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Care of the Dead (the Kispu Offering)
The dead ate what the living gave them — and an ancestor left unfed came back as a hungry ghost.
The Mesopotamian dead depended on the living. Through the kispu — periodic offerings of bread, water, and other food, accompanied by the speaking of the dead person's name — descendants nourished the shades of their ancestors and kept their memory and rest secure. A dead person with no one to make these offerings, or whose body lay unburied, became a restless, hungry ghost that could afflict the living. Honoring the ancestors was thus both a duty of piety and a practical safeguard. The care of the dead bound the generations together and gave the dim afterlife what comfort it could have.
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