Antiquitopia

Coming from the St. Louis area, I always knew that the movie the Exorcist was based upon events that occurred in St. Louis.  Recently, a group of Jesuit scholars at St. Louis University gave a public presentation discussing those events to a packed house.  You can read about it here .

Christopher Skinner has a review of Anthony LeDonne's newest book, The Wife of Jesus , on his blog Peje Iesous.  Check it out here .

Dorothy King of PhDiva has written an extensive post on the European burials of "vampires" and/or "zombies" (the differentiation of which she repeatedly notes is a more modern invention) for this holiday season.  Check it out here .

Jim Davila posts about an upcoming paper by Seth Sanders from a talk he gave a few years ago. Seth writes (from 2009): "I am Adapa, Sage of Eridu" How and Why did Mesopotamian Exorcists Embody their Ancestors? Rencontre Assyriologique paper,  coming to Paris this summer! The modern “Friday Apostolics” of Zimbabwe actually embody their revealers, speaking as Moses and St. Paul; by contrast, ancient Jews did not directly embody Moses in performance. But did Mesopotamian exorcists become the mythical fish-man who revealed their secrets? The semi-human sage Adapa might be considered the patron saint of Mesopotamian ritual. He also became the mediator of privileged knowledge  par excellence —a culture hero for the scribes who managed writing and ritual for Mesopotamian courts. But ritual experts were not satisfied to inherit his knowledge—in certain texts they claim to not just be descended from him but to be him. Beginning with its roots in archaic Sumerian art and ritual,...