Rampaging, driven, killing machines. Soulless and dead. Infected and infectious. Zombies. The epidemic of the living dead is stronger than ever in today's pop-culture, but long before exotic viruses, biological warfare, and sinister military experimentsbrought the dead back to life in our cinemas and on our television screens, there were the dark spells and incantations of the ancient Egyptians, the Sumerians, and the Babylonians.