God of water in Mesopotamia. Gods of Ancient Mesopotamia. Alan F. Alford - Gods of the New Millennium

Lesson topic: “Inhabitants and gods of Sumer”
Purpose of the lesson: to get acquainted with the natural conditions, life of the inhabitants and religion of Mesopotamia and compare them with Ancient Egypt.
The main goal of the lesson is to develop in students basic knowledge about Mesopotamia, which was implemented through the following tasks:
Educational: students assimilate information about the natural and climatic conditions of Western Asia, the peculiarities of life of the ancient Sumerians.
Developmental: further development of students' practical thinking skills: the ability to analyze, carry out complex searches, systematize information on a topic, compare, analyze.
Educational: to promote the development of communication culture skills and social outlook.
Lesson type: Lesson on learning new material
Brief description: The main approach used to achieve the goal is a system-activity one, which involves creating conditions for the development of the student, taking into account biological capabilities and social conditions. Various methods are used in the lesson educational activities: explanatory-illustrative, heuristic, problematic. The principles observed in the activities of teachers and students: cooperation, participation, visibility, accessibility. The lesson consists of 8 stages, logically interconnected.
During the classes
Stages of the lesson Teacher's actions Students' actions Formation of UUD
I. Creation problematic situation. Formulating the problem. We begin to study a new chapter: Ancient civilizations of Asia.
Look at the map on p. 49. Territory. Which we will study is called Mesopotamia, or Mesopotamia (as the Greeks called it).
Some scientists think. That the natural and climatic conditions of Mesopotamia, the activities and beliefs of the inhabitants are very close to those of Egypt. Is this so, we will find out today.
We write down the date and topic of the lesson in the notebook: “Inhabitants and gods of Sumer.”
Mesopotamia or Mesopotamia began to be settled in 4 thousand BC. The country of Akkad was located in the northern part of Mesopotamia, and Sumer in the northern part, because The Sumerians came here, which means “black-headed”. There are still disputes among scientists about where they came from in the interfluve: from the north. From the south, from the shores of the Persian Gulf? The Sumerians transformed this region. They built a network of canals, created reservoirs, and built dams and dams. We write in a notebook: Mesopotamia (Mezhdurechye) is a state in Western Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which flow into the Persian Gulf. Listen, look at the map

We write in a notebook: Mesopotamia (Mezhdurechye) is a state in Western Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which flow into the Persian Gulf. Educational UUD
Analyze (highlight the main thing).
Regulatory UUD
Determine the goal - the problem.
II. Versions. Natural conditions Ancient Mesopotamia very similar to nature Ancient Egypt: abundance sunlight, river floods. Fertile silt. What do you think the main occupations of the Mesopotamians were?
We record the activities of the ancient Sumerians:
1) agriculture;
2) cattle breeding;
In the Southern Mesopotamia, which in ancient times was called the country of Sumer, there was a shortage of building stone and timber, but they grew grain, dates, and produced wool in abundance. What is the name of the activity in which goods are exchanged using money?
3) trade
Students can put forward any version.
We write down: Activities of the ancient Sumerians:
1.farming
2.cattle breeding
3.trade
Cognitive UUD
Identify causes and consequences, motives for the actions of people of past eras.
Regulatory UUD
Propose versions
III. Updating knowledge How did we learn about how the Sumerians lived? Firstly, from excavations, and secondly, from ancient Sumerian records. But we find out how writing appeared among the Sumerians on page 51.
So, what is the special writing of the Sumerians called? Cuneiform. Let's write this down in our notebook.
Write down: Cuneiform is a type of writing from Ancient Mesopotamia.
Regulatory UUD
Evaluate the extent and methods of achieving the goal.
IV. Activity planning. Just like the Egyptians, the ancient Sumerians were pagans, that is, they worshiped many gods. Which one? From 51.
But, despite the enormous importance of the divine principle in the life of the Sumerians, they were also engaged in scientific discoveries. They studied astronomy, mathematics, and writing. What did God patronize?
EnlilFather of all higher powers
ShamashGod of the Sun
IshtarGoddess of love and fertility
EaGod of water
Drawing a table Regulatory UUD
Plan activities.
V. Finding a solution to the problem (discovery of new knowledge). Look at the entries in the notebook, at the table, tell me, in Ancient Mesopotamia did people try to subjugate nature, somehow influence climatic conditions, or did they rely on it, obey it? How can we prove this? They express own opinion. Personal UUD
Ability to evaluate events
VI. Expressing a solution to a problem. So, can we say that natural conditions Mesopotamia, in particular the South, which is called Sumer, are the occupations of the population very similar to Ancient Egypt? Why? Conclusion on the problem. Ancient Sumer and Egypt are located not far from each other, so their natural and climatic conditions are similar; both states are located on the banks of rivers. The development of states occurred at approximately the same time. Cognitive UUD
Draw conclusions
VII. Reflection.
1. Mesopotamia is located between the rivers... (Tigris and Euphrates)
2. The climate of Mesopotamia was (hot, arid)
3. Mesopotamia is conventionally divided into 2 parts: …. (north Akkad and south Sumer)
4. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow into .... (Persian Gulf)
5. The main occupations of the ancient Sumerians: ...(cattle breeding, farming, trade)
The Sumerian religion was... (pagan)
6. The material for construction was ... (clay)
7. The Sumerian letter was called ... (cuneiform) They express their versions, analyze my proverbs VIII. Homework. P.11. read. Question 1 in writing.

Time has erased Sumer from the annals of history and, if not for linguists, perhaps we would never have known about Sumer. The Sumerian civilization is the most ancient on our planet. In the second half of the 4th millennium it appeared as if out of nowhere. According to customs and language, this people was alien to the Semitic tribes, who settled Northern Mesopotamia a little later. The racial affiliation of the ancient Sumerian has not yet been determined. The history of the Sumerians is mysterious and amazing. Sumerian culture gave humanity writing, the ability to process metals, the wheel and the potter's wheel. Inexplicably, these people possessed knowledge that had only recently become known to science. They left behind so many mysteries and secrets that they rightfully occupy almost the first place among all amazing events in our life.

For a millennium, the Sumerians were the main protagonists in the ancient Near East. Sumerian astronomy and mathematics were the most accurate in the entire Middle East. We still divide the year into four seasons, twelve months and twelve signs of the zodiac, measure angles, minutes and seconds in sixties - just as the Sumerians first began to do.

When we go to see a doctor, we all... receive prescriptions for drugs or advice from a psychotherapist, without thinking at all that both herbal medicine and psychotherapy first developed and achieved high level precisely among the Sumerians. Receiving a subpoena and counting on the justice of the judges, we also know nothing about the founders of legal proceedings - the Sumerians, whose first legislative acts contributed to the development of legal relations in all parts of the Ancient World. Finally, thinking about the vicissitudes of fate, complaining that we were deprived at birth, we repeat the same words that the philosophizing Sumerian scribes first put into clay - but we hardly even know about it.

Sumerians are "black-headed". This people, who appeared in the south of Mesopotamia in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC from nowhere, are now called the “progenitor of modern civilization,” but until the mid-19th century no one even suspected about them.

It is believed that Southern Mesopotamia is not the most the best place in the world. Complete absence of forests and minerals. Swampiness, frequent floods, accompanied by changes in the course of the Euphrates due to low banks and, as a consequence, a complete lack of roads. The only thing there was in abundance there was reed, clay and water. However, in combination with fertile soil fertilized by floods, this was enough to ensure that at the very end of the 3rd millennium BC. the first city-states of ancient Sumer flourished there. The first settlements in this territory appeared already in the 6th millennium BC. e. It is not clear where the Sumerians came to these lands and assimilated the local agricultural communities. Their legends speak of the eastern or southeastern origin of this people. They considered their oldest settlement to be Eredu, the southernmost of the cities of Mesopotamia, now the site of Abu Shahrain.

An ancient legend says: “ One day, from the Erythraean Sea, where it borders on Babylonia, a beast endowed with intelligence named Oannes appeared. The whole body of that beast was that of a fish, only under fish head there was another, human one, his speech was also human. And his image has survived to this day. This creature used to spend the whole day among people, teaching them concepts about literacy, science and all kinds of arts. Oanne taught people to build cities and erect temples... in a word, he taught them everything that softens morals, and since then no one else has invented anything surprising... He wrote a book about the beginning of the world, about how it came into being, and handed it to people..." .

This is how the priest Beros, who lived during the time of Alexander the Great, tells about the origin of Mesopotamia. This story is considered fiction, but some researchers, including A. Kondratov, consider this to be far from fiction. It is a retelling of the Babylonian myth of the coming of the water deity Ea, who is a transformation of the Sumerian deity Enki.

Historians believe that the only truth in this legend is that the Sumerian-Babylonian culture spread from south to north, and the mysterious creature Oannes is considered an alien from the Indian Ocean, that is, from the islands in the Indian Ocean, the culture of which was very developed. But there is a stranger version, according to which the alien Oannes was a representative ancient culture, hidden by the thickness of the Indian Ocean...

The Sumerian language also continues to remain a mystery, since so far it has not been possible to establish its relationship with any of the known language families. After deciphering the Sumerian manuscripts, or rather cuneiforms, since the Sumerian writing was cuneiform, the scientists were simply shocked. What we now call the Sumerian language is actually an artificial construction, built on analogies with the inscriptions of the peoples who adopted the Sumerian cuneiform - Elamite, Akkadian and Old Persian texts. Strangely, the Sumerian language has neither ancestors nor descendants. Sumerian is sometimes called "Latin" ancient Babylon" - but we must be aware that Sumerian did not become the progenitor of a powerful language group, only the roots of several dozen words remained from it.

Let's start with the fact that the Sumerians used a ternary number system. To be fair, we note that after the Sumerians, until recently, no one had a need for it, because such a system is used only modern technology in the manufacture of computers. In addition, the Sumerians knew and applied the principle of the golden section, used Fibonacci numbers, and had modern knowledge of chemistry, herbal medicine and astronomy. According to the Sumerians, more than 4 billion years ago, a grandiose “heavenly battle” took place - a catastrophe that changed the entire appearance of the solar system, in particular, it changed the inclination of the axes of several planets, which is confirmed by the latest scientific data.

The Sumerians measured the rising and setting of visible planets and stars relative to the earth's horizon using the heliocentric system. These people had well-developed mathematics, they knew and widely used astrology. Interestingly, the Sumerians had the same astrological system as now: they divided the sphere into 12 parts (12 houses of the Zodiac) of thirty degrees each. The mathematics of the Sumerians was a cumbersome system, but it made it possible to calculate fractions and multiply numbers up to millions, extract roots and raise to powers. The basis of the economic life of Mesopotamia was agriculture and irrigation. In the oldest communities of southern Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC. e. Almost all products produced here were consumed locally, and subsistence farming reigned. Clay and reed were widely used. IN ancient times Vessels were sculpted from clay - first by hand, and later on a special potter's wheel. Finally, clay was made into large quantities the most important building material was brick, which was prepared with an admixture of reeds and straw.
The main centers were connected to the network of main canals Sumerian civilization- city-states that concentrated small towns and settlements around themselves. The largest among them were Eshnuna, Sippar, Kutu, Kish, Nippur, Shurupurak, Uruk, Ur, Umma, Lagash. Already from the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. there was a cult union of all communities of Sumer with a center in Nippur, where one of the main temples of Sumer was located - Ekur, the temple of the god Enlil.

In the field of medicine, the Sumerians had very high standards. The library of King Ashurbanipal, found by Layard in Nineveh, had a clear order, it had a large medical department, which contained thousands of clay tablets. All medical terms were based on words borrowed from the Sumerian language. Medical procedures were described in special reference books, which contained information about hygiene rules, operations, for example, cataract removal, and the use of alcohol for disinfection during surgical operations. Sumerian medicine was different scientific approach to making a diagnosis and prescribing a course of treatment, both therapeutic and surgical.

The Sumerians had a developed government system - they had a jury trial, democratic governing bodies based on popular elections, each ancient Sumerian had their own protected rights. Please note that neither Rome nor Ancient Greece there was no sign of it yet. It was in Sumer that the world's first bricks were sculpted and fired, from which the Sumerians built multi-story palaces and temples. They are still arguing about their mines - why did the ancient Sumerians need so much gold and where was it used? The mines are up to 20 meters deep, and more than 100,000 years ago people were already mining gold there industrially.

The Sumerians were excellent travelers and explorers - they are also credited with inventing the world's first ships. One Akkadian dictionary of Sumerian words contained at least 105 symbols various types ships - according to their size, purpose and type of cargo.
Even more amazingly, the Sumerians had mastered alloying, a process by which different metals were combined by heating in a furnace. The Sumerians learned to produce bronze, a hard but easily workable metal that changed the entire course of human history. The ability to alloy copper with tin was greatest achievement for three reasons. First, it was necessary to select a very precise ratio of copper and tin (analysis of Sumerian bronze showed the optimal ratio - 85% copper to 15% tin). Secondly, there was no tin at all in Mesopotamia. (Unlike, for example, Tiwanaku) Thirdly, tin does not occur in nature in its natural form at all. To extract it from the ore - tin stone - you need quite difficult process. This is not a business that can be opened by chance. The Sumerians had about thirty words for various types copper different quality, for tin they used the word AN.NA, which literally means “Stone of Heaven” - which many see as evidence that Sumerian technology was a gift from the gods.

The Sumerian religion was a fairly clear system of celestial hierarchy, although some scientists believe that the pantheon of gods was not systematized. The gods were led by the air god Enlil, who divided heaven and earth. The creators of the universe in the Sumerian pantheon were considered AN (celestial principle) and KI (masculine principle). The basis of mythology was the ME energy, which meant the prototype of all living things, emitted by gods and temples. The gods in Sumer were represented as people. Their relationships include matchmaking and war, rape and love, deception and anger. There is even a myth about a man who possessed the goddess Inanna in a dream. It is noteworthy that the entire myth is imbued with sympathy for man. The Sumerians had a peculiar idea of ​​​​Paradise; there was no place for man in it. Sumerian Paradise is the abode of the gods. It is believed that the views of the Sumerians were reflected in later religions.

And only Sumerian mythology sheds light on where the gold went and why it was needed in the Stone Age. According to Sumerian cosmogony, 12 planets revolved around the Sun. That is, all the planets known to our science (although Pluto was discovered only in 1930) and one more - an unknown planet, rotating in an elliptical orbit between Mars and Jupiter. The name of this planet is Nibiru, which means "crossing planet." It was so named because its orbit is very elongated and once every 3600 years Nibiru crosses the entire solar system. According to the Sumerians, it was from Nibiru that the Anunaki descended to Earth. There is a mention of them in the Bible, although they are referred to there as “nifilim” (“those who descended from heaven”). It was they who “took earthly women as wives,” and even moreover, they left offspring. But something else is much more surprising! According to the Sumerians, the Anunaki first arrived on Earth long before the emergence of the Sumerian civilization. And it was they who created man. For what? Because they were tired of mining gold themselves. The chronicles say that the Anunaki were long-livers - their life was long, and all this time they were mining gold, first trying to extract it from the waters of the Persian Gulf, but without success, and after this attempt they took up the mines. There is a version that they needed gold to create a gold-containing screen to protect their planet. Similar technologies exist now in comic projects. This is why the inhabitants of Nibiru left their home planet and settled on Earth. And every 3600 years, when the planets were as close as possible, gold was transported to Nibiru.

According to Sumerian legends, the Anunaki were mining gold on their own for almost 150 thousand years. But the uprising that broke out threatened the entire project of saving Nibiru. And that’s when the plan to create human assistants was born. And this whole process is described in detail, step by step, in detail on clay tablets of the ancient Sumerians. This information had the effect of a bomb exploding among geneticists, because everything indicated that the Anunaki were perfectly familiar with both DNA and how to create a person artificially. There are detailed instructions that, first of all, work must be carried out under sterile conditions. It further appears that the egg of a female monkey was taken. Then it was fertilized, but in addition to this, the “essence” was mixed in there - “that which binds memory” (in our understanding of DNA), obtained from the blood of a selected Anunaki purified in a special way. In addition, from the blood of the gods, what could very roughly be called a “soul” was extracted. The fertilized and modified egg should then be entrusted to “a much-knowing, young Anunaki,” who would “bring the egg to the desired state.” Legend has it that at first everything did not go as smoothly as the experimenters would have liked. Many monsters were born, but in the end, the Anunnaki succeeded. The successful egg was placed in the womb of the “goddess”, who agreed to carry it to term. So, after a long pregnancy and caesarean section, the first person was born. But not one, but many workers were needed in the mines. And then, through cloning, a woman was created.

Unfortunately, this process is not reflected in any way on clay tablets, so we can only guess how they managed it. Wesley Brown's latest discovery “about the mitochondrial Eve common to all people on Earth” indirectly confirmed this legend. When people, having replaced more than one or two generations, “became beautiful,” the Anunnaki began to “take as wives” earthly women, from whom they even gave birth to viable, healthy offspring. Unfortunately, having passed on to us their appearance and the opportunity for self-development, the Anunaki did not gift us with their longevity. Apparently, the Sumerian civilization is not only the most ancient, but also the most mysterious on our planet, and the Sumerians themselves are our distant great-great-great parents.

The history of Sumer was a struggle between the largest city-states for dominance in their region. Kish, Lagash, Ur and Uruk waged an endless struggle for several hundred years until the country was united by Sargon the Ancient (2316-2261 BC), the founder of the great Akkadian power, which stretched from Syria to the Persian Gulf. During the reign of Sargon, who, according to legend, was an Eastern Semitic, Akkadian (East Semitic language) began to be used more widely, but Sumerian was preserved both in everyday life and in office work. The Akkadian state fell in the 22nd century. BC. under the onslaught of the Gutians - tribes that came from the western part of the Iranian plateau. At the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. the center of Sumerian statehood moved to Ur, whose kings managed to unite all the regions of Mesopotamia. Associated with this era last takeoff Sumerian culture. Kingdom III dynasty Ur was an ancient Eastern despotism, headed by a king who bore the title “King of Ur, King of Sumer and Akkad.” The Sumerian language has become official language royal offices, while the population mainly spoke Akkadian. In the era reign III During the dynasty of Ur, the Sumerian pantheon was ordered, at the head of which stood the god Enlil, along with 7 or 9 gods who were part of the heavenly council.

The fall of the III dynasty of Ur occurred for several reasons: the centralized economy collapsed, which led to the depletion of grain reserves and famine in the country, which at that time was experiencing the invasion of the Amorites - West Semitic cattle-breeding tribes that appeared on the territory of Mesopotamia at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC . e. From that time on, Sumer no longer existed as an independent state, but its great cultural achievements continued to live in various civilizations of Mesopotamia over the next two millennia. After their fall, the Sumerians left something that was picked up by many other peoples who came to this land - Religion. The origins of religion had purely materialistic, rather than “ethical” roots. The cult of the Gods was not aimed at “purification and holiness” but was intended to ensure a good harvest, military successes, etc.... The most ancient of the Sumerian Gods, mentioned in the oldest tablets “with lists of gods” (mid-3rd millennium BC .e.), personified the forces of nature - the sky, sea, sun, moon, wind, etc., then gods appeared - patrons of cities, farmers, shepherds, etc. The Sumerians argued that everything in the world belonged to the gods - temples were not the place of residence of the gods, who were obliged to take care of people, but the granaries of the gods - barns.

After the Sumerians, a huge number of clay cuneiform tablets remained. It may have been the world's first bureaucracy. The earliest inscriptions date back to 2900 BC. and contain business records. Researchers complain that the Sumerians left behind a huge number of "economic" records and "lists of gods" but never bothered to write down " philosophical basis"of your belief system.

Although the Sumerian people disappeared with historical scene and in Babylonia they stopped speaking the Sumerian language, the Sumerian writing system (cuneiform) and many elements of religion constituted integral part Babylonian and later Assyrian culture. The Sumerians laid the foundations of civilization for a large part of the Middle East, inherited from them the methods of organizing the economy, technical skills and scientific information played an extremely important role in the lives of their successors.

In the south of modern Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, settled almost 7,000 years ago mysterious people– Sumerians. They made a significant contribution to the development human civilization, but we still don’t know where the Sumerians came from or what language they spoke. Mysterious language The Mesopotamian valley has long been inhabited by tribes of Semitic herders. It was they who were driven north by the Sumerian aliens. The Sumerians themselves were not related to the Semites; moreover, their origins are still unclear to this day. Neither the ancestral home of the Sumerians nor the linguistic family to which their language belonged is known. Luckily for us, the Sumerians left a lot written monuments. From them we learn that neighboring tribes called these people “Sumerians”, and they themselves called themselves “Sang-ngiga” - “black-headed”. They called their language a “noble language” and considered it the only one suitable for people (in contrast to the not so “noble” Semitic languages ​​spoken by their neighbors). But the Sumerian language was not homogeneous. It had special dialects for women and men, fishermen and shepherds. What the Sumerian language sounded like is unknown to this day.

A large number of homonyms suggests that this language was a tonal language (like, for example, modern Chinese), which means that the meaning of what was said often depended on intonation. After the decline of the Sumerian civilization, the Sumerian language was studied for a long time in Mesopotamia, since most religious and literary texts were written in it.

The ancestral home of the Sumerians

One of the main mysteries remains the ancestral home of the Sumerians. Scientists build hypotheses based on archaeological data and information obtained from written sources. This Asian country, unknown to us, was supposed to be located on the sea. The fact is that the Sumerians came to Mesopotamia along river beds, and their first settlements appeared in the south of the valley, in the deltas of the Tigris and Euphrates. At first there were very few Sumerians in Mesopotamia - and this is not surprising, because the ships can only accommodate so many settlers. Apparently, they were good sailors, since they were able to climb up unfamiliar rivers and find appropriate place to land on the shore. In addition, scientists believe that the Sumerians come from mountainous areas. It’s not for nothing that in their language the words “country” and “mountain” are spelled the same. And the Sumerian temples “ziggurats” resemble mountains in appearance - they are stepped structures with a wide base and a narrow pyramidal top, where the sanctuary was located. Another important condition– this country should have developed technologies. The Sumerians were one of the most advanced peoples of their time; they were the first in the entire Middle East to use the wheel, create an irrigation system, and invent a unique writing system. According to one version, this legendary ancestral home was located in the south of India.

Flood survivors

It was not for nothing that the Sumerians chose the Mesopotamia Valley as their new homeland. The Tigris and Euphrates originate in the Armenian Highlands, and carry fertile silt and mineral salts to the valley. Because of this, the soil in Mesopotamia is extremely fertile, with fruit trees, grains and vegetables growing in abundance. In addition, there were fish in the rivers, wild animals flocked to watering holes, and in the flooded meadows there was plenty of food for livestock. But all this abundance also had back side. When the snow began to melt in the mountains, the Tigris and Euphrates carried streams of water into the valley. Unlike the Nile floods, the Tigris and Euphrates floods could not be predicted; they were not regular. Heavy floods turned into a real disaster; they destroyed everything in their path: cities and villages, fields, animals and people. It was probably when they first encountered this disaster that the Sumerians created the legend of Ziusudra. At a meeting of all the gods, a terrible decision was made - to destroy all of humanity. Only one god, Enki, took pity on the people. He appeared in a dream to King Ziusudra and ordered him to build a huge ship. Ziusudra fulfilled the will of God; he loaded his property, family and relatives, various craftsmen to preserve knowledge and technology, livestock, animals and birds onto the ship. The doors of the ship were tarred on the outside. The next morning a terrible flood began, which even the gods were afraid of. The rain and wind raged for six days and seven nights. Finally, when the water began to recede, Ziusudra left the ship and made sacrifices to the gods. Then, as a reward for his loyalty, the gods granted Ziusudra and his wife immortality. This legend not only recalls the legend of Noah's Ark, more likely biblical story is a borrowing from Sumerian culture. After all, the first poems about the flood that have reached us go back as far as XVIII century BC.

King-priests, king-builders

The Sumerian lands were never a single state. In essence, it was a collection of city-states, each with its own law, its own treasury, its own rulers, its own army. The only things they had in common were language, religion and culture. City-states could be at enmity with each other, could exchange goods or enter into military alliances. Each city-state was ruled by three kings. The first and most important was called “en”. This was the king-priest (however, the enom could also be a woman). The main task of the king was to conduct religious ceremonies: solemn processions and sacrifices. In addition, he was in charge of all temple property, and sometimes the property of the entire community. An important area of ​​life in ancient Mesopotamia was construction. The Sumerians are credited with the invention of baked brick. City walls, temples, and barns were built from this more durable material. The construction of these structures was supervised by the priest-builder ensi. In addition, the ensi monitored the irrigation system, because canals, locks and dams made it possible to at least somewhat control irregular spills. During the war, the Sumerians elected another leader - a military leader - lugal. The most famous military leader was Gilgamesh, whose exploits are immortalized in one of the most ancient literary works- “The Epic of Gilgamesh.” In this story great hero challenges the gods, defeats monsters, brings a precious cedar tree to his hometown of Uruk, and even descends into the afterlife.

Sumerian Gods

Sumer had a developed religious system. Three gods were especially revered: the sky god Anu, the earth god Enlil and the water god Ensi. In addition, each city had its own patron god. Thus, Enlil was especially revered in ancient city Nippur. The people of Nippur believed that Enlil gave them such important inventions like a hoe and a plow, and also taught how to build cities and erect walls around them. Important gods for the Sumerians were the sun (Utu) and the moon (Nannar), which replaced each other in the sky. And, of course, one of the most important figures of the Sumerian pantheon was the goddess Inanna, whom the Assyrians, who borrowed the religious system from the Sumerians, would call Ishtar, and the Phoenicians - Astarte. Inanna was the goddess of love and fertility and, at the same time, the goddess of war. She personified, first of all, carnal love and passion. It is not for nothing that in many Sumerian cities there was a custom of “divine marriage”, when kings, in order to ensure fertility for their lands, livestock and people, spent the night with the high priestess Inanna, who embodied the goddess herself.

Like many ancient gods, Inannu was capricious and fickle. She often fell in love with mortal heroes, and woe to those who rejected the goddess! The Sumerians believed that the gods created people by mixing their blood with clay. After death, souls fell into the afterlife, where there was also nothing but clay and dust, which the dead ate. To make the life of their deceased ancestors a little better, the Sumerians sacrificed food and drink to them.

Cuneiform

Sumerian civilization reached amazing heights, even after being conquered by its northern neighbors, the culture, language and religion of the Sumerians were borrowed first by Akkad, then by Babylonia and Assyria. The Sumerians are credited with inventing the wheel, bricks, and even beer (although they most likely made barley drink using a different technology). But the main achievement of the Sumerians was, of course, a unique writing system - cuneiform. Cuneiform got its name from the shape of the marks that a reed stick left on wet clay, the most common writing material. Sumerian writing came from a system of counting various goods. For example, when a man counted his flock, he made a clay ball to represent each sheep, then put these balls in a box, and left marks on the box indicating the number of these balls.

But all the sheep in the herd are different: different sexes, different ages. Marks appeared on the balls according to the animal they represented. And finally, the sheep began to be designated by a picture - a pictogram. Drawing with a reed stick was not very convenient, and the pictogram turned into a schematic image consisting of vertical, horizontal and diagonal wedges. And the last step - this ideogram began to denote not only a sheep (in Sumerian “udu”), but also the syllable “udu” in the composition difficult words. At first, cuneiform was used to compile business documents. Extensive archives have come down to us from the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia. But later the Sumerians began to record literary texts, and even entire libraries of clay tablets appeared, which were not afraid of fires - after all, after firing, the clay only became stronger. It was thanks to the fires in which the Sumerian cities, captured by the warlike Akkadians, perished, that unique information about this ancient civilization has reached us.

Ancient Greek geographers called the flat region between the Tigris and Euphrates Mesopotamia (Interfluve). The self-name of this area is Shinar. Development Center ancient civilization was in Babylonia...

Goddesses of Sumer and Akkad: Inanna, Ishtar

Gods of Sumer and Akkad

Adad

Adad, Ishkur (“wind”), in Sumerian-Akkadian mythology, the god of thunder, storms and wind, the son of the sky god Anu. God personified both the destructive and fruitful forces of nature: floods destroying fields and fertile rain; he is also responsible for soil salinization; if the wind god took away the rain, drought and famine began. According to the myths about Hadad, the flood did not begin due to a flood, but was the result of a rain storm, so one of the constant epithets God - "lord of the dam of heaven." The bull was associated with the image of the storm god as a symbol of fertility and indomitability at the same time. The emblem of Adad was the bident or trident of lightning. In Semitic mythology, he corresponds to Baal, in Hurrito-Urartian mythology - Teshub.

Anu

Ashur

Ashur, in Akkadian mythology, the central deity of the Assyrian pantheon, originally the patron saint of the city of Ashur. He is called the “lord of countries”, “father of the gods” and is considered the father of Anya; his wife is Ishtar of Ashur or Enlil. Ashur was revered as the arbiter of destinies, a military deity and a deity of wisdom. The emblem of God was the winged solar disk over the sacred tree of life, and on the monuments of the 2nd - 1st millennia BC. e. Ashur was depicted with a bow, half hidden by the winged disk of the sun, as if he was floating in its rays.

Marduk

Marduk, in Sumerian-Akkadian mythology, the central deity of the Babylonian pantheon, main god city ​​of Babylon, son of Ey (Enki) and Domkina (Damgalnun). Written sources report on the wisdom of Marduk, his healing arts and spell power; God is called "judge of the gods", "lord of the gods" and even "father of the gods". Marduk's wife was considered Tsarpanitu, and his son Nabu, the god of scribal art, scribe of tables of destinies. Myths tell of the victory of Marduk over the army of Tiamat, who embodies world chaos. The god, armed with a bow, a club, a net and accompanied by the four heavenly winds and seven storms, which he created to fight the eleven monsters of Tiamat, entered the battle. He drove an “evil wind” into Tiamat’s gaping mouth, and she was unable to close it. Marduk immediately finished off Tiamat with an arrow, dealt with her retinue and took away from the monster Kingu (Tiamat's husband), the tables of fate that they had given him, from the monster he killed. world domination. Then Marduk began to create the world: he cut Tiamat's body into two parts; from the lower he made the earth, from the upper he made the sky. Moreover, God locked the sky with a bolt and placed a guard so that the water could not seep down to the ground. He determined the domains of the gods and the paths of the heavenly bodies; according to his plan, the gods created man and, in gratitude, built him “heavenly Babylon.” The symbols of Marduk were a hoe, a shovel, an ax and the dragon Mushkhush, and parts of the body of the god himself were compared with various animals and plants: “his main entrails are lions; his small entrails are dogs; his spine is cedar; his fingers are reeds; his skull - silver; the outpouring of his seed is gold."
The Babylonian creation story is a myth in honor of the Babylonian god Marduk. The Lord of Babylon, Marduk, by unanimous decision of the gods, became king in the world of the gods; he is the owner of the tables of fate, taken from the defeated dragon. The annual festival of Tsakmuk is dedicated to the creation of the world and the “judge of the gods” Marduk. The cosmogonic ideas underlying Sumerian-Akkadian mythology distinguish between the heavenly world of the god Anu, the aboveground world of Bel and the underground world belonging to Eya. Underground is kingdom of the dead. The main ideas of the Sumerian-Akkadian myths, which determine the position of the three worlds, were first set forth by Diodorus Siculus.

Syn

Sin, in Akkadian mythology, the god of the moon, the father of the sun god Shamash, the planet Venus (Inanna or Ishtar) and the fire god Nusku. He was conceived by the god of air Enlil, who took possession of the goddess of agriculture Ninlil, and was born in the underworld. Sin's wife is Ningal, the "great lady." Usually the god was depicted as an old man with a blue beard, who was called the “shining heavenly boat.” Every evening, sitting in a wonderful crescent-shaped boat, the god sailed across the sky. Some sources claim that the month is the instrument of God, and the moon is his crown. Sin is the enemy of malefactors, since his light revealed their vicious plans. One day evil spirits The Utukku plotted against Sin. With the help of Shamash, the goddess of love and fertility Ishtar and the thunder god Adad, they obscured his light. However, the great god Marduk went to war against the conspirators and returned Sin to his radiance. Sin, whose symbol was the crescent moon, was considered a sage and it was believed that the moon god measured time by waxing and waning. In addition, the tides of water in the swamps around the city of Ur, where his temple was located, provided abundant food for livestock.

Teshub

Teshub, god of thunder, revered throughout Asia Minor. The texts of Hittite mythology tell how the formidable Teshub defeated the father of the gods Kumarbi. Kumarbi gave birth to an avenger son, Ullikumme, designed to restore power to him; created from diorite and grown to enormous size on the back of the giant Upelluri, it was so large that, trying to examine it, Teshub climbed to the top high mountain, and when he saw the monster, he was horrified and called on the gods for help. However, this did not bring him success. Ullikumme reached the gates of Kummiya, Teshub's hometown, and forced the god to abdicate power. Teshub sought advice from the wise god Enki; after some thought, he pulled out from the ground an ancient saw with the help of which heaven and earth were separated, and cut the diorite at the base. As a result, Ullikumme quickly weakened, and the gods decided to attack him again. The end of the text is lost, but it is generally accepted that Teshub nevertheless regained his kingdom and throne. Teshub's wife, Hebat, occupied an equal position with her husband, and sometimes even surpassed him. Teshub's attributes are an ax and lightning. Sometimes he was depicted with a beard, armed with a club, trampling a sacred mountain.

Utu

Utu (“day”, “shining”, “light”), in Sumerian mythology the solar god, son of the moon god Nanna, brother of Inanna (Ishtar). On his daily journey through the sky, Utu-Shamash hid in the underworld in the evening, bringing light, drink and food to the dead at night, and in the morning he again emerged from behind the mountains, and the exit was opened for him by two guardian gods. Uta was also revered as a judge, the guardian of justice and truth. Most often, the god was depicted with rays behind his back and a sickle-shaped serrated knife in his hand.

Shamash

Shamash, in Akkadian mythology, the all-seeing god of the sun and justice. His radiance illuminated all atrocities, which allowed him to foresee the future. In the morning the guardian, a scorpion man, opened the gates of the huge Mount Mashu, and Shamash rose to the highest point of the sky; in the evening he drove his chariot to another high mountain and hid at its gates. At night, God passed through the depths of the earth to the first gate. Shamash's wife, Aya, gave birth to justice, Kittu, and law and righteousness, Mishara. In Sumerian mythology it corresponds to Utu.

Enki

Enki, Eya, Ea ("lord of the earth"), in Sumerian-Akkadian mythology one of the main deities; he is the master of the Abzu, the underground world ocean of fresh water, all earthly waters, as well as the god of wisdom and the lord of the divine powers of me. The ancients revered him as the creator of grain and livestock, the organizer of world order. One of the myths tells how Enki fertilized the earth and “determined the fate” of cities and countries. He created the plow, the hoe, the brick mold; Having created plants and animals, Enki gave them to the power of the “king of the mountains” Samukan, and made the shepherd Dumuzi master of the stalls and sheepfolds. God is also credited with the invention of gardening, vegetable gardening, flax growing and the collection of medicinal herbs.

Enlil

Enlil (“lord of the wind”), in Sumerian-Akkadian mythology one of the main deities, the son of the sky god Anu. His wife was considered Ninlil, whom he mastered by force, for which he was banished to underworld. According to the myths that compared Enlil to a roaring wind and a wild bull, he was particularly vicious towards people: he sent them pestilence, drought, salinization of the soil and, to top it all, - global flood, during which only Ut-Napishtim was saved, having built the ark on the advice of the gods. Enlil, who was often irritated by the noise and bustle of human life, in anger sent storms, storms, terrible disasters to the earth, even the flood.

Mythology of the ancient world, -M.: Belfax, 2002
Myths and legends Ancient East, -M.: Norint, 2002

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