What are utukku?
Utukku are spiritual beings believed in in ancient Mesopotamia (the region centered on today’s Iraq). They were called “udug” in Sumerian and “utukku” in Akkadian. They are a kind of spirit or demon told of in one of humanity’s oldest civilizations.
Good and evil utukku
Utukku are thought to have included both good spirits that protected people and evil spirits that brought misfortune. Evil utukku were feared for coming from the wilderness or graves and causing illness and misfortune. So the people of ancient Mesopotamia created many incantations and rituals to drive away evil utukku. Collections of these exorcism incantations were written in cuneiform on clay tablets and survive to this day.
The origins of spirits and demons
Ideas about utukku and other Mesopotamian spiritual beings are thought to have influenced later beliefs in the Middle East. The idea that invisible beings cause illness and misfortune is also compared with the Arabian traditions of the jinn.
