Lesson 4
Mesopotamian Sacred Texts
Mesopotamian Sacred Texts
Ancient cosmology or sacred text that described control of the universe between Tiamat and Marduk (Candens 3:45)
What is the Enuma Elish?
Sacred text which follows the king of Uruk on his path to immortality (Schneider 65-70)
What is the Epic of Gilgamesh?
Tablets that privided insight to religious aspects of Ebla. Records are related to offering made to deities, sacrificial rituals, and lists of what was offered (ex. beer, wine, animals, etc.) (Wright 140).
What are the Ebla Tablets?
A wedge-like script used for writing sacred texts in ancient Mesopotamia (Candens 1:10).
What is Cunieform?
An ancient document/sacred text which claims to list all the kings who ever ruled in Mesopotamia (Great Voyages 8:30).
What is the King list?
What is thought to be the most common sacrifice or offering (Wright 141).
What were animals in Ugarit?
From Uruk, these sacred texts were created shortly after writing, and they shed light on the organization of the cult, in Mesopotamia (Johnston 165).
What are the are the Archaic texts?
Ancient text/epic of the great flood sent by gods to destroy human life. It explains the idea that humans were created so the gods did not have to work (Schneider 64).
A text that describes rituals and ceremonies including sacrifice and votive offerings as part of the worship to Baal (Wright 147).
What is the Baal Cycle?
Where the sacred text, Enuma Elish was discovered (Candens 4:00)
What is Nineveh?
A sacred lexical text that lists major gods of the Babylonian Pantheon together with their secondary names (Schneider 62).
What is the An-Anum?
Temple in Ugarit dedicated to Baal, main deity. It served as a place for rituals and votive offerings (Wright 140-144).
What was the Baal temple of Ugarit?
Important sacred text from 9th century BCE which contains earliest evidence for the mis-pi ritual (Johnston 170).
What is the Sun-God Tablet
Lists of words/cuneiform that were used in sacred texts by scholars to teach and document this form of ancient writing.
What are Lexical texts in relation to ancient Mesopotamia?
Name for ancient Ugarit in Syria. Where tablets, including hundreds of myths, sacrificial lists, votive texts, and more were found (Wright 131).
Ras Shamra