Doctors: Past, Present, Future - Winning Essay of My Artifact/ My Future High School Contest

My Artifact / My Future High School Student Writing Contest 2013-2014 Winner: 
 
Merrick Fahrenwald
10th Grade, The University of Chicago Laboratory School

Essay Title: Doctors: Past, Present, Future
 

Medical Tablet. Iraq. ca. 750-500 BC.
OIM A3441.

            The manner in which we currently diagnose and treat diseases would have been inconceivable to doctors in ancient times.  Nevertheless, there are medical insights we have today that would not exist without the ideas developed by ancient physicians and healers. By looking at Mesopotamian doctors in their cultural context, I realized that many ancient medical practices that seem primitive today are more advanced than I realized, some being surprisingly similar to those today. This suggests that hundreds of years from now, people will look back at our medical procedures and view them as primitive, unless they too take a closer look at our cultural context. It is fascinating how times can change so much that something that seems natural during one era can seem incredibly odd or primitive years later. In the course of my research, I have learned that some of the medical knowledge we have today would not be possible without the foundation laid by the physicians of the ancient Near East.

Women & Girls in the Ancient World/ PART 3: The Diyala Statues

The Diyala statues
The Edgar and Deborah Jannotta Mesopotamian Gallery, the Oriental Institute Museum 

How did the ancient Mesopotamians worship their gods? What do excavated artifacts tell us about religion in ancient Mesopotamia? What roles did women play in Mesopotamian religious life?
Dr. Kate Grossman, one of the presenters in the Women & Girls in the Ancient World: Their History, Our History May event, is taking us to ancient Mesopotamia. In this post, we will look at the Diyala statues, which are displayed in the Edgar and Deborah Jannotta Mesopotamian Gallery at the Oriental Institute Museum. Dr. Grossman shares her insights into the relationships between these artifacts and ancient religious life (especially that of women) in Mesopotamia.

Male and Female Statues. Gypsum. Early Dynastic period (ca. 2750-2500 B.C.). Iraq, Diyala Region.
Excavated by the Oriental Institute.

On Teaching Scribes in Mesopotamia

Professor of Hittite and Anatolian Languages Theo van den Hout at the University of Chicago tells us about who scribes in Mesopotamia and Anatolia were.

This video was made for the Oriental Institute Museum special exhibit "Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East" (September 28, 2010 through March 6, 2011). Visit our website for more videos and download the exhibit catalog.