seeking a sanctuary of a deity. The sanctuaries referred to in the text instructed patients to seek out sanctuaries of various gods, including Sîn, Ninurta, Šamaš, Ištar, and Marduk. These sanctuaries included personal shrines likely located in the homes of the patients. Once there, "Presumably, the patient would recite one or more prayers and various ritual actions, such as present offerings," says Dr. Arbøll. "In the healing goddess Gula's temple in the Babylonian city Isin, remains of votive figurines suggest that patients could have visited the temple with these, and the objects somehow related to their affliction. Such patients may have left votive figurines at the temple as acts of supplication." Why visit a sanctuary? One of the reasons it is believed that patients were instructed to seek out a sanctuary was the necessity to acquire good fortune before treatment, and the type of ailment they had. Seeking divine favor was thought to help the patient receive good omens. It is possible this good fortune had to be sought on the 6th day, or it lasted for six days. Though it is unclear which the medical text is specifically referring to. Dr. Arbøll explains, "It is technically both possible to read the line in Text no. 1 as 'the 6th day' or 'six days,' and it is therefore not yet entirely clear whether the good fortune was to be experienced on a particular day or for a number of days. "I would be inclined to think it was intended to last a number of days, particularly because several of the prescriptions under investigation in the article state that the healing actions were to be repeated for several days. Accordingly, it would make sense that the good fortune lasted a number of days while the cure worked. "How this day or period of days was determined is not clear from the texts themselves. It is most plausible that the day—or range of days—mentioned, was counted from the visit to the sanctuary. Alternatively, it might be from the point which symptoms first appeared or a diagnosis was established by a healer. "The problem with this interpretation is that it would then depend on whether a patient could delineate when his or her symptoms appeared, or if it was from the moment a healer with diagnostic capabilities was consulted. The purely diagnostic texts do mention sicknesses that last for several days, which is, of course, expected." Of the six manuscripts, five are related to afflictions of the ear, while one pertains to afflictions of the spleen/pancreas (ṭulīmu). Exactly why these specific ailments required the patients to seek out a sanctuary when no other did is also a mystery, but it may have to do with the ear's role in receiving wisdom and divine messages, and the possibility that ear ailments could devolve into worse afflictions. "This is perhaps the most vexing question relating to the article, as one would expect other afflictions to be soothed or more easily cured through similar actions," says Dr. Arbøll. "The ear was the organ for receiving wisdom; it was connected to attention and obedience. Also, ear infections were unpredictable and could escalate into symptoms—such as vertigo— forcing the patient to be bedridden, which signaled a worse state. Furthermore, they could develop into severe afflictions, such as meningitis." Further research is needed to understand the specifics of the role of the sanctuary, the healers, and the types of afflictions. Dr. Arbøll hopes to look at whether communal prayer may have been used to remove community epidemics in future research. "I am currently conducting a larger research project on ancient Mesopotamian epidemics titled 'From Catastrophe to Culture: Understanding Epidemics in Ancient Mesopotamia.' As part of this project, we will also look at whether communal prayer was used to remove epidemic afflictions from a community." © 2026 Science X Network