World Religions › Ancient civilizations › Polytheism: the many gods of the ancient world
Mesopotamian religion (Sumer, Babylon, Assyria)
c. 3000 BC – 1st century AD (roots earlier)· Religion or tradition· Ancient, indigenous & folk
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
The religion of ancient Iraq's Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians, built around city gods, temples and divination.
See it on the World Religions map →What it is
Each city belonged to a god: Enlil at Nippur, Inanna (Ishtar) at Uruk, the moon god Nanna at Ur, later Marduk at Babylon and Ashur at Assur. Temples, often beside stepped towers called ziggurats, were the gods' homes; the myths said humans were created to serve the gods by feeding them through offerings. Priests read omens in sheep livers and the stars, the roots of astrology. The dead went to a gloomy underworld. The last cuneiform texts date to about AD 75.
Why it matters
Among the first literate civilizations, Mesopotamia left the oldest written myths, prayers and laws, and its stories echo in the Hebrew Bible.
Sources and history
Hundreds of thousands of cuneiform clay tablets, deciphered in the 1850s, including Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh, plus excavated temples and ziggurats such as Ur's.
Questions and debates
How far ordinary people shared the temple religion, and how Sumerian and later Semitic beliefs blended, is still studied.
Inside this (2)
Connections (3)
▸Epic of Gilgamesh is the great epic of Mesopotamian religion (Sumer, Babylon, Assyria)Historical record
The connection
Gilgamesh puts Mesopotamian beliefs into story: gods who are powerful but capricious, a flood they send to destroy humanity, and a bleak underworld where the dead eat dust. Its lesson, that immortality belongs to the gods and not to humans, captures a core Mesopotamian view of human limits.
When and where
Sumerian poems about Uruk's king written down about 2100 BC; the standard Akkadian version about 1200 BC; key tablets from Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh, 7th century BC.
Historical evidence
Hundreds of tablets and fragments from many sites and centuries, including the flood tablet George Smith read in 1872.
Questions and debates
How far the epic reflects popular religion rather than scribal literature is debated, and gaps in the text leave some episodes unclear.
▸Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation epic is the best-known creation myth of Mesopotamian religion (Sumer, Babylon, Assyria)Historical record
The connection
Enuma Elish explained why Marduk, Babylon's city god, ruled the gods: he defeated the sea goddess Tiamat, built the world from her body and created humans to serve the gods. It turned a city's political rise into cosmic order, and was recited at Babylon's New Year festival.
When and where
Babylon, about 1700–1100 BC; copies from Nineveh, Ashur and Sippar. Assyrian versions swapped in their own god Ashur for Marduk.
Historical evidence
Seven clay tablets, first published by George Smith in 1876; ritual texts mention its recitation during the Akitu festival.
Questions and debates
Its date is debated: many link it to Nebuchadnezzar I's recovery of Marduk's statue from Elam, about 1100 BC. Other Mesopotamian creation accounts, like Atrahasis, differ.
▸Mesopotamian religion (Sumer, Babylon, Assyria) surrounded the Jewish exiles during Babylonian exile and fall of the First TempleHistorical record
The connection
Deported Judeans lived among Babylon's temples, festivals and gods, above all Marduk, whose New Year procession displayed imperial power. The prophets mocked such idols, yet contact left marks: the Jewish calendar still uses Babylonian month names like Nisan and Tishri, and exile may have shaped the Bible's creation and flood stories.
When and where
Babylonia, 597–538 BC and after; exiles settled in towns like Al-Yahudu ('Judahtown') near Nippur, as clay tablets show.
Historical evidence
The Jerusalem Talmud says the month names 'came up with them from Babylon'; Isaiah 44 satirizes idol-making; Babylonian tablets record Judean exiles' names and business deals.
Questions and debates
How much the exiles absorbed versus resisted Babylonian culture, and whether Genesis's creation and flood stories took final shape in response, is debated.