Did you know that the demonic entity in The #Exorcist is based on a Mesopotamian #god?

In 1973, Regan MacNeil is possessed by 'Captain Howdy', a demon born of a statue.

Captain Howdy was exorcised through sacrifice.

This #demon is the god of the westerly wind in #Mesopotamia. Pazuzu brings the plague on the ill winds - but he also protects pregnant women & infants from other demons.

To invoke his protection, his likeness should be placed on a wall or worn as an amulet.

#mythology #movies

Iraq (Babylonia). Nineveh, Tomb of Jonah between 1950 and 1977.
Matson Photo Service
1 slide : color ; 2 x 2 in.

#Babylonia #TombofJonahbetween #MatsonPhotoService #Islamic #Mesopotamia #photography

https://www.loc.gov/item/2019705699/

𒀭

Reading: diĝir
Meaning: god

#cuneiform #sumerology #civilisation #Mesopotamia #learning

How did ancient cities shape their identities? Kepa Martinez Garcia, Fellow of our KIŠIB project, explores Early Dynastic Mesopotamia through its cylinder seals, revealing networks of cooperation and cultural exchange between city-states like Ur, Lagash, and Šuruppak.

📅 10 December 2025 | 4:15 PM
📍 @freieuniversitaet, Holzlaube, Room 0.2052

#Mesopotamia #CylinderSeals #Glyptic #Archaeology #KISHIB #FUBerlin

Considerado uno de los mejores inventos de la humanidad, la escritura fue creada (que se sepa) hace más de cinco mil años (entre el 3500 y el 3100 aC) en la antigua Mesopotamia. A diferencia de la escritura egipcia que servía a propósitos sagrados, la mesopotámica se orientaba sobre todo a conservar registros y cuentas, aunque, por supuesto, después tuvo otros usos. Debido a su complejidad (se escribía con cañas en forma de cuñas de distintas terminaciones -de ahí el nombre de “escritura cuneiforme”-), había pocos escribas entre sus gentes que dominaran los alrededor de seiscientos signos que componían el sistema original de sílabas, letras y medias palabras. Los comerciantes, por ejemplo, manejaban un centenar de símbolos para poder desempeñar su negocio. La escritura se practicaba fundamentalmente en tablillas de arcilla de diferentes tamaños (el más común era el del tamaño de la palma de la mano), que se dejaban airear o se cocían. Al final de cada tablilla solía aparecer un símbolo que indicaba el “número de página” de una colección. Así se transmitieron himnos, frases populares y leyes que han llegado hasta nuestros días, gracias a lo cual hemos podido conocer cómo vivían los pueblos de la antigüedad.

#escritura
#mesopotamia

The Drugs Used by the #AncientGreeks and #Romans

November 26th, 2021

"Many of us living in the parts of the world where marijuana has recently been legalized may regard ourselves as partaking of a highly modern pleasure. And given the ever-increasing sophistication of the growing and processing techniques that underlie what has become a formidable #cannabis industry, perhaps, on some level, we are. But as intellectually avid enthusiasts of #psychoactive substances won’t hesitate to tell you, their use stretches farther back in time than history itself. 'For as long as there has been civilization, there have been #MindAlteringDrugs,' writes Science’s Andrew Lawler. But was anyone using them in the predecessors to western civilization as we know it today?

"For quite some time, scholars believed that unlike, say, Mesoamerica or north Africa, 'the ancient Near East had seemed curiously drug-free.' But now, 'new techniques for analyzing residues in excavated jars and identifying tiny amounts of plant material suggest that ancient Near Easterners indulged in a range of #psychoactive substances.'

"The latest evidence suggests that, already three millennia ago, 'drugs like cannabis had arrived in #Mesopotamia, while people from #Turkey to #Egypt experimented with local substances such as blue water lily.' That these habits seem to have continued in ancient Greece and Rome is suggested by archaeological evidence summarized in the video above.

"In 2019, archaeologists unearthed a few precious artifacts from a fourth-century Scythian burial mound near Stavropol in Russia. There were 'golden armbands, golden cups, a heavy gold ring, and the greatest treasure of all, two spectacular golden vessels,' says narrator Garrett Ryan, who earned a PhD in Greek and Roman History from the University of Michigan. The interiors of those last
'were coated with a sticky black residue,' confirmed in the lab to be #opium with traces of #marijuana. 'The #Scythians, in other words, got high' — as did 'their Greek and Roman neighbors.' Ryan, author of Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions about the Ancient Greeks and Romans, goes on to make intriguing connections between scattered but relevant pieces of archaeological and textual evidence. We know that some of our civilizational forebears got high; how many, and how high, are questions for future scholastic inquiry."

Source:
https://www.openculture.com/2021/11/the-drugs-used-by-the-ancient-greeks-and-romans.html

#MysteryCults #Rituals #RomanHistory #GreekHistory #AncientHistory #BlueLotus

𒉎

Reading: im

#cuneiforms #assyriology #culture #Mesopotamia #research

GILGAMESH LAMENT FOR ENKIDU

Context (Lifted from Peter Pringle’s Video Desc.): Gilgamesh was king of the Sumerian city of Uruk in Southern Mesopotamia, some 5000 years ago. According to legend, he was a ruthless despot, so the gods created a friend for him, a kind of wild man called Enkidu, who was able to challenge him successfully in battle. This took Gilgamesh’s mind off oppressing his people, and he and Enkidu became inseparable friends. The two of them shared many remarkable adventures together but they made a fatal mistake. They traveled to the great cedar forest, where they killed a sacred beast known as “The Bull of Heaven”. This angered the gods, so they sentenced Enkidu to death.

TABLET VIII of the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, contains the text I sing in this lament. I would like to thank Andrew R. George, the translator of Gilgamesh, whose translation of the text appears in the subtitles to this video, for his generous help with the pronunciation of Old Babylonian. […]

There are two musical instruments in this interpretation of the lament of Gilgamesh. The lute I decided to use is the Persian “setar”, which is one of the closest instruments to the ancient three-stringed lutes that is still in existence today. The setar is capable of playing a wide range of quarter tones but, according to archaeomusicologists, the Babylonians did not use them. Personally, I’m not so sure about that.

The other musical instrument I used is a pair of reed pipes which are played together. The ones you see at the beginning of the video are copies of the pair of silver pipes that were discovered by archaeologist, Sir Leonard Woolley, during his excavations of the Sumerian city of Ur, in the 1920’s. They have a sound similar to the modern “duduk” and, like the duduk, the shehnai and the Australian didgeridoo, they are played using the technique known as “circular breathing”, in order to produce a continuous tone without interruption. The ancient Babylonian reed pipe was known as the “malilum”.

Since I could not sing, accompany myself on the lute, and play the pipes at the same time, I sampled the sound of the pipes and used a MIDI pedal keyboard (like the ones organists use to play bass notes) to trigger the sounds - one foot for each of the two silver pipes. That way I could perform all the parts of the lament at once, without any need for overdubs.

The glazed brick wall you see behind me in this video is part of the magnificent “Gate of Ishtar”, which was the main entrance to the ancient city of Babylon.