Religions of The Ancient Near East - Overview

Overview

The history of the ancient Near East spans more than two millennia, from the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, in the region now known as the Middle East, centered around the Fertile Crescent. There was much cultural contact, so that it is justified to summarize the whole region under a single term, but that does not mean, of course, that each historical period and each region should not be looked at individually for a detailed description. This article will attempt to outline the common traits of ancient Near Eastern religions, and refer to sub-articles for in-depth descriptions.

The ancient Near East includes the following subregions:

• Mesopotamia (Sumer, Assyria, Babylonia and Akkad): Assyro-Babylonian religion, Sumerian religion, Mesopotamian mythology
• Elam
• Ancient Egypt: ancient Egyptian religion
• The Levant (Canaan, Ugarit, Ebla, Mitanni): Canaanite religion
• Anatolia (the Hittite Empire, Assuwa, Arzawa): Hittite mythology, Hurrian mythology
• the Caucasus and the Armenian Highland (Urartu)
• Cyprus, Crete (Minoan civilization): Minoan religion

The earliest sources, from ca. 2500 BC, allow glimpses of Mesopotamian mythology and Egyptian religion.

The early Hittite religion bore traits descended from Proto-Indo-European religion, but the later Hittite religions became more and more assimilated to Assyria.

Ancient Greek religion was strongly influenced by ancient Near Eastern mythology, but is usually not included in the term. The Mystery religions of Hellenism were again consciously connected with Egyptian religion.

There are broad practices that these religions often hold in common:

• Purification and cleansing rituals
• Sacrifices (plant and animal sacrifice, libations, rarely, but prominently in mythology, human sacrifice)
• Polytheism (Though Egypt and Greece were Henotheistic societies)
• State (city-state)–sponsored religions (theocracy)
• Sacred prostitution
• Divination
• Magic (invocations, conjurings and Talismans)

Typically, ancient Near Eastern religions were centered around theocracies, with a dominating regional cult of the god of a city-state. There were also super-regional mythemes and deities, such as the God Tammuz and the descent to the underworld.

Divinations:

• Apantomancy: seeing animals
• Cleromancy: drawing lots
• Hepatoscopy: observing the liver of an animal
• Nephomancy: cloud-watching
• Ornithomancy: watching birds in flight
• Capnomancy: divination through smoke
• Oneiromancy: divination through dreams