Sumerian religion

Overview

Sumerian religion is the oldest religious tradition known from written sources, practiced in the city-states of southern Mesopotamia from shortly after 3000 BCE until Sumerian ceased to be a living language around 1900 BCE, with each city centered on the temple of its own patron god. Sumerian myths and ritual forms passed almost intact to the Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians, who preserved them in cuneiform for another two millennia.^{[1–2, 7–8]}

History

City-states around the temple c. 3300–2334 BCE

Sumerian speakers were established in southern Mesopotamia by about 3300 BCE, and shortly after 3000 BCE Mesopotamia's recorded history begins; by the third millennium the land held at least a dozen walled city-states, each built around the temple of its own patron god.^[1–2]

Akkad and the Third Dynasty of Ur c. 2334–2004 BCE

Sargon of Akkad conquered the Sumerian city-states and built the first Mesopotamian empire; after his dynasty's fall, the Third Dynasty of Ur briefly reunified the south, and it was in this age that most surviving Sumerian literature took the written form in which it survives.^[9]

Absorbed into a wider tradition c. 2000–1900 BCE

Sumer's political unity ended when Ur fell around 2000 BCE, and Sumerian ceased to be a living spoken language soon after, even as Sumerian religious vocabulary and temple culture carried on among Akkadian-speaking successors.^[7–8]

Key moments

1. c. 3300 BCEThe temples of Uruk · Uruk, southern Iraq
2. c. 2300 BCEEnheduanna, the first named author · Ur, southern Iraq
3. c. 2100 BCEThe Ziggurat of Ur · Ur, southern Iraq

Beliefs

Enlil · En-líl

lord wind

Enlil was worshipped at Nippur's Ekur temple as the god with effective rule over the earth; myth credits him with giving humans the hoe and with sending plague, drought and flood.^[4]

Inanna · Inanna

Inanna, goddess of Venus and of Uruk's Eanna temple, is the protagonist of the myth of her descent to the netherworld; the Akkadians worshipped her as Ishtar.^[5]

Practice

Praise and lament

Professional singers, the encomiast, sang hymns of praise, while a separate class, the elegist, sang laments over destroyed temples and dying fertility gods.^[10]

Scripture

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Separate Sumerian poems about the legendary king Gilgamesh of Uruk circulated before being woven, centuries later, into the longer Akkadian epic.^[11]

Art & objects

Public-domain objects from museum collections. Select one to see it at the museum.

Statue of GudeaMesopotamia, Neo-Sumerian, Iraq, Girsu, c. 2144–2124 BCEAmulet Seal in the Form of a BullMesopotamia, Sumerian, Iraq, Early Bronze Age I (c. 3300–3000 BCE), c. 3250 BCEBull Procession CupSumerian, Iraq, c. 3100–2900 BCEStriding GoatSumerian, Iraq, c. 3200–3000 BCE"Foundation Nail" of GudeaMesopotamia, Neo-Sumerian, Iraq, probably Lagash, c. 2100 BCEVotive cone with cuneiform inscription of GudeaNeo-Sumerian, Neo-Sumerian, ca. 2090 BCEStanding male worshiperSumerian, Early Dynastic I-II, ca. 2900–2600 BCECuneiform tablet: Sumerian dedicatory(?) inscription from Ekur, the temple of the god EnlilKassite, Kassite, ca. 16th–15th century BCEVotive bowlSumerian, Early Dynastic III, ca. 2600–2350 BCEVotive cone with cuneiform inscription of Lipit-EshtarIsin-Larsa, Isin-Larsa, ca. 1934–1924 BCEFoundation cone with cuneiform inscription of Enmetena of LagashSumerian, Early Dynastic IIIb, ca. 2500–2350 BCEFoundation figure of Ur-Namma holding a basketNeo-Sumerian, Ur III, ca. 2112–2095 BCEStatue of Gudea, named “Gudea, the man who built the temple, may his life be long”Neo-Sumerian, Neo-Sumerian, ca. 2090 BCEStanding female worshiperSumerian, Early Dynastic IIIa, ca. 2600–2500 BCE

How we know

How we know

Knowledge of Sumerian religion rests almost entirely on archaeology and cuneiform tablets excavated since the nineteenth century; most literary copies come from Old Babylonian scribal schools centuries after the texts were first composed.^[12]

Common misconceptions

Glossary

ziggurat

A stepped temple tower, built of mud brick, that rose above a Mesopotamian city as the house of its patron god.^[6]

cuneiform

The wedge-shaped script, pressed into clay with a reed stylus, used to write Sumerian, Akkadian and other Mesopotamian languages.^[13]

Ekur

"Mountain house," the temple of the god Enlil at Nippur.^[4]

Sumerian King List

An ancient Mesopotamian text recording cities and kings believed to have ruled from before a legendary flood onward.^[9]