Religious system of the ancient Mesopotamia. Culture and religion of the peoples of Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC

Ancient Egyptian civilization developed in contact with the ancient states of Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia), which existed since the 4th millennium BC. until the middle of the 6th century. BC, that is, approximately simultaneously with Ancient Egypt. However, if the ancient Egyptian civilization can be considered homogeneous and stable, then the history of Mesopotamia is a series of successively replaced civilizations, that is, it was multi-layered. The neighbors of Ancient Egypt were the states of Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Elam, Urartu, Hatti, Babylon and New Babylon, etc. The main inhabitants of Mesopotamia were the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Arameans and other peoples. The Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations reached their greatest prosperity and influence.

There is reason to consider all the civilizations of Mesopotamia as a single complex, since they have much in common. The cradle of civilization was a long and narrow strip of land along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. At the turn of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. city-states appeared on this territory, the predecessors of the Greek city-policies, but with a different political structure and economic structure). Almost all of them were closely connected with the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and the civilization of this region was no less ancient than the Egyptian one. The states that existed in the region were typically eastern despotisms.

In the states of Mesopotamia there were many cities, quite wide domestic and transit trade has developed . The latter was not typical for Ancient Egypt. The development of trade in Mesopotamia was caused by a number of circumstances. Although the lands of this region were fertile, it was difficult to maintain it in conditions of unfavorable river floods. Therefore, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia sought to develop trade and develop new lands. In addition, repeated destruction of cities as a result of wars and severe floods led to the fact that irrigation canals were not regularly cleared of sand, the soil was not washed with water and lost fertility. To overcome these difficulties, the inhabitants of the region found a way out in the development of trade and the development of new lands.

The history and culture of Mesopotamia was more dynamic than in Egypt. Throughout their history, the states of the region established trade relations with their immediate and distant neighbors, bringing ivory and colored stones from India, gold jewelry and grain products from Egypt, antimony, tin and copper from the cities of Asia Minor and the Caucasus Mountains.

Ancients eastern civilizations Mesopotamia reminds of its former existence in two images - visual , in the form of various material cultural monuments, and written . Visual and written images allow us to develop hypotheses and conjectural judgments about the culture of a people, a state, and the level of economic, political, social, and cultural development of civilization with a greater degree of reliability.

If Ancient Egyptian civilization preserved visual and written images , That civilizations of Mesopotamia , especially Sumerian-Babylonian, V to a greater extent– written . Quantitatively, written cultural monuments of the region exceed material monuments. If in Ancient Egypt they used mainly stone in construction, then in Mesopotamia they used raw brick. If the waters of the Nile flowed relatively calmly, especially in the lower reaches, and during floods carried fertile silt, then the Tigris and Euphrates were capricious, carried a lot of sand and clay, and their floods were destructive for structures made of raw brick. Apparently, the floods were so strong and destructive that it was in Mesopotamia that the myth of the Great Flood was born, which destroyed all sinful people and eventually passed into the Old Testament of the Bible.

Sumerian-Babylonian culture can be called written. Clay, with appropriate processing, turned out to be a material that became not the only, but reliable storage ancient word. Scientists had hundreds of thousands of cuneiform clay tablets at their disposal, which they managed to read. A significant part of the archives that have survived to this day cuneiform tablets consists of economic, administrative and legal documents that allow one to judge the history of a society - its social structure, economic condition, level of culture.

At the end of the 4th millennium BC. unknown tribes came to the Euphrates Valley ethnic origin- Sumerians, or Sumerians. They developed the swampy, but very fertile alluvial valley of the Euphrates, and then the more capricious Tigris: they drained the swamps, coped with the irregular, at times catastrophic floods of the Euphrates by creating a system of artificial irrigation. The Sumerians formed the first city-states in Mesopotamia. The Sumerian period of history covers about one and a half thousand years, ending at the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd millennium BC.

When the Sumerians came to Mesopotamia, they already knew how to make pottery and smelt copper from ore. But perhaps the most important achievement of the people was the invention at the end of the 4th – beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. writing. To this day, Sumerian writing is considered the most ancient on Earth.

It is obvious that the higher level of culture of the Sumerians allowed them to influence their neighbors - the Semites-Akkadians. The southern part of Mesopotamia, inhabited by the Sumerians, was called the country Sumer , the northern part - the country Akkad , named after the people - Akkadians. The language of the country of Akkad was a branch of the ancient Semitic language of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages, which included the ancient Egyptian language. To the east of the country of Sumer, in the mountains near the Persian Gulf, there was a state Elam with the capital city of Susa (modern Iranian city of Shush). The ruins of city fortifications, palaces, tombs, reliefs, steles with inscriptions, etc. have been preserved. The northern part of Mesopotamia was called the country Ashur , or Assyria , the capital of which since the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. there was the city of Ashur (ruins of it remain in Iraq), and then Nineveh. The Assyrians were the first in the region to learn how to ride a horse, and were able to smelt iron from ore and make weapons from it. North of Assyria there was a state Urartu with the capital Tushpa on the shore of Lake Van (now the city of Van in Turkey), from which the citadel and steles with inscriptions have been preserved.

Kingdoms that arose in Mesopotamia sometimes existed for several dozen centuries, but died mainly "from bureaucratic decay ". Thus, in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, the Akkadians established themselves in the south of Mesopotamia. In the 22nd century BC, the Akkadian ruler Sargon the Ancient, or the Great, united Mesopotamia into single state. In the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. main role The Babylonians, a people who spoke Akkadian and formed as a result of the merger of Sumerians and Akkadians, begin to play in Mesopotamia. The Sumerian language was already dead tongue and in Babylonian culture played approximately the same role as Latin in medieval Europe.

Around 1750 BC The king of Babylon, Hammurabi, united all of Mesopotamia. It was created under him code of laws (known in history as laws King Hammurabi) , in which the attempt was made legally streamline the payment system , enter guarantee of legal protection of property of the population , lay down the principle of equal financial liability . True, sometimes this principle reeks of barbarism. Thus, a builder was punished with death if the house he built collapsed and its owner died; the doctor who failed to carry out the operation had to cut off his hand.

The laws turned out to be acceptable to the majority of the peoples of Hammurabi's multi-tribal empire. They contained articles devoted to the legal regulation of property and settlement documents. Thus, cases were not accepted for trial if the agreement was concluded without witnesses, or if the plaintiff and defendant did not draw up an agreement. The judge was punished if he made a decision that contradicted the obligations under the sealed document. The Code of Laws established wages according to various types works and services. For failure to fulfill debt obligations and loans, it was necessary to compensate for losses incurred, etc.

After 1600 BC The Babylonian kingdom collapsed and was ruled by the Hittites, Kassites, Assyrians, Chaldeans (Arameans), Persians, Macedonians, and in the modern period - Parthians, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks.

At the end of the 9th–7th centuries. BC. the most powerful state of Western Asia was Assyria, which subjugated the entire Mesopotamia and extended its influence to Asia Minor, the Mediterranean and even at one time to Egypt. Under the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, a library was collected (30 thousand cuneiform tablets) – a large collection of cuneiform texts. The library contained texts in Akkadian and Aramaic (the official languages ​​of Assyria), texts and dictionaries in Sumerian, Egyptian, Phoenician and other languages, as well as texts from Elam. Assembly of Ashurbanipal in 612 BC suffered greatly during the war between the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the Medes. The remains of the library were found in the mid-19th century. in the former capital of Assyria - Nineveh (now the northern regions of Iraq).

The last pages of the history of Mesopotamia were associated with Babylon. At the end of the 7th century. BC. The Babylonians, together with their Median neighbors, defeated Assyria. Having existed for about a hundred years, the Neo-Babylonian kingdom in 538 BC. fell under the blows of Persian troops.

Thus, over the centuries, empires arose and died on the territory of Mesopotamia, but only, perhaps, cuneiform remained unchanged - the dominant writing system of the region, which acted as a kind of unifying factor. Around 3000 BC The Sumerians began to convey in images the names of individual specific objects and general concepts. The number of characters was about a thousand. The signs were milestones for memory, consolidating the most important points conveyed thought, but not coherent speech. They gradually became associated with certain words. This already made it possible to use them to designate sound combinations. Thus, the sign for “legs” could convey not only the meaning of the verbs “walk”, “stand”, “bring”, etc., but also a syllabic meaning. Verbal-syllabic writing developed by the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. into a single system.

The Akkadians, and then the Babylonians and Assyrians, adapted cuneiform for their Semitic language (mid-2nd millennium BC), reducing the number of current signs to 350 and creating new syllabic values ​​that corresponded to the Akkadian phonetic system. However, Sumerian ideograms and spellings of individual words and expressions also continued to be used in the Akkadian system. The Akkadian cuneiform system went beyond Mesopotamia and was used by other languages ​​- Elema, Urartian, etc.

It has reached our time (in the form of prisms, cylinders, stone slabs, tablets) great amount cuneiform monuments and texts: business and economic documents, historical inscriptions, dictionaries, scientific works, religious and magical texts. Their decoding began in early XIX V. Through the efforts of English, Irish, German and French scientists, Sumerian and Akkadian cuneiform, as well as Hittite and Urartian cuneiform belonging to the Akkadian system, were deciphered.

In the most general outline literary monuments of Mesopotamia can be presented as follows:

* · beginning of the 3rd millennium BC – the first texts in the Sumerian language: lists of gods, records of hymns, proverbs, sayings, some myths;

* · end of the 3rd – beginning of the 2nd millennium BC – the bulk of currently known literary monuments: hymns, myths, prayers, epics, ritual songs, school and didactic texts, funeral elegies, catalogs and lists of works (the titles of 87 monuments, i.e. more than a third, are known to us); first literary texts in Akkadian; Old Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh; the story of the flood; translations from Sumerian;

* · end of the 2nd millennium BC – creation of a general literary religious canon; the bulk of the monuments known to us are in the Akkadian language (the poem about the creation of the world, hymns and prayers, spells, didactic literature);

* · mid-1st millennium BC – Assyrian libraries (library of Ashurbanipal); main version of the Epic of Gilgamesh; royal inscriptions, prayers and other works.

To this day, specialists in Sumerology and Assyrology are engaged in the publication of new texts and their interpretation. Thus, Sumerologists, for example, continue to face the task of understanding written monuments. Apparently, for now, Sumerian-Babylonian and Assyrian literature can be considered as something intermediate between author’s literature (albeit mostly anonymous) and folklore, on the one hand, and between literature and written monuments, on the other.

The civilizations of Mesopotamia had their own pantheons of gods. Information about them can be obtained both from written sources (myths, hymns, prayers, etc.), starting from the 3rd millennium BC, and from materials of fine art that date back to the 6th millennium BC .

It can be assumed that by the time the first Sumerian city-states were formed, ideas about an anthropomorphic deity had formed. The patron deities of the community were, first of all, the personification of the creative and productive forces of nature, with which were combined the ideas of the power of the leader of the tribe-community, which he apparently combined with the functions of a priest. From the first written sources (late IV - early II millennium BC) the names (or symbols) of the goddess are known Inanna (deity of Uruk, goddess of fertility, love and strife, central female image, passed into the Akkadian pantheon), gods Enlil (common Sumerian god, patron of the city of Nippur, son of the sky god Ana ), Enki (patron of the city of Eredu [g], lord of the underground fresh water, world ocean, deity of wisdom), Nanna (lunar god, worshiped in the city of Ur) and dh. The oldest list gods, compiled around the 26th century. BC, identifies six supreme gods of the early Sumerian pantheon: An, Enlil, Inanna, Enki, Nanna and the solar god Utu.

One of the most typical gods of the civilizations of Mesopotamia is the image mother goddess (in iconography, images of a woman with a child in her arms are sometimes associated with her), which was revered under different names. Another equally common image is fertility gods . In the myths about them there is a close connection with the cult. The cyclicity manifested in the “life-death-life” ritual associated with earthly life and the underworld, that is, life–death–resurrection.

The underground river through which the carrier ferried acted as the border of the underworld. Those entering the underworld pass through the seven gates of the underworld, where they are greeted by a gatekeeper Neti . The conditions of stay in the underworld are differentiated: the souls for which funeral rite and sacrifices were made, those who died in battle and those who had many children. Not buried souls of the dead return to earth and bring trouble to the living.

One of the central places in the mythology of Mesopotamia was occupied by the problem of the appearance of man. There are several myths about the creation of people, according to which the gods sculpted people from clay so that they would cultivate the land, herd livestock, collect fruits, etc. to feed the gods. When a person was made, the gods determined his fate and held a feast. The drunken gods began to sculpt people again, but they ended up with inferior people (women unable to give birth, creatures without sex).

Pantheon of Akkadian-Babylonian gods largely coincides with Sumerian. Coincidence and religious ideas about the role of the gods. The role of the goddess Inanna performed by the Akkadian goddess Ishtar , god Enlil - God Bel , god Utu - God Shamash etc. As Babylon rises, it begins to play an increasingly important role. main god of this city Marduk , although his name is Sumerian in origin.

Akkadian-Babylonian ideas about the creation of the world and the human race are associated with tales of human disasters, the death of people, and even the destruction of the universe. The cause of all adversity is the anger of the gods, their desire to reduce the number of the ever-growing human race, which bores them with its noise. Often disasters are perceived not as legal retribution for sins committed, but as the evil whim of a deity. So, the god Enlil, outraged by the fussiness and noisiness of people, decides to destroy them, sending plague, pestilence, drought, famine, and salting the soil. But with the help of the god Enki, people cope with these disasters and multiply again every time. Finally, Enlil sends a flood on people, and humanity perishes. Only Atrahasis is saved, who, on the advice of Enki, builds big ship, immerses his family, artisans, grain, all property, as well as animals “who eat grass” on it.

The mythological idea of ​​the world and man testifies to the deep internal unity of the culture and religion of the states of Mesopotamia, their impact on the formation of the worldview of subsequent generations in other civilizations. The Flood, Noah's Ark, others biblical stories indicate the historical relationship between the formation and development of world cultures. In the mythological stories of Mesopotamia, a significant place is given water cult . This is a flood, a river in the underworld, and a number of gods associated with water (Inanna, Enki), which, apparently, was determined by the role and attitude towards it as one of the fundamental foundations of the universe. Water, as in life, also acted as a source good will, giving a harvest, and in the role of an evil element, bringing destruction and death.

Another such cult was cult of heaven and heavenly bodies , the most important part of the cosmos, which stretch over everything on earth. In Sumerian-Akkadian mythology, the “father of the gods” An is the god of the sky and its creator, Utu is the solar god, Shamash is the sun god, Inanna was revered as the goddess of the planet Venus. Astral, solar and other myths testified to the interest of the inhabitants of Mesopotamia in outer space and their desire to know it. In the constant movement of the heavenly bodies along a constantly given path, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia saw a manifestation of divine will. But they wanted to know this will, and hence the attention to the stars, planets, and sun. Interest in them led to the development of astronomy and mathematics. Babylonian “stargazers” calculated the period of revolution of the Sun and Moon, compiled a solar calendar and a map of the starry sky, and paid attention to the pattern of solar eclipses. The astral myths of Mesopotamia reflected a logical picture of the movement of the heavenly bodies, which was described through mythological animal symbols.

In astral myths, stars and constellations were often represented in the form of animals. In Ancient Babylonia, for example, there were 12 zodiac signs, and each god had its own celestial body. Earthly geography corresponded to heavenly geography. The ancient inhabitants believed that countries, rivers, cities, temples existed in the sky in the form of stars, and earthly objects were reflections of heavenly ones. Thus, it was believed that the plan of the city of Nineveh was first drawn in the heavens and existed from ancient times. In one constellation there is the celestial Tigris, in the other - the celestial Euphrates, and the city of Nippur corresponds to the constellation Cancer. Other cities also have their own specific constellations. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to identify them with modern names star world of the Universe.

The scientific knowledge and research of "scientists" and "stargazers", whose role was played mainly by the priesthood, was associated with magic and fortune telling. Therefore, it was no coincidence that astrology and the compilation of horoscopes associated with it were born in Mesopotamia. Residents were sure that there was a certain pattern and connection between the location of celestial bodies and historical events, the destinies of people and nations. It seemed to them that observing the sky, stars and planets was the way to determine the fate of a person. Gradually, the practice of calculating fate, as well as “good” and “bad” days, developed.

In Ancient Mesopotamia, priests did not have the influence that the priesthood had in Ancient Egypt. Nevertheless residents believed in the subjection of man to higher powers , into the predetermination of fate and obeyed the will of kings and priests. That's why, on the one hand, the population of eastern despotism is characterized by humility and faith in fate, on the other hand, by faith in the possibility of fighting an often hostile environment . As we see, they combined faith in witchcraft and mysticism, the mystery of the world around them and fear of it with sobriety of thought, a desire for accurate calculations and pragmatism. This is where the origins of arithmetic and geometry, the creation of formulas for measuring land plots, the ability to square and extract square roots, the development of urban planning and architecture, the construction of palace and temple complexes originate.

Back in ancient Babylon the first schools and the teaching profession arose . who was engaged not only in teaching, but was also a scribe. In Sumer, Babylon, and later in Assyria, scribes left behind a large number of tablets (there are about 500 thousand of them in museums around the world, but many of them have not yet been read). They taught children to write on clay tablets, count, calculate land areas, volumes of excavation work, and observe the movements of planets and stars. The teacher not only taught the subject, but was also considered a “wise” person, “knowing”, and above all in divine matters, since mathematics and astronomy were understood as divine principles.

There is a lot of evidence about the level of urban planning from archaeologists studying ancient cities. It is known that in the southern part of Mesopotamia there were the ancient cities of Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Kish and others. Archaeological research of the city of Ur - the capital of the “kingdom of Sumer and Akkad” in the 21st century. BC - indicates a high level of civilization. At that time, the city was an irregular oval surrounded by a mud wall. During the excavations, the remains of a cult ziggurat tower, built of mud brick and lined with baked brick, were discovered. In 16 tombs (presumably royal) of the 25th century. BC. Numerous examples of jewelry and artistic crafts (made of gold, silver, lapis lazuli and other materials) were found. The state fell around 2000 BC, and the city of Ur fell into decay by the end of the 4th century. BC.

In the cities of southern Mesopotamia from the end of the 4th – beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. a certain type of construction of temples-sanctuaries, palaces with reliefs, as well as fortifications was developed . In the 3rd millennium BC. has developed new type temple - ziggurat , a cult tiered tower made of raw brick with 3-7 tiers in the shape of a truncated pyramid or parallelepiped, with a courtyard and a statue of a deity in the inner sanctuary. The tiers were connected by stairs and gentle ramps.

Each tier (step) was dedicated to one of the gods and his planet, and was apparently landscaped and had a certain color. Multi-stage temples ended with observatory pavilions, from where priests conducted astronomical observations. A seven-tier ziggurat could have the following dedications and colors: for example, the 1st tier was dedicated to the Sun and painted gold; 2nd tier – Moon – silver; 3rd tier – Saturn – black; 4th tier to Jupiter – dark red; 5th tier - Mars - bright red, like the color of blood spilled in battles; 6th tier - Venus - yellow, because it is closest to the Sun; the seventh - Mercury - in blue. The seventh temple was dedicated to the god Ea (Enki). Unlike the pyramids, ziggurats were not posthumous or funerary monuments.

The largest ziggurat was apparently the Tower of Babel, which is sometimes compared in size to the Pyramid of Cheops. According to one version, the tower had a height and base of 90 m, landscaped terraces. There are legends associated with the Tower of Babel that are reflected in the Old Testament of the Bible. The first book of Moses, “Genesis” (chapter 11), tells about the construction of a tower city “with its height reaching to heaven,” for which the Lord confused the language of those who built the tower and “scattered them... from there over all the earth.”

The temples of Mesopotamia were not only religious, but also scientific, commercial institutions, and centers of writing. Scribes were trained in schools called tablet houses that existed at temples. They trained specialists in writing, counting, singing and musical art. In addition, they had to know rituals, law and accounting. Accounting workers could come from poor families and even slaves. After completing their studies at schools, graduates became ministers in churches, private farms, and even royal court. There was no caste restriction, so much depended on the personal abilities of the graduate.

Few material architectural monuments of the civilizations of Mesopotamia have survived to our time. Therefore, each of them is of great importance for understanding the states of the civilizations of Mesopotamia. It was possible to draw up plans for the development of some cities. Some of the monuments have been reconstructed and are now kept as exhibits in museums around the world. For example, the plans of the city of Babylon of the 7th-6th centuries have been restored. BC. and him architectural ensemble, created under King Nebuchadnezzar.

In the VII-VI centuries. BC. Babylon was an elongated rectangle with an area of ​​about 10 square meters. km, divided by the Euphrates into two parts. The city was surrounded by external and internal walls with crenellated towers and passage gates named after the gods. The main gate bore the name of the goddess Ishtar and was lined with glazed bricks with reliefs of bulls and dragons. In reconstructed form, these gates are stored in State Museum Berlin. Among the main monuments of the city are the temples of the main god Marduk, the mother goddess Ninmah, the seven-tiered ziggurat of the god Enki - Etemenanki, destroyed by the troops of Alexander the Great, the palace-fortress, etc.

art civilizations of Mesopotamia quite varied – reliefs, stelae sculptures, figurines, glyctic works, etc. Together with large-scale architectural structures, even in a destroyed state, they make a strong impression.

Centralization of the economy, characteristic of eastern despotisms, brought to life a control system , which was conducted by special officials. Submission of reports from work and farm managers, which were monitored by a huge apparatus of accounting workers, controllers, and inspectors, was mandatory. The established accounting and control mechanism only failed during the period when the role of the state weakened.

However The eastern despotisms of Mesopotamia, corroded by corruption, power struggles, and wars, eventually fell into decline . All that was left of them was an immortal culture that was assimilated, passing from one people to another. Its elements even reached the Russian Orthodox, much later civilization. The Russian language has many words and names that came from the Sumerian-Akkadian languages, which are sometimes perceived as originally Russian.

In the history of world culture, Mesopotamian civilization is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in the world. It was in Sumer at the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. humanity first emerged from the stage of primitiveness and entered the era of antiquity, here begins true story of humanity The transition from primitiveness to antiquity, “from barbarism to civilization” means the emergence of a fundamentally new type of culture and the birth of a new type of consciousness.

The spirit of Mesopotamian culture reflected the crushing power of nature. Man was not inclined to overestimate his strength, observing such powerful natural phenomena like a thunderstorm or an annual flood. The Tigris and Euphrates often flooded violently and unpredictably, destroying dams and flooding crops. Heavy rains turned the hard surface of the earth into a sea of ​​mud and deprived people of freedom of movement. The nature of Mesopotamia crushed and trampled the will of man, constantly making him feel how powerless and insignificant he was. In such an environment, a person was fully aware of his weakness and understood that he was involved in the game of monstrous irrational forces.

Interaction with natural forces gave rise to tragic moods, which was expressed in people’s ideas about the world in which they lived. Man saw in it order, space, and not chaos. But this order did not ensure his safety, since it was established through the interaction of many powerful forces, potentially diverging from each other, periodically entering into mutual conflicts. Therefore, all present and future events arose and were controlled by the single will of natural forces united together, the hierarchy and relationships of which resembled a state. With such a view of the world, there was no division into animate or inanimate, living and dead. In such a universe, any objects and phenomena had their own will and character.

In a culture that viewed the entire universe as a state, obedience had to act as the primary virtue, for the state is built on obedience, on the unconditional acceptance of power. Therefore, in Mesopotamia, the “good life” was also the “obedient life.” The individual stood at the center of expanding circles of power that limited his freedom of action. The circle of power closest to him included his own family: father, mother, older brothers and sisters, and disobeying older family members was only the beginning, a pretext for more serious offenses, because outside the family there are other circles of power: the state, society , gods.

This well-established system of obedience was the rule of life in ancient Mesopotamia, because man was created from clay, mixed with the blood of the gods and created for the slave service of the gods, to work instead of the gods and for the gods. Accordingly, a diligent and obedient slave could count on signs of favor and reward from his master. And on the contrary, a careless, disobedient slave, naturally, could not even dream about it.

Euphrates, i.e. in Mesopotamia. Or, let's say, comparing biblical description the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis with the Babylonian poem "Enuma Elish" ("When above"), we can see that the cosmogony, the creation of man from clay and the rest of the creator after hard work coincide in many details.

Mesopotamian spiritual culture had a huge influence on the culture of many ancient eastern peoples, mainly in Western Asia. And in subsequent eras, the spiritual heritage of the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia was not forgotten and firmly entered the treasury of world culture.

The territory in the Middle East between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers different centuries called differently - Mesopotamia, Mesopotamia, Mesopotamia, and even the Promised Land. Some religious scholars and followers of Abrahamic religious movements claim that it was in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates that Eden was located - the paradise where Adam and Eve lived before God expelled them for disobedience. And it was on this territory that one of the world’s oldest civilizations arose - ancient Mesopotamia, which consisted of the Sumerian, Assyrian, Akkadian and Babylonian kingdoms. This civilization existed in the period from the 4th millennium BC. and until October 12, 539 BC. - the day when Persian troops captured Babylon.

Mesopotamia is rightfully called one of the greatest civilizations ancient world, because the people who inhabited the kingdoms of Mesopotamia managed to achieve significant development in culture, science, and religion. Exactly at Babylonian kingdom there was one of the 7 wonders of the world - the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the palace and temple complexes Babylon and Assyria impressed travelers of the time with their exquisite and elaborate architectural style. But one of the most significant legacies of Mesopotamia for the whole world was the invention by the Sumerians of the first writing system - cuneiform.

Religion of ancient Mesopotamia

Like the inhabitants of other ancient civilizations, people living in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers attached a lot of importance to their beliefs and cults. However, unlike other ancient peoples, for example, the Egyptians and, whose civilizations from the very beginning were formed as civilizations of entire states, the civilization of Mesopotamia initially consisted of the cultures of a number of peoples living separately. The religion of ancient Muzhdurechye initially represented a number of separate cults, since in each locality had their own patron gods and their religious traditions. And only after the establishment of political and economic ties between the kingdoms of Mesopotamia, the religion of this civilization was formed by including the most significant cults different peoples.

The religion of the ancient Mesopotamia was polytheistic, and two pantheons of gods were worshiped simultaneously - the ancient Sumerian, and the Babylonian, which arose around the second millennium BC. Unlike the Germans and a number of other tribes, who paid much more attention to the spiritual aspect of belief, the inhabitants of Sumer, Assyria and Babylon believed that the main thing in religion was ceremoniality and strict observance of various religious rituals.

The inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia believed not only in many gods, but also in evil spirits, from which it was impossible to protect themselves either by prayer or through sacrifice to the patron god. Lilith and Labartu were considered the most powerful and cruel spirits - according to the beliefs of the inhabitants of Babylon, these demonesses tore everyone who did not please them into pieces. According to the religion of the ancient Mesopotamia, only witchcraft could protect a person from such evil spirits, so most citizens of the kingdoms of Mesopotamia knew various conspiracies and simple rituals.

In addition to spells, the religion of ancient Babylon also included belief in fortune telling. The witches were predominantly women who used methods similar to the Voodoo cult in their work. The witches of Babylon made figurines of their enemies, recited spells and incantations, and then broke the dolls or pierced them with needles.

Pantheon of gods in the religion of ancient Mesopotamia

The inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia believed in a huge number of gods, and most of the deities were associated with space and the stars. Many researchers believe that astrology originated in Babylon and Assyria, since the peoples of these kingdoms not only revered the gods of the cosmos, but also tried to predict fate from the stars. The most revered gods throughout the territory of ancient Mesopotamia were:

1. Anu - god of the sky
2. Kin - goddess of the earth
3. Enlil - god of air
4. Ea - god of water and creator of the first people
5. Marduk - supreme god and patron of Babylon
6. Shamash - sun god, judge of gods and people
7. Sin - god of the moon
8. Ishtar - the goddess of love, fertility and, was identified with the evening star and the planet Venus
9. Tammuzu is the god of spring, sowing and harvests.

Temples and priests in the religion of ancient Mesopotamia

In every city of ancient Mesopotamia, luxurious temples or entire temple complexes were built, where priests regularly sang hymns to the gods and sacrificed material goods and food to them - “dishes for the gods.” It is important that only the rulers of the kingdoms of Mesopotamia and priests had the right to carry out most religious rites, and for the common people participation in religious life was limited to donations “to the temple” and participation in annual processions and holidays in honor of one or another god. Also in the religion of ancient Mesopotamia, idols played a significant role - figurines and images of gods, which were installed in large numbers in all temples.

In the religion of ancient Mesopotamia, special requirements were put forward for priests - potential servants of the gods had to be healthy, tall and have white, healthy teeth (in order to pronounce prayers clearly and clearly). In the temples of male gods, only men served, and goddesses were honored by priestesses - men, in addition to kings, were not allowed into the temples of female deities. A special caste of servants of the gods in Mesopotamia were the so-called “sacred harlots” - women who engaged in prostitution and gave their earnings to the temple.

Introduction

Culture is one of the most ancient phenomena human life. It arose and developed together with man, constituting what qualitatively distinguishes him from all other living beings and nature as a whole. However, interest in its study and understanding as a special phenomenon of reality has developed relatively recently. For a long time - entire millennia - culture existed as something taken for granted, unconscious, inseparable from man and society and not requiring any special, close attention.

Culturology - humanities studying culture as a system, i.e. generally. It arose at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and received wide recognition in Europe and around the world. In our country, cultural studies began to develop in the early 90s.

In general, cultural studies has not yet reached a fully mature level and is in its infancy.

Culture of Mesopotamia

The Mesopotamian culture arose around the same time as the Egyptian one. It developed in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and existed since 4 thousand BC. e. until the middle of the 6th century BC. e. Unlike the Egyptian culture, Mesopotamia was not homogeneous; it was formed in the process of repeated interpenetration of several ethnic groups and peoples, and for this reason it was multilayer . The main inhabitants of Mesopotamia were the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Chaldeans in the south; Assyrians, Hurrians and Arameans in the north. The cultures of Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria reached the greatest development and importance.

The emergence of the Sumerian ethnic group still remains a mystery. It is only known that in 4 thousand. BC. the southern part of Mesopotamia is inhabited by the Sumerians and lays the foundations for all subsequent civilization of this region. Like the Egyptian, this civilization was river. By the beginning of 3 thousand BC. In the south of Mesopotamia, several city-states appear, the main ones being Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Larsa and others. They take turns playing a leading role in unifying the country.

The history of Sumer has seen several ups and downs. The 24th - 23rd centuries BC deserve special mention, when the rise of Semitic city of Akkad, located north of Sumer. Under King Sargon the Ancient Akkad managed to subjugate all of Sumer to its power. The Akkadian language displaces Sumerian and becomes the main language throughout Mesopotamia. Big influence Semitic art also influences the entire region. In general, the significance of the Akkadian period in the history of Sumer turned out to be so significant that some authors call the entire culture of this period Sumerian-Akkadian.

Culture of the Sumerian-Akkadian state

The basis of the Sumerian economy was agriculture with a developed irrigation system. Hence it is clear why one of the main monuments Sumerian culture became the “Landowner's Almanac”, containing instructions on farming - how to maintain soil fertility and avoid clogging. Cattle breeding was also important. High level reached Sumerian metallurgy. Already at the beginning of 3 thousand. BC. The Sumerians began making bronze tools, and at the end of the 2000s. BC. entered into iron age.

From the middle of 3 thousand. BC. A potter's wheel is used in the production of tableware. Other crafts are successfully developing - weaving, stone-cutting, and blacksmithing. Widespread trade and exchange took place both between the Sumerian cities and with other countries - Egypt, Iran, India, and the states of Asia Minor.

The importance of Sumerian writing should be especially emphasized. The cuneiform script invented by the Sumerians turned out to be the most successful and effective. Improved in 2 thousand. BC. by the Phoenicians, it formed the basis of almost all modern alphabets.

The system of religious and mythological ideas and cults of Sumer partly echoes the Egyptian one. In particular, it also contains the myth of a dying and resurrecting God, which is God Dumuzi. As in Egypt, the ruler of the city-state was declared a descendant of God and perceived as an earthly God. At the same time, there were noticeable differences between the Sumerian and Egyptian systems. So the Sumerians have a funeral cult, belief in afterworld did not gain much importance. Equally, the Sumerian priests did not become a special layer that played a huge role in public life. In general, the Sumerian system of religious beliefs seems less complex.

As a rule, each city-state had its own patron God. At the same time, there were Gods who were revered throughout Mesopotamia. Behind them stood those forces of nature, the importance of which for agriculture was especially great - sky, earth and water. These were the sky god An, the earth god Enlil and the water god Enki. Some stars were associated with individual stars or constellations. It is noteworthy that in Sumerian writing the star pictogram meant the concept of “God”. The Mother Goddess, the patroness of agriculture, fertility and childbirth, was of great importance in the Sumerian religion. There were several such goddesses, one of which was the goddess Inanna, the patroness of the city of Uruk. Some Sumerian myths - about the creation of the world, about global flood, - had a strong influence on the mythology of other peoples, including Christians.

IN artistic culture Sumerian leading art was architecture. Unlike the Egyptians, the Sumerians did not know stone construction, and all structures were created from adobe brick. Due to the swampy terrain, buildings were erected on artificial platforms - embankments. From the middle of 3 thousand. BC. The Sumerians were the first to widely use arches and vaults in construction.

The first architectural monuments were two temples, White and Red, discovered in Uruk and dedicated to the main deities of the city - the god Anu and the goddess Inanna. Both temples are rectangular in plan, with projections and niches, decorated with relief images in “ Egyptian style" Another significant monument is the small temple of the fertility goddess Ninhursag at Ur. It was built using the same architectural forms, but decorated not only with relief, but also with circular sculpture. In the niches of the walls there were copper figurines of copper bulls, and on the friezes there were high reliefs of lying bulls. At the entrance to the temple there are two wooden lion statues. All this made the temple festive and elegant.

In Sumer, a unique type of religious building developed - the ziggurat, which was a stepped, rectangular tower. On the upper platform of the ziggurat there was usually a small temple - “the dwelling of God.” Sumerian literature reached a high level. Apart from the aforementioned “agricultural almanac”, the most significant literary monument became The Epic of Gilgamesh. In this epic poem it tells about a man who saw everything, experienced everything, and knew everything, and who was close to unraveling the secret of immortality.

By the end of 3 thousand. BC. Sumer gradually declines and is eventually conquered by Babylonia.

It developed in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and existed since the 4th millennium BC. until the middle of the 6th century. BC. Unlike the Egyptian culture, Mesopotamia was not homogeneous; it was formed in the process of repeated interpenetration of several ethnic groups and peoples and therefore was multilayer.

The main inhabitants of Mesopotamia were Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Chaldeans in the south: Assyrians, Hurrians and Arameans in the north. The cultures of Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria reached their greatest development and importance.

The emergence of the Sumerian ethnic group still remains a mystery. It is only known that in the 4th millennium BC. The southern part of Mesopotamia is inhabited by the Sumerians and lays the foundations for the entire subsequent civilization of this region. Like the Egyptian, this civilization was river. By the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. In the south of Mesopotamia, several city-states appear, the main ones being Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Jlapca, etc. They alternately play a leading role in the unification of the country.

The history of Sumer has seen several ups and downs. The XXIV-XXIII centuries deserve special mention. BC when the rise occurs Semitic city of Akkad, located north of Sumer. Under King Sargon the Ancient, Akkad managed to subjugate all of Sumer to its power. The Akkadian language replaces Sumerian and becomes the main language throughout Mesopotamia. Semitic art also has a great influence on the entire region. In general, the significance of the Akkadian period in the history of Sumer turned out to be so significant that some authors call the entire culture of this period Sumerian-Akkadian.

Sumerian culture

The basis of Sumer's economy was agriculture with a developed irrigation system. Hence it is clear why one of the main monuments of Sumerian literature was the “Agricultural Almanac”, containing instructions on farming - how to maintain soil fertility and avoid salinization. It was also important cattle breeding. metallurgy. Already at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. The Sumerians began making bronze tools, and at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. entered the Iron Age. From the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. A potter's wheel is used in the production of tableware. Other crafts are successfully developing - weaving, stone-cutting, and blacksmithing. Widespread trade and exchange took place both between the Sumerian cities and with other countries - Egypt, Iran. India, states of Asia Minor.

Special emphasis should be placed on the importance Sumerian writing. The cuneiform script invented by the Sumerians turned out to be the most successful and effective. Improved in the 2nd millennium BC. by the Phoenicians, it formed the basis of almost all modern alphabets.

System religious-mythological ideas and cults Sumer partly has something in common with Egypt. In particular, it also contains the myth of a dying and resurrecting god, which is the god Dumuzi. As in Egypt, the ruler of the city-state was declared a descendant of a god and perceived as an earthly god. At the same time, there were noticeable differences between the Sumerian and Egyptian systems. Thus, among the Sumerians, the funeral cult and belief in the afterlife did not acquire much importance. Equally, the Sumerian priests did not become a special stratum that played a huge role in public life. In general, the Sumerian system of religious beliefs seems less complex.

As a rule, each city-state had its own patron god. At the same time, there were gods who were revered throughout Mesopotamia. Behind them stood those forces of nature, the importance of which for agriculture was especially great - sky, earth and water. These were the sky god An, the earth god Enlil and the water god Enki. Some gods were associated with individual stars or constellations. It is noteworthy that in Sumerian writing the star pictogram meant the concept of “god”. The mother goddess, the patroness of agriculture, fertility and childbirth, was of great importance in the Sumerian religion. There were several such goddesses, one of them was the goddess Inanna. patroness of the city of Uruk. Some Sumerian myths - about the creation of the world, the global flood - had a strong influence on the mythology of other peoples, including Christians.

In Sumer the leading art was architecture. Unlike the Egyptians, the Sumerians did not know stone construction and all structures were created from raw brick. Due to the swampy terrain, buildings were erected on artificial platforms - embankments. From the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. The Sumerians were the first to widely use arches and vaults in construction.

The first architectural monuments were two temples, White and Red, discovered in Uruk (late 4th millennium BC) and dedicated to the main deities of the city - the god Anu and the goddess Inanna. Both temples are rectangular in plan, with projections and niches, and decorated with relief images in the “Egyptian style.” Another significant monument is the small temple of the fertility goddess Ninhursag in Ur (XXVI century BC). It was built using the same architectural forms, but decorated not only with relief, but also with circular sculpture. In the niches of the walls there were copper figurines of walking bulls, and on the friezes there were high reliefs of lying bulls. At the entrance to the temple there are two wooden lion statues. All this made the temple festive and elegant.

In Sumer, a unique type of religious building developed - the ziggurag, which was a stepped tower, rectangular in plan. On the upper platform of the ziggurat there was usually a small temple - “the dwelling of God.” For thousands of years, the ziggurat played approximately the same role as the Egyptian pyramid, but unlike the latter it was not an afterlife temple. The most famous was the ziggurat (“temple-mountain”) in Ur (XXII-XXI centuries BC), which was part of a complex of two large temples and a palace and had three platforms: black, red and white. Only the lower, black platform has survived, but even in this form the ziggurat makes a grandiose impression.

Sculpture in Sumer received less development than architecture. As a rule, it had a cult, “dedicatory” character: the believer placed a figurine made to his order, usually small in size, in the temple, which seemed to pray for his fate. The person was depicted conventionally, schematically and abstractly. without observing proportions and without a portrait resemblance to the model, often in a praying pose. An example is a female figurine (26 cm) from Lagash, which has mainly common ethnic features.

During the Akkadian period, sculpture changed significantly: it became more realistic and acquired individual features. The most famous masterpiece This period is a portrait head made of copper of Sargon the Ancient (XXIII century BC), which perfectly conveys the unique character traits of the king: courage, will, severity. This work, rare in its expressiveness, is almost no different from modern ones.

Sumerianism reached a high level literature. Besides the Agricultural Almanac mentioned above, the most significant literary monument was the Epic of Gilgamesh. This epic poem tells the story of a man who has seen everything, experienced everything, known everything and who was close to solving the mystery of immortality.

By the end of the 3rd millennium BC. Sumer gradually declines and is eventually conquered by Babylonia.

Babylonia

Its history falls into two periods: the Ancient, covering the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, and the New, falling in the middle of the 1st millennium BC.

Ancient Babylonia reached its highest rise under the king Hammurabi(1792-1750 BC). Two significant monuments remain from his time. The first one is Hammurabi's laws - became the most outstanding monument of ancient Eastern legal thought. The 282 articles of the code of law cover almost all aspects of the life of Babylonian society and constitute civil, criminal and administrative law. The second monument is a basalt pillar (2 m), which depicts King Hammurabi himself, sitting in front of the god of the sun and justice Shamash, and also depicts part of the text of the famous codex.

New Babylonia reached its highest peak under the king Nebuchadnezzar(605-562 BC). During his reign the famous "Hanging Gardens of Babylon", became one of the seven wonders of the world. They can be called a grandiose monument of love, since they were presented by the king to his beloved wife to ease her longing for the mountains and gardens of her homeland.

An equally famous monument is also Tower of Babel. It was the highest ziggurat in Mesopotamia (90 m), consisting of several towers stacked on top of each other, on the top of which was the sanctuary of Marduk, the main god of the Babylonians. Herodotus, who saw the tower, was shocked by its grandeur. She is mentioned in the Bible. When the Persians conquered Babylonia (6th century BC), they destroyed Babylon and all the monuments located in it.

The achievements of Babylonia deserve special mention. gastronomy And mathematics. Babylonian astrologers calculated with amazing accuracy the time of the Moon's revolution around the Earth, compiled a solar calendar and a map of the starry sky. The names of the five planets and twelve constellations of the solar system are of Babylonian origin. Astrologers gave people astrology and horoscopes. Even more impressive were the successes of mathematicians. They laid the foundations of arithmetic and geometry, developed a “positional system”, where the numerical value of a sign depends on its “position”, knew how to raise to the square power and extract the square root, created geometric formulas for measuring land plots.

Assyria

The third powerful power of Mesopotamia - Assyria - arose in the 3rd millennium BC, but reached its greatest prosperity in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. Assyria was poor in resources, but achieved exaltation thanks to its geographical location. She found herself at the crossroads of caravan routes, and trade made her rich and great. The capitals of Assyria were successively Ashur, Kalah and Nineveh. By the 13th century. BC. it became the most powerful empire in the entire Middle East.

In the artistic culture of Assyria - as in the entire Mesopotamia - the leading art was architecture. The most significant architectural monuments became the palace complex of King Sargon II in Dur-Sharrukin and the palace of Ashur-banapal in Nineveh.

The Assyrian reliefs, decorating palace premises, the subjects of which were scenes from royal life: religious ceremonies, hunting, military events.

One of the best examples of Assyrian reliefs is considered to be the “Great Lion Hunt” from the palace of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, where the scene depicting wounded, dying and killed lions is filled with deep drama, sharp dynamics and vivid expression.

In the 7th century BC. the last ruler of Assyria, Ashur-banapap, created a magnificent library, containing more than 25 thousand clay cuneiform tablets. The library became the largest in the entire Middle East. It contained documents that, to one degree or another, related to the entire Mesopotamia. Among them was the above-mentioned Epic of Gilgamesh.

Mesopotamia, like Egypt, became a real cradle human culture and civilization. Sumerian cuneiform and Babylonian astronomy and mathematics - this is already enough to talk about the exceptional significance of the culture of Mesopotamia.