Author Description

This volume is addressed to historians of science, Egyptologists and Assyriologists dealing with the history of early science. It presents the proceedings of two workshops held at the Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main, focusing on traditions of systematic knowledge in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Assuming that written knowledge was preserved and transmitted intentionally in both cultures, paradigms of knowledge can be reflected by the texts. Although the available source material is subject to their find spots and the vagaries of preservation, by asking specific questions the sources can provide insights into the work of the ancient scholars. The text corpora presented in this volume come from the fields of medicine, magic and ritual, astronomy, mathematics and law. The authors use the sources to provide overviews of the discussed knowledge areas and to discuss certain aspects of the traditions in more detail.