Oldest Known Depiction of a Ghost Discovered on Babylonian Tablet
13:43 GMT 17.10.2021 (Updated: 20:16 GMT 19.10.2022)
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The tablet in question has been at the British Museum for a long time, but only recently have researchers discovered that it contains a drawing as well as a text. According to Irving Finkel, the world's leading expert in cuneiform, a system of writing used in the ancient Middle East, the text is part of a guide on how to get rid of ghosts.
The oldest known depiction of a ghost has been discovered on a Babylonian tablet in the British Museum, local media has reported. The artefact shows the spirit portrayed as a bearded man with his hands tied with a rope and dragged into the afterlife by a woman.
Hollywood movies have taught us that ghosts are otherworldly hair-raising creatures, who terrorise whoever they meet, but according to Dr Irving Finkel, curator of the Middle Eastern Department at the British Museum, the one depicted on the tablet seems quite nice – he became a ghost in an attempt to find a female companion.
Hollywood movies have taught us that ghosts are otherworldly hair-raising creatures, who terrorise whoever they meet, but according to Dr Irving Finkel, curator of the Middle Eastern Department at the British Museum, the one depicted on the tablet seems quite nice – he became a ghost in an attempt to find a female companion.
"It's obviously a male ghost and he's miserable. You can imagine a tall, thin, bearded ghost hanging about the house did get on people's nerves. The final analysis was that what this ghost needed was a lover", he said.
According to the researcher, the tablet might have been part of a library in the house of an exorcist and the text inscribed was a guide on how to get rid of ghosts, although Dr Finkel admits that the method was quite funny.
"That somebody thinks they can get rid of a ghost by giving them a bedfellow is quite comic", he said.
As mentioned earlier, the ancient tablet has been in the possession of the British Museum for a long time, but only recently were researchers able to discover the painting. Dr Finkel suggested that it could enter the Guinness Book of Records.
As mentioned earlier, the ancient tablet has been in the possession of the British Museum for a long time, but only recently were researchers able to discover the painting. Dr Finkel suggested that it could enter the Guinness Book of Records.
"You'd probably never give it a second thought because the area where the drawings are looks like it's got no writing. But when you examine it and hold it under a lamp, those figures leap out at you across time in the most startling way. It is a Guinness Book of Records object because how could anybody have a drawing of a ghost which was older?", he said.
