The gate of the year

Remains of the Ziggurat dedicated to the Moon god, Nanna, in the ancient city of Ur, located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq, which dates at about 2100 B.C.
The ziggurat was a step pyramid, on the summit of which was erected the temple of the god. Around these complexes were performed the main ceremonies in honor of the diverse divinities. Among the latter, in Babylon, the most important festival was the celebration of the Akitu, named after the temple whose doors opened at the beginning of every year, that was observed in the month of Nisan, in the spring, the first month of the year (Pettinato 2005a). The ceremonies went on for eleven days and probably included the ritual recitation of the Babylonian mythic poem of creation, the Enuma Elish, which narrated how the god Marduk defeated the monster Tiamat, with whose body he gave shape to the world. The feast of Akitu, “Time of earth reviving”, celebrated the fecundity power of the god, source of the abundance of natural products, and his position as supreme god of the Mesopotamian pantheon (Jacobsen 2005).

[Image: http://bookportal.pbworks.com/w/page/14443794/tower%20of%20babel%20%28mythical%29]




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Remains of the Ziggurat dedicated to the Moon god, Nanna, in the ancient city of Ur, located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq, which dates at about 2100 B.C. The ziggurat was a step pyramid, on the summit of which was erected the temple of the god. Around these complexes were performed the main ceremonies in honor of the diverse divinities. Among the latter, in Babylon, the most important festival was the celebration of the Akitu, named after the temple whose doors opened at the beginning of every year, that was observed in the month of Nisan, in the spring, the first month of the year (Pettinato 2005a). The ceremonies went on for eleven days and probably included the ritual recitation of the Babylonian mythic poem of creation, the Enuma Elish, which narrated how the god Marduk defeated the monster Tiamat, with whose body he gave shape to the world. The feast of Akitu, “Time of earth reviving”, celebrated the fecundity power of the god, source of the abundance of natural products, and his position as supreme god of the Mesopotamian pantheon (Jacobsen 2005). [Image: http://bookportal.pbworks.com/w/page/14443794/tower%20of%20babel%20%28mythical%29]