Ancient Mesopotamian Religion

1
Ancient Mesopotamian Religion
2
The western religious traditions (Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam) may be traced to a
complex and evolving array of religious ideas
found in ancient Mesopotamia as far back as 3000
BCE.
3
Ancient Mesopotamia roughly corresponds to modern
day Iraq, northeastern Syria, and southeastern
Turkey.
4
The area known as MesopotamiaGreek for "land
between the rivers"encompasses the territory in
and around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and
their tributaries. The Sumerians settled in
southern Mesopotamia between 5,000 and 3,800 BCE.
Shortly after the invention of cuniform writing
(around 3400 BCE), semitic-speaking people
developed urban centers in Sumer, Akkad,
Babylonia, and later in Assyria.
5
5,000-3,800 BCE small farming communities 3,800
BCE urbanization and a king-like ruler in Uruk,
the dominant city in Sumeria at the time. 2900
BCE Sumer had developed into a relatively stable
collection of over 30 city-states.
6
The Uruk Period (3800-3200) Dominance of Uruk,
urbanization, and temple construction
The Jemdat Nasr Period (3200-2900) Slowed down
urbanization and widespread flood in the region
The Early Dynasty Period (2900-2370) Control
shifts to Kish, stability brought to the region,
kings deified, royal tombs constructed in Ur, and
famous King Gilgamesh rules
Agade Period (2370-2112) King Sargon builds
famous city Agade and unites Sumer and the
northern regions of Akkad, thereby creating a
powerful empire
The Ur III Period (2112-2000) Power shifts to
Ur, where Ur-Nammu builds the famous Ziggurat
temple at Ur. Amorites conquer the Sumerians
around 2000 BCE and establish the Babylonian
Empire.
7
Ziggurat Temple
Built by Ur-Nammu between 2113 and 2096 for the
worship of the moon god Nanna.
8
Some Primary Sources of Mesopotamian Beliefs

• Enuma Elish or Eridu Genesis (extant tablet circa
  2200-2000 BCE) Sumerian cuneiform tablet that
  provides an account of creation and a universal
  flood.
• Epic of Atrahasis (extant tablet, circa 17th
  century BCE) story of creation preserved in
  Assyrian and Babylonian scripts.
• Tablet XI of the Epic of Gilgamesh (extant
  tablet, circa 12th BCE)

9
Sumerian Religious Ideas
By 3000 BCE the Sumerians had a developed
cosmology and religious system. This developed
out of earlier ancestor worship and the worship
of heavenly bodies and forces of nature.
10
Cosmology
The Earth is a flat disk surrounded by empty
space and enclosed in an over-arching heaven,
forming a dome-like cover. A watery abyss
surrounds the earth on all sides.
11
The Gods
Prior to the first millennium, Sumerian religious
beliefs were largely polytheistic. The
Sumerians believed in and worshipped multiple
hierarchically arranged deities or gods.
12
The deities in the Sumerian pantheon of gods
typically began as local gods.
Particular Sumerian cities would have their own
central deity (e.g., the god An is associated
with Uruk, the god Enki with Eridu).
13
With time, certain local deities emerged as more
global-type deities and the Sumerians developed
an account of the origins of the gods, the
universe, and humans.
14
The chief gods of the Sumerian pantheon created
the rules of Sumerian society to which all people
were expected to adhere.
There was a direct link between the existence of
the gods and Sumerian morality.
15
The Creation of Humans
The divine origin of moral codes was itself
intimately connected to Sumerian belief in the
divine creation of humans.
16
According to ancient Sumerian texts (such as
Enuma Elish), humans were created so that the
gods would have servants.
Humans were created from the clay of the earth.
17
Mix the heart of the clay that is over the
abyss,  The good and princely fashioners will
thicken the clay,  You, Nammu do you bring the
limbs into existence  Ninmah earth-mother or
birth goddess will work above you,  The
goddesses of birth .  . . will stand by you at
your fashioning  O my mother, decree its the
newborn's fate,  Ninmah will bind upon it the
image (?) of the gods,  It is man . . . .
(Enuma Elish, Nippur Tablet)
18
The Sumerian beliefs about the gods provide
important insight into the value system of the
ancient Mesopotamians.
Fertility
Protection in War
Wisdom
Reverence for the Earth
Small agrarian communities would naturally
develop these values.
19
Polytheism to Monotheism
Religious beliefs in the ancient Mesopotamian
world underwent an interesting evolution toward a
universal, central deity, as both a power in the
universe and an object of worship.
This was instrumental to the rise and spread of
monotheism throughout the Mesopotamian world, the
belief in and worship of one personal Supreme God.
20
1. In the third millennium there is a tendency
toward a syncretistic theology, subsuming in
one god the characteristics of many.
2. During the Akkadian period (2300 BCE), we find
the deifying of kings, the divinity of a central
human figure.
21
3. In the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish
(circa 2000 BCE), the god Marduk is elevated to
the status of the primary god, even above Enlil.
The text gives Marduk fifty names that represent
the qualities of distinct gods.
22
4. The Assyrian national god Assur, which bears
an interesting conceptual resemblance to Yahweh
(God) in the Old Testament, replaced Marduk
around 2000 BCE.
23
5. By 1000 BCE monotheism was widespread through
the Mesopotamian world, as illustrated especially
by the monotheism of the Hebrews (in the religion
of Judaism) and the Persians (in the religion of
Zoroastrianism).
24
Sources

• Hilprecht, H.V. 1910. The earliest version of the
  Babylonian deluge story and the temple library of
  Nippur. The Babylonian Expedition of the
  University of Pennsylvania, Series D, Volume V,
  Fasc. 1. Philadelphia University of
  Pennsylvania.
• Prince, John D. and Frederick A. Vanderburgh.
  1910. The new Hilprecht deluge tablet. The
  American Journal of Semitic Languages and
  Literatures 26 303-308.
• Tigay, Jeffrey H. 1982. The Evolution of the
  Gilgamesh Epic, Philadelphia University of
  Pennsylvania Press
• Jacobsen, T. 1976. The Treasures of Darkness  A
  History of Mesopotamian Religion. New Haven Yale
  University Press.
• Bottéro, J. 2004. Religion in Ancient
  Mesopotamia. Chicago University of Chicago
  Press.
• Lambert, W.G. and A.R. Millard. 1999. Atrahasis
  The Babylonian Story of the Flood, Eisenbrauns.
• Kramer, Samuel Noah. History Begins at Sumer.
  Garden City, N.Y. Doubleday / Anchor, 1959.
• Harris, Stephen L. 2011. Understanding the Bible.
  8th edition. New York McGraw Hill. See chapter
  3, Ancient Near East.