The Earliest Evidence of Ghosts
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
History Hit
4.7 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2024
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The earliest evidence of human belief in ghosts comes from 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Who were these first ghosts? What was the underworld they lived in like? What do these most ancient ghosts tell us about today?
Maddy and Anthony's guest today, Irving Finkel, Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum and author of 'The First Ghosts: Most Ancient of Legacies'
Edited by Tom Delargy. Produced by Charlotte Long and Freddy Chick.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is sponsored by Warner Brothers and Salem's Lot, the spine-tingling new horror film from the legendary Stephen King. |
| 0:09.1 | It is so exciting, it is that time of year. It is spooky season. |
| 0:13.0 | Oh, it's just the best time of year. |
| 0:15.0 | No surprise that we love this time of year, of course. |
| 0:19.0 | There is no better fit for this season than a good horror film. |
| 0:22.0 | Salem's lot is one of Stephen King's |
| 0:25.1 | favorite stories, I'm sure you've heard of it, and it's adapted from the 1975 best-selling |
| 0:30.0 | novel. Salim's Lot follows an author who returns to his hometown in Maine, but things are not as they should be. The place is being preyed upon by a bloodthirsty vampire. |
| 0:42.1 | Of course it is. |
| 0:43.0 | Why wouldn't it be the place is called Salem? |
| 0:45.0 | Salem's lot is the latest adaptation of Stephen King's bestseller. |
| 0:49.0 | From the creators of the record-breaking horror franchise, The Conjuring Universe. |
| 0:53.0 | So take yourself, your mom, your romantic date, or just a pillow to hide behind to see this |
| 0:59.6 | after dark endorsed vampire movie. |
| 1:02.3 | Salem's lot in cinemas October 11th. To the underworld, land of no return. |
| 1:15.0 | Istar, daughter of sin, set her mind, |
| 1:18.0 | To the house of darkness, the seat of Irkala, |
| 1:21.0 | to the house from where no one who enters can leave, to the journey from which |
| 1:25.7 | there is no going back. To the house whose dwellers are deprived of light where dust is their |
| 1:31.0 | sustenance, clay their food, they see no light, dwelling in darkness. |
| 1:35.9 | They are clad like birds with wings as garments, on door and bolt dust gathers. Now this is an extract from the descent of Ishtar and is written |
| 1:48.6 | originally in a cardian, a language spoken in ancient Mesopotamia from the third millennium |
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