This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: When it came to religious education in ancient Babylonia, in what is now Iraq, students had a lot to learn, ranging from the names of gods to their divine characteristics. A new study published in the journal Iraq has taken a deep dive into ancient texts and surviving clay tablets to find out just how these traditions were taught in the classroom.
That knowledge mattered because religion was deeply embedded in daily life and the politics of ancient Babylonia. Students learned about hundreds of gods, as well as temples and rituals. When young boys from well-off families went to school to become scribes, administrators or ritual specialists, religion was woven into their studies alongside basic literacy and technical skills.
But unlike many other traditions, there was no separate religious subject and no single holy book like the Bible to center their learning on. Shana Zaia of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands wondering just how religious knowledge was learned. To piece together the past, Zaia analyzed surviving cuneiform school tablets.
She compared classroom assignments across cities such as Babylon and Nippur, tracing how lessons changed as students advanced. She then linked these classroom exercises to the real-world activities specialists carried out later in their careers. Her overall conclusion supports previous research showing that there was no separate religious curriculum, leading her to observe that "thus, there was no distinction between 'secular' and 'religious' education." As is common in education, students learned through copying texts.
They picked up the names of deities, divine characteristics and sacred places by repeatedly copying vocabulary lists, hymns and stories. This included copying long lists of divine names. Some classroom assignments reflected regional traditions and local religious identity.
For example, the syllabus used in northern Babylonia focused on the capital city, Babylon, and its patron god, Marduk. Meanwhile, schools in the southern city of Nippur omitted this material entirely, concentrating instead on their own local religious heritage and traditions surrounding the god Ninurta. Some schoolwork in ancient Babylonia had a dual purpose.
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