The Museum Curator Discovers a 3,500-Year-Old Ghost Drawing on Ancient Stone Tablet with Exorcism Instructions.
A few days ago, a museum curator uncovered the oldest ghost drawing to date on a 3,500-year-old stone tablet from Babylon, which also included instructions on how to perform an exorcism.
The drawing depicts a fierce-looking male ghost with a scruffy beard being pulled down to the underworld by a woman using a rope, accompanied by a note stating that the way to eliminate this unpleasant ghost is to provide him with a lover.
The oldest ghost drawing found in Babylon.
Irving Finkel, a senior curator in the Middle East department of the British Museum in London, discovered the stone tablet while examining artifacts related to ghosts and translated the text inscribed on it.
In the 19th century, the museum acquired this stone tablet along with thousands of other stones from Babylon, an ancient city located about 100 km south of modern-day Baghdad, to help archaeologists gain a better understanding of the living conditions of ancient residents in Babylon and Mesopotamia.
The small tablet fits in the palm of a hand, and the cuneiform writing on it is an ancient writing system from the Middle East that describes human rituals involving ghosts. Upon closer inspection, Finkel found an intricate image that is nearly invisible to the naked eye and recognized both the ghost and the woman in the drawing, which serves as a tool for various exorcism rituals performed by the exorcist.
According to research, the exorcism rituals in ancient Babylon were quite unique; the exorcist would create a stone drawing of a man and a woman and provide them with daily necessities. These stone tablets would then be buried at sunrise.
Simultaneously, the exorcist would chant incantations, but the spell inscribed on this tablet is incomplete, starting with the summoning of Shamash, the sun god of ancient Babylon. This deity is responsible for guiding human souls to the underworld in mythology.
Finkel stated: “This is not a symbolic ritual; the exorcist transforms the ghost into an image on a stone tablet so that the deceased may pass on with the blessing of the sun god Shamash.” The final line of the exorcism ritual warns: “Do not look back!” as a caution for ghosts entering another realm.”
