In Mesopotamia, ghost stories have been discovered as far back as 5,000 years ago.
According to the Mesopotamians, when a person’s physical body died, it created what was known as a gidim, an imprint or image of the person at the time of their death which retained their memories and personality in ghost form.
In the mythology of the afterlife, people believed the soul of the dead would travel to the underworld or Irkalla, an inescapable place where spirits would dwell for eternity.
However, in some cases, it was even thought that spirits or gidim could escape and infiltrate the mortal world. Mesopotamians believed the gidim who dwelled in the mortal realm did so because they had not received a proper burial. They assumed these spirits could not find peace, so instead they would haunt family and friends.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
When the people of ancient Mesopotamia experienced illnesses and misfortune, they believed it was caused by hauntings, or gidim. Mesopotamians regularly made offerings to the dead to placate them if they thought a gidim was responsible. A famous example of one such spirit from ancient literature is found in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the epic story, king Gilgamesh summons his friend and war-hero Enkidu back from the dead, inviting him into the mortal world in ghost form.
From The Collector: Ancient Ghost Stories From Around the World
The Devil's Muse 