Mesopotamia Summary

This book is an interesting take on the description of the groups of people who interacted with the influenced ancient Israel. It gives a detailed account of group’s origin histories, rulers, architecture, art, religion and other contacts with biblical Israel. A part of it goes over the Mesopotamian religion and it includes articles on the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and the Persians. They are also articles about the Hittites, Canaanites and Amorites. The Sumerians in fact are the only one of the thirteen groups to which a chapter of this volume is devoted who are not mentioned in the Bible. But their real influence is on ancient Israel, with inclusion of the rest of the ancient Near East, is as important as most of the other discussions. …show more content…
There are texts that are still in the process of being duplicated and published, and the studied are being continued to make plain the Sumerian language. But most of the characteristics of the civilizations portrayed above appeared in Mesopotamia before in the beginning of the written records. The fact seems to be that many aspects of the Sumerian civilizations appeared a little while after the Protoliterate period. The Sumerians home was located in Mesopotamia, in the lands between the Tigris and Euphrates river above the Persian Gulf. The earliest search of detectable from of Mesopotamian government, Assyriologisis have found evidence of free adult citizens that make decisions for the good of the community. They consist of a council of elders an assembly of able-bodied …show more content…
At first the offices of men did include political power, it started to be associated with a cult, the term came to mean high priest or priestess, to lead the spirituality of the temple, whose residence was in the temple precints. The lugal (“big man”) also known as or the equivalent of the Mesopotamian king. Maybe due to his position as leader of war, his role grew to such importance that he eventually became the most powerful person in his city-state; and his office eventually became hereditary. Another role names ensi refers to a more limited position, maybe an administer under that of the wide authority of the lugal. Many other have various roles such as the female counterpart of these rulers. If you were to think in terms of the newest disteinctions between sacred and secular, the homeland of the Sumerians would most likely be viewed as a sacred milieu. In the denterof the city was the temple, the city chief deity’s home, it often had smaller temples around it dedicated to the children or spouse of the city