'Speaking To Ancient Ghosts' With Irving Finkel

Description

Irving Finkel is our podcast guest on After Dark this week, talking about speaking to ghosts in ancient Mesopotamia through necromancy rituals. In Ancient Mesopotamia, the boundary between the living and the dead was not always fixed... some even believed it could be crossed. But why would the living seek counsel from the dead? How common were these practices? And what answers did people hope the spirits might reveal? In this episode, Anthony is joined by the brilliant Dr. Irving Finkel! Irving is a returning guest and Curator in the Department of Middle East at the British Museum. Be sure to check out our other episode with Irving, Earliest Evidence of Ghosts... For tickets to see Anthony and Maddy talking about her new book, Hoax, click here: https://www.conwayhall.org.uk/whats-on/event/hoax/ 0:00 Calling the Dead: Ancient Mesopotamian Rituals 1:12 Dr Irving Finkel on the History of Necromancy 5:36 Defining Necromancy: The Science of Summoning 8:45 King Ashurbanipal and the Ghost of His Grandmother 12:41 The Spectrum of Past, Present, and Future 14:57 Different Types of Ancient Necromancers 16:55 The Step-by-Step Manual: Using a Human Skull 21:51 Mesopotamian Magic in the Old Testament 27:21 The Truth About the Witch of Endor 33:50 Ancient Proximity to Death vs. Modern Views 38:00 The Grimoire: How to Banish a Spirit This episode was edited by Hannah Feodorov. Produced by Tomos Delargy and McKenna Fernandez. Edited by Anna Brant. The senior producer was Freddy Chick. After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. All music from Epidemic Sounds. #HistoryHitPodcast #AfterDark #Podcast