Sumer, located south of Akkad, was one of the most important city-states in Mesopotamia. Sumerian people were among the first in the world to create potions, specifically healing and defensive potions. The potions they created were so wild, and so magically potent, that when archaeologists found an amulet tainted with this magic in modern day Iraq several thousand years later, they ended up in St. Mungo's for over three months.They often revered those they saw using magic, as it was seen as a gift from the gods, when in reality they were just wizards and witches. However, these witches and wizards wouldn't have known this themselves, so they often accepted this theory, and became immortalized as gods and heroes. 

Phoenicia

The next culture we will look at is Phoenicia, a highly magical culture that not only had prolific wealth, trading, and seafaring prowess, but also had an excellent form of writing known as Phonecian, a famous descendant of the equally famous Proto-Canaanite Alphabet. 

Additionally, spells have been found in Egypt that date back to Byblos (a Phoenician city). One such spell was one that read "rir-rir or wal lat ick nur geg". This spell's introduction suggests it would have done something similar to Vipera Evanesca (the Snake Banishing Charm). Phoenician spells were often done ritually and wandlessly. Professor Virneburg, the current Charms professor, has worked alongside many charms experts, including Garrick Ollivander, to study ancient wands and the power, or lack thereof, that they possess.

Indus river valley

Lastly this lesson, we will talk about the Indus River Valley and its corresponding civilization. The Indus were a highly magical group of people. As mentioned in Bathilda Bagshot's "A History of Magic," almost 80 percent of their artifacts (if not more) bear some sort of magical power or trace. The most amazing thing is that much of it is concentrated. While around this time, magic generally took much more sporadic and wild forms when compared to our contemporary spells and potions, those living in the Indus River Valley possessed an unusually concentrated apnd well-attuned magic. For example, their magic was so refined at this time that their magic can be identified, even down to a bracelet enchanted with a primitive Cheering Charm. Most often, when magiarchaeologists and curse-breakers need to identify what kind of spell is placed on an object, they have to go with whatever is “close enough,” but in the Indus River Valley, the spells are much closer to our modern day ones.

During the time of the Indus River Valley civilization, the caste system was just starting and those with magical abilities often found themselves on the topmost tiers. In those tiers, we find a group of magical priests or Brahmin known as the B'ha-Rahi Brotherhood. These brothers protected the villagers from the Lahoo Vampires for decades.To provide a little more background, Lahsun (a chieftain of the B'ha-Rahi and best known as "The Divine One" in ancient texts) was well-known for his extreme disdain for vampires. He fought and killed many of them and taught the villagers ways to protect themselves, including the use of garlic, and wooden stakes. I