Kispu

{{Short description|Ancient Mesopotamian ritual of veneration of the dead}}

Kispu or kispumWith Akkadian mimation was an ancient Mesopotamian ritual in which the ancestors were venerated, nourished and cared.{{Cite book |last=Laneri |first=Nicola |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429280207 |title=The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East |date= |publisher=Routledge |year=2021 |editor-last=Neumann |editor-first=Kiersten |pages=400 |chapter=Sensing the ancestors |doi=10.4324/9780429280207 |editor-last2=Thomason |editor-first2=Allison}} The ritual included regular offering of food and drinks to the deads.{{Cite book |last=Pfälzner |first=Peter |title=Qaṭna Studien Supplementa |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |year=2012 |editor-last=Pfälzner |editor-first=Peter |volume=1: (Re-)Constructing Funerary Ritualsin the Ancient Near East |pages=216 |chapter=How Did They Bury the Kings of Qatna? |editor-last2=Niehr |editor-first2=Herbert |editor-last3=Pernicka |editor-first3=Ernst |editor-last4=Wissing |editor-first4=Anne |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/12279962}}{{Cite journal |last=Pitard |first=Wayne T. |date=1978 |title=The Ugaritic Funerary Text RS 34.126 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1356702 |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |issue=232 |pages=67 |doi=10.2307/1356702 |issn=0003-097X|url-access=subscription }} Textual evidence for the kispu were found from as early as the 3rd millennium BC; these evidence indicate the ceremony included sacrifices and offerings.{{Cite book |last=Laneri |first=Nicola |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429280207 |title=The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East |date= |publisher=Routledge |year=2021 |editor-last=Neumann |editor-first=Kiersten |pages=400 |chapter=Sensing the ancestors |doi=10.4324/9780429280207 |editor-last2=Thomason |editor-first2=Allison}} The textual evidence allow identification of archaeological findings, such as masses of dining vessels near secondary burial skeletons the royal hypogeum at Qatna,For more details see Qatna#Royal ancestors cult with the kispu.{{Cite book |last=Laneri |first=Nicola |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429280207 |title=The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East |date= |publisher=Routledge |year=2021 |editor-last=Neumann |editor-first=Kiersten |pages=400 |chapter=Sensing the ancestors |doi=10.4324/9780429280207 |editor-last2=Thomason |editor-first2=Allison}}{{Cite book |last=Pfälzner |first=Peter |title=Qaṭna Studien Supplementa |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |year=2012 |editor-last=Pfälzner |editor-first=Peter |volume=1: (Re-)Constructing Funerary Ritualsin the Ancient Near East |pages=213–216 |chapter=How Did They Bury the Kings of Qatna? |editor-last2=Niehr |editor-first2=Herbert |editor-last3=Pernicka |editor-first3=Ernst |editor-last4=Wissing |editor-first4=Anne |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/12279962}}