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Mesopotamia the 'land between the rivers' Tigris and Euphrates and was the birthplace of ancient Near Eastern religions and was successively occupied by various groups of people.

The Sumerians (3000-2550 BCE) was the earliest Mesopotamian civilization and this consisted of well-organized city-states, separated from each other by the desert. It was a functionally secular society rather than a true theocracy, under such a system, all property is owned and administered by the Temples. Individuals owned their own land and property and the cities traded their agricultural produce and technological skills. The temple was the focus of each city's personal identity, and the collective skills of the local community were directed towards that particular god and his temple. Temple administrators in receipt of an income from its estates and from gifts supplied by the community fulfilled an obligation for the administration of the city on a secular basis, funding secular and trading ventures through loans.

Each city had a pantheon of gods comprising of its chief deity, with spouse and children, and other lesser deities. As cities grew, some gods dropped out of favour and others, where other which were popular in subject cities, had their own temples at the capital. Local cults continued, but eventually seven major deities and their consorts were finally recognized throughout Mesopotamia.

All deities' need their priests or priestesses to served their temples, and attend their needs. The role of the king was to serve his particular god, and the god's successes in heaven were reflected in the royal military victories on earth.

Their literature included the some of the oldest cosmology and cosmogony, wisdom texts, and the 'Flood' story, namely, the Epic of Gilgamesh. They believed that only the gods were immortal and that man, created to serve the gods at death descended to a dark and dreary netherworld.

The Sumerian allegiance of the Ur III Dynasty (c. 2113 BCE) were eventually replaced by the Amorites and new dynasties arose at Larsa, Kish, and Babylon, and 31 year old King Hammurabi, turned from Babylon internal affairs, and conquered the cities Sumer and Akkad, and then Mari and Eshnunna unifying the warring city-states into one country, 'Babylonia'. The city of Babylon became the political and cultural capital.

Hammurabi founded the 1st Dynasty of Babylon (c. 17921595 BCE) and stated in his Law Code, that Mabduk, god of Babylon was now supreme deity as the chief of the gods

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