We have drawn from the Mesopotamian landscape and its writings the model for our classic picture of man’s relations with ghosts. The dead are buried, sometimes below floors, sometimes in cemeteries. The individual’s eṭemmu – ghost or spirit – goes below, to a Netherworld whose location and visualisation varies, the destination where the peaceful dead maintain their existence and wait for the great recycling process to touch them. They can expect in the meanwhile to receive offerings and be remembered.
