Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia

In this episode, we finally explore the vast and important religious tradition of ancient Mesopotamia!

Sources/Suggested Reading:
Bottéro, Jean (2004). "Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia". Translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan. University of Chicago Press.

Michalowski, Piotr (2012). "The Mortal Kings of Ur: Short Century of Divine Rule in Ancient Mesopotamia". In Religion and Power: Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond (ed. Nicole Brisch). Chicago: The Oriental Institute.

Tzvi Abusch, I. (2020). "Mesopotamian Religion". In Essays on Babylonian and Biblical Literature and Religion, Vol. 65: 5-23. Brill.

Van De Mieroop, Marc (2015). A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000-323 BC. Wiley-Blackwell.

#Sumeria #Mesopotamia #Religion

[soundofshamash]

Assyrians are still here and we still speak our 4500+ year old language which still has mostly Akkadian words in it. The majority of us are Christian now and we are fighting for our lands in our ancestral lands of Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. The large portion of us are in Iraq. We call our land Beth Nahrain meaning the land between two rivers (Greek: Mesopotamia)

[lkriticos]

I love that we got a spoiler alert for literally the oldest piece of literature in the world.

[themarid]

Fun fact: the Name "Iraq/Irak"(العراق) is the Arabicized name for the name of the sumerian city of Uruk(عوروق/اوروك)
And the name Iraq give the same meaning as the greek word Mesopotamia

[jasonbrown]

perfect content, no fluff, no dramatic music put on by a symphony, no exaggerations or talking about aliens

[OmarCanada]

My childhood friends in Iraq still speaks Assyrian, always fascinates me how it’s still exists!

[pedrovictoralves]

You just made me happy for providing 44min of Ancient Mesopotamia's religion in this episode. Thanks!

[HaiderAli-qcuy]

Man, you have got next level of understanding and comprehension of religious ideas and practices. Your every content is a master piece. However I am wonder to see the limited number of subscribers as I think you should have millions of subscribers. By the way I wish you luck

[anmay]

I really respect this guys unbiased approach to ancient Mesopotamia. You just see so many videos where they fill in all the gaps with conspiracy theorys. It's appreciated that he states that where these gaps are in their culture and mythology. He also states the facts how there commonly known amongst historians and anthropologist. You've earned yourself a new fan! Great work 👏

[hugodesrosiers-plaisance]

34:25
"And prayer atones for guilt."
Sounds like an Ancient way of saying that dutiful introspection is the way to a peaceful life. Our Ancient ancestors definitely had a wisdom beyond what most modern people would think.
I love some spiritual brain-food and your channel always delivers top quality material.

[orboakin]

It's sunday and I'm currently at the last 3 hours of my Wendys shift, doing the dishes and listening to this to pass time. Love it!

[sw]

Always happy to see popular channels provide in-depth information on Mesopotamia, something that was severely lacking in most of our education despite it being a foundational civilization. Also glad to see sources like Van De Mieroop, and excited to check out Tzvi. Very good job all :)

[papasquat]

This is excellent timing. Just had my first session of my first history class in college on ancient Mesopotamia and one of my favorite youtubers makes such an excellent video on the topic. Thank you so much, love your channel

[JamesBiggar]

Great video. It's too bad Youtube feels the need to be insulting and add that 'context' bar under your video linking to Wikipedia of all places (because that's a reliable, unbiased source managed by professionals only), as if you're pedaling conspiracy theories or didn't do a good enough job explaining an ancient deity and might offend a dead Sumerian.

[katryan]

This is my 1st time watching you. Very good. Thank you so much.
I'm American Indian and I am SO FASCINATED that many tribal creation stories are similar. Animism, yet celebrating the Great Spirit/Father or the Great Mother.

[raghuramkonkepudi]

Great presentation. There are so many similarities between Hindu Religious practices and practises you described pertaining to ancient Mesopotamia

[jeanettewaverly]

Very interesting and clearly presented. I appreciate your comments on the differences between non-Abrahamic mythology and the linear, “one-version-fits-all” approach taken by the current dominant Western religions.

[alexsarkozi]

i just can't wait... greeting's from germany, you deserve millions of subscribers
your video's are something else really

[amawesome]

So, essentially, according to the oldest civilization known to man, the human race is a genetically engineered slave race, created for the sole purpose of providing labor for the gods. That is a fascinating, if not controversial take on the creation of humanity.

[dursunbilinmis]

Dude mich Respect for your Channel and your Open minded approach .

[jon-marcyaden]

Fantastic overview! I love the design of your lecture, with pictures, useful source material, as well as scholarly quotes. Thank you for compiling this information and sharing it online!