hi! this question might do better in a lit sub, i.e. /r/AskLiteraryStudies
A zombie is defined as a soulless corpse that has been brought to life by witchcraft, sorcery, or magic. While "zombies" are a more modern pop culture fad, there are a few ancient examples.
I'm getting this info from: https://shofarmdchs.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/the-history-of-zombies/
Ancient zombie in the Epic of Gilgamesh: "The oldest reference to zombies comes from the oldest text in the world The Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Ishtar, the goddess of war, sex, and love, is rejected by Gilgamesh when she tries to seduce him. Being a goddess and not entirely prone to rejection, she runs off to her father, Anu, the god of the heavens and the sky, and threatens to release a plague of zombies on to the world if he doesn’t help her out. Here’s the actual text: “I will knock down the gates of the netherworld, I will smash the door posts and leave the doors flat down, and will let the dead go up and eat the living!” That is the exact premise of a zombie apocalypse in ancient literature, literally the most ancient literature out there. There are even references to zombies in The Bible! Zechariah 14:12 “And the lord will send a plague on all the nations that fought against Jerusalem. Their people will be like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away.” The exact definition of a zombie apocalypse. Isaiah 26:19 – 2o “But your dead will live; their bodies will rise…go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves until their wrath has passed us by.” Another zombie apocalypse in The Bible. The dead rise and people must go and hide until they’ re gone. I’m starting to sense a trend here."
African culture and voodoo: "In the African religion of Voodoo, someone who has died may be brought back to life by a sorcerer through magic. But once they have been revived, the now zombie must be under the control of the sorcerer because they can’t have any will of their own. Though the reanimation is only temporary in Voodoo religion, this is where the more modern version of the zombie has arisen from. When African natives were brought to the new world for slavery they brought he religion of Voodoo with them and thus the concept of zombies. Because of this, zombies then started to appear in Haitian culture and many other Caribbean cultures."
In the Regency period Gothic, there are several examples of vampires (Dracula, Carmilla, etc.) From my study of this time period, the only zombie-like creature in literature that I can think of is Frankenstein's creature.