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Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic, worshipping over 2,100 different deities, many of which were associated with a specific state within Mesopotamia, such as Sumer, Akkad, Assyria or Babylonia, or a specific Mesopotamian city. [16] Mesopotamian religion has historically the oldest body of recorded literature of any religious tradition.
Early Hittite religion bore traits descended from Proto-Indo-European religion, but the later Hittite religions became more and more assimilated to Mesopotamian religion. Persian Zoroastrianism is a reformed form of the hypothesized ancient Iranian religion , which shares a common Proto-Aryan root with the Indian Vedic religion .
The Mesopotamian pantheon evolved greatly over the course of its history. [16] In general, the history of Mesopotamian religion can be divided into four phases. [16] During the first phase, starting in the fourth millennium BC, deities' domains mainly focused on basic needs for human survival. [17]
The bulk of the human religious experience pre-dates written history, which is roughly 7,000 years old. [1] A lack of written records results in most of the knowledge of pre-historic religion being derived from archaeological records and other indirect sources, and from suppositions. Much pre-historic religion is subject to continued debate.
The Ancient Mesopotamian religion was the first recorded. Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc, [45] surrounded by a huge, holed space, and above that, heaven. They believed that water was everywhere, the top, bottom and sides, and that the universe was born from this enormous sea. Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic.
Sumerian religion was the religion practiced by the people of Sumer, the first literate civilization found in recorded history and based in ancient Mesopotamia, and what is modern day Iraq. The Sumerians widely regarded their divinities as responsible for all matters pertaining to the natural and social orders of their society. [3]: 3–4
Seated parturient figurine from the Halaf period. Anatolia - 5th millennium BC. Walters Art Museum - Baltimore. The prehistory of Mesopotamia is the period between the Paleolithic and the emergence of writing in the area of the Fertile Crescent around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as well as surrounding areas such as the Zagros foothills, southeastern Anatolia, and northwestern Syria.
By 3300 BC, just before the first Egyptian dynasty, Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper Egypt to the south, and Lower Egypt to the north. [ 63 ] Egyptian civilization begins during the second phase of the Naqada culture, known as the Gerzeh period , around 3500 BC and coalesces with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt ...