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Ancient Mesopotamia
Published in Scott M. Jackson, Skin Disease and the History of Dermatology, 2023
The Sumerians are credited with one of the first written language systems; it was called cuneiform. The first libraries were established during the Old Babylonian period, which peaked during the reign of King Hammurabi (1810–1750 BCE). A body of literature, including the Epic of Gilgamesh (ca. 1800 BCE), was also developed during this time. Astronomy, mathematics, and science were strong suits of the Mesopotamian peoples, and our sexagesimal number system for time and the seven-day week originated with the Sumerians and Babylonians. More detailed research into the history of this region would reveal that it was home to polytheistic, magic-based religions and to peoples capable of producing impressive demonstrations of music, art, and architecture.
Medicinal Plants: Perspectives And Retrospectives
Published in Amit Baran Sharangi, K. V. Peter, Medicinal Plants, 2023
D. V. Swami, M. Anitha, M. Chandra Surya Rao, A. B. Sharangi
The remarkable contribution of medicinal plants in the preparation of fine chemicals, cosmetics, pharmaceutical drugs, industrial raw materials, etc., to aid in diversified industries as commercially acclaimed. Experimental findings and accumulated wisdom over hundreds to thousands of years explored the beneficial characteristics of such plants. In about 2600 BC, the earliest reports were carved on cuneiform clay tablets in Mesopotamia. Identified materials from these tablets were oils of Commiphora species (Guggul), Cedrus species (Cedar), Glycyrrhiza glabra (Liquorice), Papaver somniferum (Poppy capsule), and Cupressus sempervirens (Cypress). These medicinal plant species are still being used today for the diverse range of cure of diseases, including cold and cough to inflammation and parasitic infections (Fakim, 2006). Southeast Asian countries like China, India, Japan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand are rich in TM practice. Out of the total medicinal consumption in China, about 40% is attributed to traditional tribal medicines, whereas, in Japan, the demands of herbal medicinal preparations exceed those of mainstream pharmaceutical products.
Assyria
Published in Michael J. O’Dowd, The History of Medications for Women, 2020
Archeologists over the centuries became aware of the importance of ancient Assyrian texts. The earliest writing was in the form of pictographs; symbols were impressed on mud tablets which retained the image when hardened in ovens, or in the heat of the sun. As time went by the pictographs were simplified and replaced by signs or symbols arranged in vertical, horizontal and oblique wedge-shaped lines inscribed with a wooden or bone pen which had a wedge shaped tip. The writing became known as ‘cuneiform’, from the Latin cuneus, a wedge. All attempts to decipher the Sumerian texts were, however, frustrated until 1765 when Carsten Niebuhr, a mathematician on a Danish expedition, identified three different types of writing inscribed together on the Assyrian clay tablets — old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian (Assyrian or Babylonian).
Histopathology of laryngomalacia
Published in Acta Oto-Laryngologica, 2021
Richard Wei Chern Gan, Ali Moustafa, Kerry Turner, Lindsey Knight
There was no comment on the presence of cartilage in the series by Iyer et al. [7]. Chandra et al. [8] found two out of nine patients in their study having resected specimens containing fibrocartilage. These were deemed to be the cuneiform cartilages. In their opinion, the malacic collapsing component of the larynx is usually the posterior supraglottic larynx, including the cuneiform cartilages and thus cuneiform cartilages are excised as part of the aryepiglottoplasty when necessary [8]. The majority of the specimens, 47 (77%) cases in our study contained cartilage, having said that, the operating surgeon judges the amount of prolapsing tissue to resect and does not set out to necessarily resect cartilage, removing the mucosa in the region of airway prolapse with contained cartilage if required. Cartilage immaturity has been implicated as a cause of laryngomalacia [8]. Out of the 47 cases with specimens containing cartilage, over half (59.6%) had immature cartilage. This gives some weight behind the theory of a chondropathic component in laryngomalacia.
Osteochondrosis of the tarsal navicular and medial cuneiform in a child
Published in Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, 2018
Osteochondrosis of the cuneiforms is rare. Of the three cuneiforms, the medial cuneiform is most commonly affected, and in a review of 18 reported cases, it was bilateral in 11 of the patients.1,3 As with Kohler’s disease, the average age of affected patients is approximately 5 years old with symptoms of dorsal foot pain and antalgic gait. Physical examination will demonstrate nonspecific tenderness over the affected bone, typically necessitating radiographs of the foot.
Infertility and surrogacy first mentioned on a 4000-year-old Assyrian clay tablet of marriage contract in Turkey
Published in Gynecological Endocrinology, 2018
Ahmet Berkiz Turp, Ismail Guler, Nuray Bozkurt, Aysel Uysal, Bulent Yilmaz, Mustafa Demir, Onur Karabacak
Cuneiform written expression is distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made using a blunt reed for a stylus. The name cuneiform itself only means ‘wedge-shaped’ presence of a vast number of clay tablets with cuneiform writing in the middle of Anatolia was something of a mystery when the first texts came on the antiquities market in the late nineteenth century [6].