THE FIRST GHOSTS A History of Ancient Spirits with Dr Irving Finkel Saturday 8th October 2022 at 1:30 pm
There are few things more in common across cultures than the belief in ghosts. Ghosts inhabit something of the very essence of what it is to be human. Whether we personally ‘believe’ or not, we are all aware of ghosts and the rich mythologies and rituals surrounding them. They have inspired, fascinated and frightened us for centuries – yet most of us are only familiar with the vengeful apparitions of Shakespeare, or the ghastly spectres haunting the pages of 19th century gothic literature. But their origins are much, much older… Dr Irving Finkel Irving Leonard Finkel is a British philologist and Assyriologist. He is currently the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum, where he specialises in cuneiform inscriptions on tablets of clay from ancient Mesopotamia. Image credit - A Babylonian tablet dating back to 1500 B.C.E. inscribed with instructions on how to perform an exorcism, Photo © British Museum, line drawing © James Fraser and Chris Cobb for The First Ghosts |
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