3,500-Year-Old Babylonian Tablet May Contain Earliest Known Depiction of a Ghost
A tablet made in ancient Babylon around 1500 B.C.E. may be the earliest known depiction of a ghost, a top scholar of ancient Middle Eastern inscriptions argues in a new book.
The clay tablet is part of a guide to exorcising ghosts held in the collections of the British Museum ... the image on the tablet is only visible when viewed from above under a light. The tablet is small enough to fit in a person’s hand ... at least half of it is missing. But the object still holds carefully detailed instructions on getting rid of pesky ghosts. The directions call for the exorcist to make figurines of a man and woman; prepare two vessels of beer; and, at sunrise, speak ritual words calling on the Mesopotamian god Shamash, who was responsible for bringing ghosts to the underworld. Finkel says the idea was to transfer the ghost into one of the figurines. The text’s final line urges readers to “not look behind you!”
All major ancient civilizations held beliefs involving the survival of souls after bodily death, wrote Joshua J. Mark for World History Encyclopedia in 2014. In many cases, these souls belonged to a realm of the dead but might return to the living world due to improper funeral rites or unfinished business. Ghost stories with similar themes can be found in ancient China, Mesoamerica, Egypt, India, Greece, Ireland, Scotland and Rome.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/3500-year-old-babylonian-tablet-may-hold-earliest-known-ghost-image-180978923/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Maybe the author is the original Stephen King!
