For this project we spent time learning about the religious beliefs of the Ancient Mesopotamian civilizations. We also read the Epic of Gilgamesh in class, the oldest story in human history. I have included some of what I learned below.
First of all the Civilizations of Mesopotamia had a polytheistic religion. According to dictionary.com polytheism is "the doctrine of or belief in more than one god or in many gods."
The people of Mesopotamia worshiped many gods, but each city had a patron or main god that they believed looked out for the people of their city especially. The different god, monsters, and demons were in charge of different things such as the sun, water, war, and death.
When regular people wanted to get help from the gods they would visit a temple. Temples in Mesopotamia were called Ziggurats these were tall mud brick buildings that looked a bit like small mountains. At the temple priests would communicate and pray to the gods for you. People made sacrifices to the gods of things that were valuable to them including food.
According to Mesopotamian Mythology the reason the gods created humans is....
In class we read through the Epic of Gilgamesh which is the oldest written story in human history. The Epic of Gilgamesh tells us about the world of the Ancient Mesopotamian peoples, what they valued, what they feared, and what they thought about.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the story of Gilgamesh king of strong walled Uruk.....
After reading the Epic of Gilgamesh we created multiple choice questions based on what we learned. Here are my three favorite questions...
A. To defeat the demon Humbaba
B. To marry the goddess Ishtar
C. To tame the bull of heaven
D. To find the secret of immortality
