Heather Lynn - Evil Archaeology: Demons, Possessions, and Sinister Relics

Published by Disinformation Books,

an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

with offices at

65 Parker Street, Suite 7

Newburyport, MA 01950

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2019 by Heather Lynn, PhD

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

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ISBN: 978-1-938875-19-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

Data available upon request

Cover design by Kathryn Sky-Peck

Cover illustration Christopher Leonas

Interior by Steve Amarillo/Urban Design llc

Typeset in Noto Serif/Sans and Emigre Mrs. Eaves

Printed in Canada

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For those who fear what isn't known,

let light reveal what isn't shown.

I would first like to thank everyone at Red Wheel Weiser, especially my editor for Disinformation Books, Michael Pye. I would also like to thank my amazingly talented artist, Christopher Leonas, for painting the Pazuzu amulet featured on the cover. Thank you to Heidi Stevens, for all your help and support. To my assistant, Tom: thank you for your dedication and enthusiasm. Thank you to Peter Jacobson, who has always been so helpful and encouraging. Thank you to Mike Ricksecker and Bill Bean for your thoughtful contributions. Thank you also to Hakan Ogun. Above all, thank you to my readers for allowing me to explore subjects and ideas that challenge people to look beyond the established historical narrative.

The beginning scene in The Exorcist, both the book and movie, opens with an archaeological excavation in Iraq. At the site, a priest archaeologist feels a strong southwesterly wind blowing, foreshadowing the arrival of Pazuzu, demon of the southwestern wind and bearer of storms and drought in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology. In the story, however, Pazuzu is the demon that possessed the character Regan. In the beginning, before the existence of man on Earth, Pazuzu was an angel. During Lucifer's revolt against Paradise, Pazuzu became one of his fourteen main lieutenants. At the time of his defeat, he was, like the others, rejected from Paradise. Returning from Hell, he joined the ranks of the gods venerated by the Assyrians and other peoples of ancient Mesopotamia. Pazuzu was revered as a god of winds, storms, and epidemics. According to his moods, he could bring important rain to farmers but also disease. Often, he would intervene with Lamashtu, his barren and jealous wife, to prevent her from stealing babies and causing miscarriage. This, paradoxically, made Pazuzu a protector of pregnant women and their babies. To protect themselves, women invoked Pazuzu with incantations and wore Pazuzu amulets to ward off Lamashtu.

Pazuzu is a Mesopotamian deity dating as far back as the first millennium BCE. He was considered the king of wind demons. A demon of Assyrian origin, he lived in the mountains, sweeping in the southwesterly winds and bringing drought and famine in dry seasons and floods in wet seasons. Pazuzu brings diseases and spreads epidemics (especially malaria) and fevers. As a hybrid being, he is depicted as having a humanoid head with a canine or feline mouth, large teeth, and globular eyes. Pazuzu's body is human with a longer than average torso, similar to that of a dog, but covered with scales like a snake. His hands have claws like a lion. His feet are raptor talons. His tail is a scorpion tail. In his depictions, his penis, ending in a snake's head, is often erect. Pazuzu has two pairs of wings, which is common for the deities of this time. His right hand is raised to heaven and his left hand is lowered to the Earth, meaning life and death, creation and destruction, evoking the eventual image of Baphomet, whose fingers also point in the same manner. This depiction of Pazuzu can be seen on many amulets and figurines found throughout Mesopotamia.

Pazuzu is not the only demonic figure found buried beneath the sands of time. Archaeologists have found more than seventy-five demon-related objects from first millennium BCE in Assyria, Babylon, and Palestine. Many of these objects are amulets or pendants that were placed in houses or worn on the bodies of people to be protected. The most famous of the objects is an Assyrian statuette in bronze of fifteen centimeters high. This statuette is on display at the Louvre Museum. It dates from the eighth century BCE. The demon is represented in his full form with an inscription which declares: I am Pazuzu, son of Hanpa, the King of the evil spirits of the air who is violently coming out of the mountains raging, it's me! This statuette is also seen in the film The Exorcist, at the time of Regan's exorcism, almost at the end of the film and at the beginning when Father Merrin sees the two dogs fighting. A bronze plaque, also exhibited at the Louvre, shows Pazuzu and Lamashtu in a scene of exorcism. The female demon appears menacing and drives her husband to bring her back to hell. Finally, several exorcism texts were found that explained how to get rid of Pazuzu through exorcism rites.

As an archaeologist, the opening scene in The Exorcist and its implication piqued my interest, spurring me to ponder the relationship between the demons of ancient Mesopotamia and modernity. Are the demons of the ancient world still with us today? Then, almost serendipitously, I came across a news story that made me think that perhaps demons, even ancient Mesopotamian demons, may still be dwelling among us, possibly even possessing some of us.

On October 5, 2014, the Forsyth County sheriff's deputies searched a suburban home in Clemmons, North Carolina, and discovered the remains of two men who had been missing since 2009. According to autopsy reports, one man was shot once in the back of the head and the other was shot at least seven times, including three times in the head. Who committed these crimes? Pazuzu.

The killer's name was Pazuzu Algarad. Before legally changing it, Pazuzu's name was John Lawson. He grew up in the picturesque suburbs of Clemmons. After struggling with what his mother said were mental health issues, he would go on to recruit a brotherhood of disenfranchised people to help him torture, murder, and cannibalize local strangers and bury them in the backyard of his home. According to one psychiatric report, Algarad said he practiced a Sumerian religion that involved a monthly blood sacrifice, usually of a small animal. He said he would have to perform the ritual during what he called the black moon in order to appease the Sumerian demons and honor Pazuzu.