6.0 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ancient Near Eastern cosmology | 1/12 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Near_Eastern_cosmology | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:33:43.951701+00:00 | kb-cron |
The cosmology of the ancient Near East refers to beliefs about where the universe came from, how it developed, and its physical layout, in the ancient Near East, an area that corresponds with the Middle East today (including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, the Levant, Anatolia, and the Arabian Peninsula). The basic understanding of the world in this region from premodern times included a flat earth, a solid layer or barrier above the sky (the firmament), a cosmic ocean located above the firmament, a region above the cosmic ocean where the gods lived, and a netherworld located at the furthest region in the direction down. Creation myths explained where the universe came from, including which gods created it (and how), as well as how humanity was created. These beliefs are attested as early as the fourth millennium BC and dominated until the modern era, with the only major competing system being the Hellenistic cosmology that developed in Ancient Greece in the mid-1st millennium BC. Geographically, these views are known from the Mesopotamian cosmologies from Babylonia, Sumer, and Akkad; the Levantine or West Semitic cosmologies from Ugarit and ancient Israel and Judah (the biblical cosmology); the Egyptian cosmology from Ancient Egypt; and the Anatolian cosmologies from the Hittites. This system of cosmology went on to have a profound influence on views in early Greek cosmology, later Jewish cosmology, patristic cosmology, and Islamic cosmology (including Quranic cosmology).
== Summary == The cosmology of the ancient Near East can be divided into cosmography, the understanding of the physical structure and features of the cosmos, and cosmogony, the creation myths describing the origins of the cosmos. The cosmos and the gods were also related, as cosmic bodies like heaven, earth, the stars were believed to be and/or personified as gods, and the sizes of the gods were frequently described as being of cosmic proportions.
=== Cosmography (structure of the cosmos) === The many civilizations of the ancient Near East shared most of their main views about the structure of the cosmos, a situation which held for thousands of years. Widely held beliefs about cosmography included:
a flat earth and a solid heaven (firmament), both of which are disk-shaped a primordial cosmic ocean. When the firmament is created, it separates the cosmic ocean into two bodies of water: the heavenly upper waters located on top of the firmament, which act as a source of rain the lower waters that the earth is above and that the earth rests on; they act as the source of rivers, springs, and other earthly bodies of water the region above the upper waters, namely the abode of the gods the netherworld, the furthest region in the direction downwards, below the lower waters Paul Keyser categorizes the cosmology of the ancient Near East into a larger, cross-cultural group of cosmologies that he calls a "cradle cosmology", and Keyser suggests an even larger number of shared features between them all. Some misconceptions are held about Near Eastern cosmography. One misconception is the idea that ziggurats were considered cosmic objects that reached all the way up to heaven. Another misconception is that the firmament was shaped like a dome or a vault, whereas in reality, it was believed to be flat. Another controversy concerns whether the ancients thought this cosmography was literal or observational (phenomenological). John Hilber argues that ancient Near Eastern cosmography was not phenomenological for many reasons, including: based on the descriptions provided by cosmological texts, that non-cosmological texts assume the reality of this cosmography (like in incantations), anthropological studies showing that there are primitive cosmologies still believed in today and that these are not phenomenological, and that there is a cognitive expectation that humans will construct models to explain the observations they make, and that the cosmography described in cosmological texts would have played this role.
=== Cosmogony (creation of the cosmos) === Many widely held beliefs permeated the creation myths of ancient Near Eastern cosmogony:
Creatio ex materia from a primordial state of chaos; that is, the organization of the world from pre-existing, unordered and unformed (hence chaotic) elements, represented by a primordial body of water the presence of a divine creator the Chaoskampf motif: a cosmic battle between the protagonist and a primordial sea monster the separation of undifferentiated elements (to create heaven and earth) the creation of mankind Lisman uses the broader category of "Beginnings" to encompass three separate though inter-related categories: the beginning of the cosmos (cosmogony), the beginning of the gods (theogony), and the beginning of humankind (anthropogeny). There is evidence that Mesopotamian creation myths reached as far as Pre-Islamic Arabia.
== Cosmos ==
=== Overview === The Mesopotamian cosmos can be understood as multiple planes of existence, layered above one another. The highest plane of existence was heaven, which was the home of the sky god Anu. Below heaven was the atmosphere which ranged from the bottom of heaven (or the lowermost firmament) to the ground that humans walk on. This region between heaven and earth was inhabited by Enlil, the king of the gods in Sumerian mythology. Below the ground was the cosmic ocean, and this was believed to be the place of residence of the sibling deities Enki and Ninhursag. The lowest plane of existence was the underworld. Other deities inhabited these planes of existence even if they did not reign over them, such as the sun and moon gods. In later Babylonian accounts, the god Marduk alone ascends to the top rank of the pantheon and rules over all domains of the cosmos. The three-tiered cosmos (sky-earth-underworld) is found in Egyptian artwork on coffin lids and burial chambers.