CAS Sofia will host a lecture by Prof. Markham J. Geller on the topic of “Ancient Babylonian Medicine versus Magic: the Covid Dilemma” on 19 December 2025, at 15:00.

Covid-19 was a catastrophe for the entire world, but it was a great boon for historians of ancient medicine. For the first time in modern memory, medical historians could experience what it was like to be an ancient physician facing the dilemma of an epidemic or plague, not knowing about the cause or the nature of the disease vector, while having no effective drugs. Only after vaccines became available was the pandemic under control, but until then modern medicine had to rely upon ancient remedies: hand-washing, quarantine, and prayer. The lessons learned are relevant to both ancient and modern medicine.

MARKHAM J. GELLER holds a degree in Classics from Princeton and a PhD in Mediterranean Studies from Brandeis, where he wrote his dissertation on Aramaic magic bowls in relation to Rabbinic texts. A leading and big-hearted scholar, he is highly accomplished in the Semitic languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Ugaritic, Syriac, and Arabic). He is also a gifted epigraphist with a particular passion for cuneiform, especially Sumerian–Akkadian medical and magical texts.

Jewish Chronicle Professor in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London since 1976, he served as Head of Department (1984–93) and has directed the Institute of Jewish Studies since 1982.

The author of over 200 publications, Mark has received numerous grants and awards, as well as honorary doctorates from New Bulgarian University and Sofia University. In 2016 he completed his magnum opus on bilingual Sumerian–Akkadian incantations against “evil demons,” while serving as Principal Investigator on an ERC Advanced Grant on Babylonian medicine at the Freie Universität Berlin (2013–18), which reshaped cuneiform medicine. This work was complemented by a Wellcome Trust grant, led by him and colleagues at the British Museum (2020–23). In 2024 he published his edition of the third part of the Syriac Book of Medicines, where he harvested hundreds of Akkadian loanwords and calques, a discovery that further illuminates the final phases of the Akkadian language.

If you wish to join the seminar online, please use the following Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87982634305?pwd=JD7Lepn8aauj9Uyjlw79dKC4mnh78B.1

(image caption: BM.45393+, British Museum. Tablet of the scholar Tanittu-bel with a large collection of incantations for fumigation purposes against demons and diseases, written in Babylon during the 13th Year of Alexander the Great (ca. 324-323 BC), shortly before the death of Alexander in Babylon. Photo. S.V. Panayotov))