Abstract:

Research concerning disability or the history of disability is only recently emerging. It can be stated that disability studies in Assyriology are not yet at the desired level. As far as it is known, one of the most ancient texts, perhaps the first that included vital information about the history of disability in the Ancient Mesopotamia, is a Sumerian creation myth, dubbed Enki and Ninmaḫ. This myth is important for the history of disability since, not only did it refer to certain disability types and illnesses but it also emphasized the social integration of the ill and disabled individuals. Providing proofs that disability was related to societal and cultural contexts, the text refuted the understanding, which prevailed for centuries and one that prevails in part even today, that disability concerned only medicine. In ancient Mesopotamian societies, disabled individuals were neither exterminated due to their disabilities and nor were they comprehensively discriminated against in society, political life and various mechanisms of production. On the contrary, they participated in different levels of the state’s administrative system. Moreover, they did not always perceive congenital disabilities as divine punishment and did not associate it with a catastrophe. Disabilities were perceived as good or bad divine signs about daily life practices of human and thus as an indicator of welfare, abundance, prize, challenge, productivity, and solidarity. Including information about the societal fabric of the disability, Enki and Ninmaḫ has a content that can contribute to the history of disability.

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