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JoAnn Scurlock. Magico-Medical Means of Treating Ghost-Induced Illnesses in Ancient Mesopotamia. Ancient Magic and Divination, no. 3. Leiden: Brill/Styx, 2006. xi + 788 pp. $269.00, £199.00 (90-04-12397-0).
JoAnn Scurlock draws on all known Babylonian and Assyrian medical texts, most of which were found in the library of King Ashurbanipal in Nineveh (ca. 650 BC), and singles out 352 passages on the negative effects of ghosts on human wellbeing as well as the relevant treatments. In part 1 of the book she evaluates the contents of the texts. Ghosts made themselves obnoxious in three distinct ways: by emitting screams, by haunting people in visible form, and by causing physical problems (p. 5). The physical problems were many; they affected the whole body, and included neurological disorders (pp. 10-18). It is interesting that they did not cause women's troubles, jaundice, urinary tract and anal problems, constipation, cough, toothache, skin diseases, stroke, or more than a few...