Gods, demons, witches and exorcists: inside an ancient Assyrian library
Dr Selena Wisnom transports us back to the library of the ancient Assyrian king Ashurbanipal and reveals what it can tell us about gods, ghosts and religious beliefs
In the seventh century BC, the ancient Assyrian king Ashurbanipal created a gigantic library in his capital city – one that contained centuries of wisdom. And this vast wealth of ancient knowledge can reveal a lot about how the people of the Near East thought about their gods. Dr Selena Wisnom tells David Musgrove more about the Assyrians' religious views, including how they tried to keep gods – and other supernatural entities – happy.
Selena Wisnom is the author of The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History (Penguin, 2025).
Authors
David Musgrove is content director of the HistoryExtra.com website and podcast, plus its sister print magazines BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed. He has a PhD in medieval landscape archaeology and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.