Troels Pank Arbøll

Ancient historian (Assyriologist)

Humanity’s earliest written history has always fascinated me, and the wealth of ancient primary sources available in particular from ancient Iraq can be used to study almost every aspect of human civilization. I received my Ph.D. in 2017 from the University of Copenhagen, where I am now Assistant Professor in Assyriology after having been a Junior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford from 2020-2022. I am currently engaged in research on Mesopotamian medicine, magic, epidemics, and the transmission of knowledge in the ancient world. By combining traditional philology with interdisciplinary approaches, such as the study of ancient DNA, my research aims to increase the temporal depth of humanity’s medical history while broadening our understanding of early therapeutic practices and knowledge production.