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Above is a tablet containing the a written piece of the first ever piece of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh.
The Origins of Religion
Sumer was the world's first ever civilization. Sumer was a city-state in Mesopotamia, within the Fertile Crescent. It first developed around 4000 B.C. Considering the fact that Sumer was built very early in the history of humans, their religion was mostly based off of beliefs that are not that common today. For the most part, the Sumerians were polytheistic. This meant that they believed in and worshipped many gods. They usually attributed things in nature, along with regular human qualities to their gods. They had a group of head deities that they valued more than the others. Just like the Greek Olympians, the head deities of the Sumerian religion were most likely the most powerful deities and had the most control over the lives of the Sumerians. These deities controlled at least one thing that had an affect on human beings, but most importantly, they controlled critical aspects in nature. For example, the god Utu was the god of the sun. There is a trend almost all polytheistic religions where the god of the sun is regarded as one of the gods that should be worshipped the most. Other elements that were controlled by the seven main deities included the moon, water, and certain weather phenomenons. The Sumerians felt it was necessary to worship their gods because of their beliefs that their gods could control things that people did not have power over which naturally scared them.
One piece of literature that displayed how the Sumerians viewed their gods was the Epic of Gilgamesh. This piece of literature was about a king who tried to become immortal just like the gods. This story not only characterizes the gods and their human-like decisions, but it also provided another flood of the great flood, the first being from Noah, a major figure in the Hebrew Bible.
The Seven Main Deities of the Sumerian Religion
The Sumerian Goddess Inanna
The Sumerian God An
The Sumerian God Enlil
The Sumerian God Enki
The Sumerian God Utu
The Sumerian Goddess Ninhursag
The Sumerian God Nanna
Why Did Sumerians Worship Gods?
The Sumerians' reason for choosing to worship gods, or deities, was because they believed higher beings controlled the things that they were not able to. This heavily included weather and natural disasters. They also believed that their gods had existed either before or since the creation of the universe. Their gods, of course, had negative connotations associated with them because the Sumerians believed that they were the reason that bad things happened. For example, if a plague occured, they would believe that this was their gods showing their vengeance. Sumerians thought of their gods to have human-like qualities which also meant that they were ruthless and vengeful. This was not good for the Sumerians because their lives were in the hands of beings who were immortal and power, yet acted really similarly to humans. According to the Sumerians, their gods would only protect and watch over them if they gave them gifts, or offerings.
This point leads to the Sumerians' place of worship. The Sumerians worshipped in temple-like buildings known as ziggurats. These ziggurats usually looked similar to the Egyptian pyramids but were made out of rock and stone. Each ziggurat was dedicated to a specific deity, the very deity who was responsible for watching over the city-state which the ziggurat was in. The building of these temples was authorized by government officials or the king. The government even had people pay taxes in order to fund the building of more temples. This shows that all of Sumer was united in religion. Offerings were left outside of ziggurats to honor the gods and keep them satisfied. Even people who did not have own many things or were low on money contributed.
Above are pictures of some of the infamous ziggurats that could have been seen in the city-state of Sumer around 4000 B.C. These buildings show how dedicated the Sumerians were to religion and properly worshipping their gods. The point of making their ziggurats really large and tall was to ensure that they were as close to their gods as possible, despite their fear of them. As seen in the pictures above, these ziggurats usually consisted of many stairs. The construction of ziggurats allowed them to improve their architecture skills considering they made many ziggurats and had a lot of practice.
The Significance of Sumerian Religion
The example set by the Sumerians' religion set up the foundations for religions in many other civilizations around the world, specifically civilizations surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The ziggurats constructed by the Sumerians were the first structures of their kind and were built as temples for the Sumerians to worship their gods. A couple of centuries later, the Egyptians started making pyramids that had a similar base structure as the Sumerian ziggurats, and were also made based on religious beliefs and norms. Much later in history, Incan temples started showing up in South America that also looked like the ziggurats made by the Sumerians. These temples were also dedicated to religion. It can be concluded that this common trend in religious structures started with the Sumerians which only makes sense because they were the first civilization and, of course, had to influence other civilizations which came later.
Another aspect of Sumerian religion that is seen within other civilizations is their system of having their ruler rule politically and economically, but religiously as well. In Sumerian religion, the king was the one who allowed priests to have almost as much power he did. He worked coherently with the priests to make sure that everyone was paying taxes and giving offerings to the gods. Additionally, if the city wasn't doing well, the people believed that it was the king's fault. This system is also seen in the Egyptian, Chinese, Byzantine, and Arabian civilizations. In Egyptian mythology, the ruler, or pharoah, is considered as the mediator between the gods and the people. With the Mandate of Heaven regarded in Chinese rulers, dynasties could be overthrown if it was believed that the gods did not support them ruling. In the Byzantine Empire, the ruler was known to rule over Church and state as seen through Justinian's harsh religious against any religion but his own. Finally, the Arabian Empire chose their rulers solely based on who was a good representative of the religion of Islam. These are only some of the examples of when rulers were also religious leaders. The example of the Sumerian civilization showed these other rulers that they could still be successful if they to consider their religion while ruling.
Works Cited
Alicia. “2.5 Sumerian Religion.” ck-12, the 23rd of June, 2016. https://www.ck12.org/user:yxblcmtpbnnaz2nib2uudxm./book/giles-county-sixth-grade-social-studies/section/2.5/
Andrews, Evan. “What is the oldest know piece of literature?” HISTORY. A&E Television Networks, the 18th of December, 2015, https://www.history.com/news/what-is-the-oldest-known-piece-of-literature
History.com Editors. “Mesopotamia.” HISTORY. A&E Television Networks, the 30th of November, 2017. https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-middle-east/mesopotamia
History.com Editors. “Sumer.” HISTORY. A&E Television Networks, the 7th of December, 2017. https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-middle-east/sumer
Spar, Ira. “Mesopotamian Creation Myths.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/epic/hd_epic.htm (April 2009)
“What Were the Religious Beliefs of the Ancient Sumer?” twinkl, the 26th of July, 2022, https://www.twinkl.com/homework-help/history-homework-help/the-ancient-sumer-and-mesopotamia-facts-for-kids/what-were-the-religious-beliefs-of-the-ancient-sumer
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