This volume is about the history, literature, ritual, and thought associated with ancient Mesopotamian witchcraft. With chapters on the changing forms and roles of witchcraft beliefs, the ritual function, form, and development of the Maqlu text (the most important ancient work on the subject), and the meaning of the Maqlu ceremony, as well as the ideology of the final version of the text. The volume significantly contributes to our understanding of the Maqlu text, and the reconstruction of the development of thought about witchcraft and magic in Mesopotamia.

This collection of essays focuses on divination across the Ancient World from early Mesopotamia to late antiquity. The authors deal with the forms, theory and poetics of this important and still poorly understood ancient phenomenon.