he was in fact the main, if not sole, practitioner of medicine. However, the rise of
the a ̄sˇipu ̄ tu in the late periods favored a division of medicine into two branches. The
asûtu became confined to the more practical aspects of medicine, as the physician’s
practice was based essentially on empirical knowledge. The a ̄sˇipu ̄tu, on the other hand,
considered both the spiritual and physical components of the disease, the exorcist
being as much a doctor of the soul as one of the body, and it included a significant
part of speculative knowledge, chiefly divination and magic. Yet there is evidence
that the two disciplines frequently overlapped, especially as the exorcist often integrated
the asûtu into his own practice. In other terms, the a ̄sˇipu ̄turepresented a form of
medicine that was primarily oriented towards a theological goal, while the asûtu was
an empirical pursuit, potentially independent from religious considerations. Astronomy
presents another case of duality. There is no doubt that the tasks carried out by the
astronomers in late Babylonia can be defined as exact science, with regular compiling
and sifting of data and the demonstrable existence of revisionary processes in the
elaboration and application of theories. There is also compelling evidence that these
tasks were performed mainly by the t.upsˇar Enu ̄ ma Anu Enlil. In the past three decades,
scholars have stressed the integrated nature of late Babylonian knowledge and science
and the undeniable fact that most, if not all astronomers were also practitioners of
the crafts of the exorcist and lamentation singer. The discipline of t.upsˇar Enu ̄ ma Anu
Enlil constituted only a further specialization of their art. Far from being secularized
scientists in rebellion against the irrational doctrines propagated by Babylonian clerics,
they probably saw no contradiction between their scientific pursuits and the religious
and theological foundations of their scholarship. It seems fair to assume that their
scientific activities were conducted independently of all other considerations.
Thus far this survey has focused on men, but what about the role of women?
Goddesses played a significant role as providers of knowledge. Physicians and exorcists
praised Gula as azugallatu “great healer” and patron of the medical arts of the asûtu.
Earlier, the goddess Nisaba was worshiped as mentor of the scribes, before Nabû
gradually replaced her in that role during the second millennium. In spite of this,
late Babylonian intellectual life appears to have been essentially a world of men.
Indeed, one can hardly find a single mention of a woman as cuneiform scribe in that
period, although there were inevitably exceptions. The letter SAA 16 , 28 shows that,
in the seventh century for instance, princesses at the Assyrian court were expected
to reach a certain level of scribal proficiency. This was surely not limited to Assyria,
and comparable training was probably bestowed upon Babylonian princesses of the
sixth century. Nabonidus’ daughter, who was elevated to the status of high priestess
of the moon-god at Ur under the name En-nigaldi-Nanna, may well have been literate
like her father. Babylonian women of patrician background were sometimes encouraged
to embrace intellectual disciplines. This is suggested by the late document CT 49 ,
140 , which records the admission of a woman and her daughter to the profession of
exorcist by the assembly of that profession (Boiy 2004 : 271 ). Yet it should be stressed
again that these were exceptional cases in a world where men monopolized learning
and official positions. The only areas where women must have played a significant
and sometimes even central role are traditional medicine and midwifery, but knowledge
of these disciplines was largely transmitted orally and is therefore lost to us.
Another important aspect of late Babylonian intellectual life is the corporate
insistence on secrecy, manifested mainly in colophons discouraging the user from
— Paul-Alain Beaulieu —