#30 Archaeological Evidence for Religion (exercise)

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May 2, 2024

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Archaeological Evidence for Ancient Religion (exercise, 20 points ) The ancient Assyrians (like many peoples in the past and present) had a polytheistic religion. Briefly list five characteristics of ancient Assyrian religion as they were presented in your readings (“The Gods of the Land” and “Grave M-134 at Ziyaret Tepe”) and in the video by Finkel “Ancient Demons”). For the sake of this exercise you can assume that the general Mesopotamian practices discussed by Finkel apply to the Assyrians. (“Mesopotamian” is a general term which subsumes dozens of cultural groups including the Sumerians, Assyrian, Akkadians, Babylonians, Kassites, etc.). (Two points each, total 10 points ) 1a. Mesopotamia believes in personal deities and demons. 2a. Mesopotamians protect themselves from demons through practice. 3a. Mesopotamians religion is polytheistic. 4a. Mesopotamians believed in the afterlife, and they thought it was underground. 5a. Idealized groups and individuals have burials that are constructed representations of their identities. Now, for each of these characteristics of the ancient Assyrian religion, list the archaeological and epigraphic evidence that archaeologist have (or might find) to use as support of their interpretations. (Epigraphy is the study of written materials so “epigraphic” here means cuneiform texts written either on clay, stone, wax, or papyrus]. So, for example, if for one of the characteristics listed above you wrote: “Assyrian religion was polytheistic”. Then as support you might list: “temples with different plans or artifacts, statues or figurines of different deities, cuneiform texts describing rituals of the gods and goddesses”. (Two points each, total 10 points ) 1b. There was evidence in texts as well in some carved-out stones found in Mesopotamia areas. Some amulets depicted demons as well. 2b. This practice was proven in texts and carvings. They depicted how demons were being cured through amulets and rituals.
3b. Tablets have been found where they are depicting multiple gods. There was also figures and statues of different gods and goddesses. 4b. There were depictions of something called the "netherworld' inside of carvings and texts. Also, they had burial rituals for the afterlife and several examples have been found in these burials. 5b. There were archeologists who uncovered these burials of people and found them to be of different classes. Also back then it was pretty common to bury superior beings and classes so it is common sense that this would happen.
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