Halloween with added Mesopotamia.

I hope you enjoyed the episode, it was a chance to cover a slightly different area from Greece and Rome and there’s so much to learn about in Mesopotamia. I referred to a few scholars in the episode and you can find their work in the reading list/bibliography.

To start with thanks to ‘By the Fire’ podcast. You can find the podcast  www.bythefirepodcast.com

it’s a great podcast so have a listen.

I refer to my other Halloween (or #NightofTheLivyDead) episodes. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts from. They cover a range of spooky topics from ancient history.

Mesopotamia.

As mentioned it was a large place.

Demons.

Here’s the film star Pazuzu.

This amulet features the head of Pazuzu, it dates to 800-600 BCE (British Museum).

Here’s the head of Pazuzu as an amulet, it dates to 800-600 BCE (British museum). It may have been worn by a person or perhaps hung near and infant. Below is Dumuzi being tortured by Galla demons (cylinder seal dating to circa 2,600 BCE).

Reading List.

Mesopotamia, Gwendolyn Leckie.

Ancient Mesopotamia, A. Leo. Oppenheim

Witchcraft in Magic in Ancient Mesopotamia, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. Marie-Louise Thomsen. Ed Bengt Ankarloo & Stuart Clark.

Myths from Mesopotamia, trans Stephanie Dalley

Witches and Demons in Ancient Mesopotamia, Tsvi Abusch

Entrusting the witches to Humut-Tabal: The Usburruda Ritual. Daniel Schwemer, Iraq Vol.LXXII.2010

Witchcraft, Impotence and Indigestion, Disease in Babylonia,Tzvi Abusch.

Witchcraft Literature in Mesopotamia, Tzvi Abusch

The Witch’s messages, Tzvi Abusch

Maqlu Tablet II: It’s literary frame and formation. Tzvi Abusch

Magic rituals: Conceptualization and Performance, The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture, Daniel Schwemer.

Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World ed. Paul Mirecki and Marvin Meyer

Demons and eorcism in ancient Mesopotamia, Gina Konstantopoulos

An Illustrated dictionary. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. Jeremy Black and Anthony Green.

Ancient Mesopotamian House Gods, Joann Scurlock.

They are Seven: Demons and Monsters in the Mesopotamian Textual and Artistic Tradition. Gina V Konstantopoulos

The ordeal in the Neo-Assyrian Legal procedure. Betina Faist.