This was even taken to the point that everything he experienced was considered a reflection of what was happening to his personal god. Some of these guidelines are found in the second tablet of the Šurpu incantation series. This is largely because Berossus wrote that the Mesopotamians believed the world to last "twelve times twelve sars"; with a sar being 3,600 years, this would indicate that at least some of the Mesopotamians believed that the Earth would only last 518,400 years. This political and administrative achievement remained essentially intact under the following Neo-Babylonian and Persian kings down to the conquests of Alexander the Great (331 bce). In the fourth millennium BC, the first evidence for what is recognisably Mesopotamian religion can be seen with the invention in Mesopotamia of writing circa 3500 BC. Besides demons, there were also spirits of the dead, (etimmu) who could also cause mischief. The Akkadian Empire endured for two centuries before collapsing due to economic decline, internal strife and attacks from the north east by the Gutian people. In the 3rd century CE another native Mesopotamian religion flourished, Manicheanism, which incorporated elements of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism, as well as local Mesopotamian elements. It was this land, known alternately as Arallû, Ganzer or Irkallu, the latter of which meant "Great Below", that it was believed everyone went to after death, irrespective of social status or the actions performed during life. In time, Ashur was promoted from being the local deity of Assur to the overlord of the vast Assyrian domain, which spread from the Caucasus and Armenia in the north to Egypt, Nubia and the Arabian Peninsula in the south, and from Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean Sea in the west to central Iran in the east. Scott Michael Rank, Ph.D., is the editor of History on the Net and host of the History Unplugged podcast. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more...", This page was last edited on 31 October 2020, at 23:26. Most kings sustained an active military that defended the city and went on military campaigns when the city needed more land or water resources. In the 3rd millennium BC objects of worship were personified and became an expansive cast of divinities with particular functions. It was thought that one of the reasons the gods gave power to the king was to exercise justice and righteousness,[50] described as mēšaru and kettu, literally "straightness, rightness, firmness, truth". The Sumerian god Enki was later also adopted by the Akkadians, initially under his original name, and later as Éa. Click here for our comprehensive article on ancient Mesopotamia. [32], Generally, the god's well-being was maintained through service, or work (dullu). [47], Every man also had duties to his fellow man which had some religious character, particularly the king's duties to his subjects. [51] Examples of this include not alienating and causing dissension between friends and relatives, setting innocent prisoners free, being truthful, being honest in trade, respecting boundary lines and property rights, and not putting on airs with subordinates. Irrigation required a substantial amount of labor in building and maintaining canals and dams. [20] They were thought to offer good luck, success, and protection from disease and demons,[36] and one's place and success in society was thought to depend on his personal deity, including the development of his certain talents and even his personality. [24][25], Each Mesopotamian city was home to a deity, and each of the prominent deities was the patron of a city, and all known temples were located in cities, though there may have been shrines in the suburbs. [39], There was a strong belief in demons in Mesopotamia, and private individuals, like the temple priests, also participated in incantations (šiptu) to ward them off. Common Mesopotamians considered the king as the representative of the city’s patron god, the god’s overseer on earth, so to speak. In order to service the gods, the temple was equipped with a household with kitchens and kitchenware, sleeping rooms with beds and side rooms for the deity's family, as well as a courtyard with a basin and water for cleansing visitors, as well as a stable for the god's chariot and draft animals. However, flood myths appear in almost every culture around the world, including cultures that never had contact with Mesopotamia. It was believed that man originated as a divine act of creation, and the gods were believed to be the source of life, and held power over sickness and health, as well as the destinies of men. In the second millennium BC, personal gods began to function more on behalf of the common man,[36] with whom he had a close, personal relationship, maintained through prayer and maintenance of his god's statue. These images were also entertained, and sometime escorted on hunting expeditions. [21], Initially, the pantheon was not ordered, but later Mesopotamian theologians came up with the concept of ranking the deities in order of importance. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. [47] Man was believed to have been created to serve the gods, or perhaps wait on them: the god is lord (belu) and man is servant or slave (ardu), and was to fear (puluhtu) the gods and have the appropriate attitude towards them. Government officials took the tithes from farmers and other workers, they oversaw the communal labor necessary for maintaining aqueducts, irrigation canals and water resources. The ruler himself was only designated as "steward of Assur" (iššiak Assur), where the term for steward is a borrowing from Sumerian ensí. Video conferencing best practices: Tips to make meeting online even better [33], The king was thought, in theory, to be the religious leader (enu or šangū) of the cult and exercised a large number of duties within the temple, with a large number of specialists whose task was to mediate between men and gods:[34] a supervising or "watchman" priest (šešgallu), priests for individual purification against demons and magicians (āšipu), priests for the purification of the temple (mašmašu), priests to appease the wrath of the gods with song and music (kalū), as well as female singers (nāru), male singers (zammeru), craftsmen (mārē ummāni), swordbearers (nāš paṭri), masters of divination (bārû), penitents (šā'ilu), and others. The prehistoric cultural stages of Ḥassūna-Sāmarrāʿ and Ḥalaf (named after the sites of archaeological excavations) succeeded each other here before there is evidence of settlement in the south (the area that was later called Sumer). However, the last king of Babylonia, Nabonidus, an Assyrian, paid little attention to politics, preferring to worship the lunar deity Sin, leaving day-to-day rule to his son Belshazzar. The Persians maintained and did not interfere in the native culture and religion and Assyria and Babylon continued to exist as entities (although Chaldea and the Chaldeans disappeared), and Assyria was strong enough to launch major rebellions against Persia in 522 and 482 BC. From the union of these two pri… For in one hour your judgment has come.' Blog. As with most dead religions, many aspects of the common practices and intricacies of the doctrine have been lost and forgotten over time. [41] They were thought to be countless in number, and were thought to even attack the gods as well. Click here for our comprehensive article on ancient Mesopotamia. A historian of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey, he is a publisher of popular history, a podcaster, and online course creator. It was rarely ruled by native dynasties throughout its history. Gradually the lugal became a powerful king who dominated governance of the Mesopotamian city-state. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Priests then were both representative of the god and mediator between the god and the people. According to this theory the religions of the Near East were rooted in Babylonian astral science- including the Hebrew Bible and Judaism. Be helpful, do good", Ethno-linguistic group(s) indigenous to the, Effect of Assyrian religious beliefs on its political structure, Curtis, John (November 2003). Berossus does not report what was thought to follow this event, however. The myth of Ishtar's descent into the underworld relates that "dust is their food and clay their nourishment, they see no light, where they dwell in darkness." Is the literacy rate in Afghanistan very high? Duties seem to have been primarily of a cultic and ritual nature,[48] although some prayers express a positive psychological relationship, or a sort of conversion experience in regard to a god. The Middle Assyrian Empire at its height stretched from the Caucasus to modern Bahrain and from Cyprus to western Iran. In order for farming to continue producing adequate food, the villagers had to begin irrigating the crops. These devotees were often from a particular city or city-state that held that deity as its patron deity, for instance the god Enki was often associated with the city of Eridu in Sumer, the god Ashur with Assur and Assyria, Enlil with the Sumerian city of Nippur, Ishtar with the Assyrian city of Arbela, and the god Marduk was associated with Babylon. [40] Although there was no collective term for these beings either in Sumerian or Akkadian, they were merely described as harmful or dangerous beings or forces, and they were used as a logical way to explain the existence of evil in the world. Religion and Politics Rule Mesopotamia Religion was often one aspect that forged a common bond among the members of a Mesopotamian city-state… A number of examples of Mesopotamian literature show how war and natural disasters were treated as punishment from the gods, and how kings were used as a tool for deliverance.
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