Although healing practices in ancient Mesopotamia (roughly centered on modern-day Iraq) involved the use of magic, chants, and divination, physicians had an extensive knowledge of diagnosis, a wide list of drug treatments, and carried out basic surgery.¹ They were also bound by a well-established, formal code of conduct. From some 5,300 years ago, the cuneiform writing of Sumerian and the following Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian cultures provide exciting snapshots of physicians and their craft. ¹ Mesopotamian physicians used around 250 medicinal plants, 120 minerals, and about 2