Sumerian Cuneiform tablet Medical Nippur Sculptural relief plaque www.Neo-Mfg.com 5.5" Museum reproduction

Sumerian Cuneiform tablet Medical Nippur Sculptural relief plaque www.Neo-Mfg.com 5.5" Museum reproduction Size 5.5" x 3.5" 'Medical Tablet', Iraq, Nippur, Babylonian. Clay, 15.4 x 9.3 cm. B14221. Babylonian Expedition to Nippur I-IV, 1888-1900. Image courtesy of the Penn Museum. Buried 4,000 years in the ruins of ancient Nippur on the plains of Iraq, this 2100 BC tablet is the oldest medical text known. Towards the end of the third millennium BC, an anonymous Sumerian healer recorded remedies for posterity, inscribing fifteen detailed prescriptions in archaic cuneiform. In 2005, University of Pennsylvania scholars succeeded in translating the greater part of the pharmacopoeia. They identified substances as varied as turtle shell, willow bark and cannabis, most of which were ground into wine or beer as the dissolving agent. It is also believed to be the first known documentation of aspirin, aloe vera and opium, demonstrating a sophistication and level of medical knowledge equivalent t