The Beliefs About Ghosts in Ancient Mesopotamia
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The civilizations in ancient Mesopotamia are some of the oldest and most mysterious ever known.
Even though we dont know a lot about ancient Mesopotamia because of how old it is, people have discovered many things about its religion and the beliefs they had about ghosts.
For example, there have been many references connected to ghosts in the religions of the Mesopotamian states of Sumer, Babylon, Aseryria, and many others.
Some of these beliefs survived and became part of the Abrahamic religion that later dominated the same region. Isn't it just amazing to know that these beliefs continued on to form other religions and weren't forgotten?
Additionally, one of these Mesopotamian beliefs was that ghosts were created at a time of death, continuing on the memory and personality as when they were living, much like what we think about ghosts today.
They were said to travel to the netherworld where they were assigned positions and had a sort of existence.
Relatives of the dead were expected to make offerings of food and drinks to make the ghosts' conditions easier too.
If they didn't, the ghosts would cause misfortune and illness on people who were living.
It must have been hard to have made offering after offering, when you faced being cursed with illness or disease if you forgot.
There were also traditional healing practices for a variety of illnesses caused by the actions of ghosts when people did not give offerings to them.
Knowing that there were special treatments for what a ghost supposedly did to someone had to have scared people, since it could happen to them if they made a mistake.
The Mesopotamians strictly followed these beliefs, careful not to anger people who were no longer living.
These early beliefs created by them would continue on to shape some of the other beliefs of ancient cultures.
Even though we dont know a lot about ancient Mesopotamia because of how old it is, people have discovered many things about its religion and the beliefs they had about ghosts.
For example, there have been many references connected to ghosts in the religions of the Mesopotamian states of Sumer, Babylon, Aseryria, and many others.
Some of these beliefs survived and became part of the Abrahamic religion that later dominated the same region. Isn't it just amazing to know that these beliefs continued on to form other religions and weren't forgotten?
Additionally, one of these Mesopotamian beliefs was that ghosts were created at a time of death, continuing on the memory and personality as when they were living, much like what we think about ghosts today.
They were said to travel to the netherworld where they were assigned positions and had a sort of existence.
Relatives of the dead were expected to make offerings of food and drinks to make the ghosts' conditions easier too.
If they didn't, the ghosts would cause misfortune and illness on people who were living.
It must have been hard to have made offering after offering, when you faced being cursed with illness or disease if you forgot.
There were also traditional healing practices for a variety of illnesses caused by the actions of ghosts when people did not give offerings to them.
Knowing that there were special treatments for what a ghost supposedly did to someone had to have scared people, since it could happen to them if they made a mistake.
The Mesopotamians strictly followed these beliefs, careful not to anger people who were no longer living.
These early beliefs created by them would continue on to shape some of the other beliefs of ancient cultures.