A religious practice that emerged in the ancient Near East is prayer. This was a consequence of the development of writing in Mesopotamia. Writing was not complex to begin with; Lamber-Karlovsky (2003:60-61) describes how writing slowly evolved from a numerical token economy over the course of a millennia. Inscriptions on tokens allowed for efficient communication due to the numerical representation of objects. It is thought that more abstract forms of writing developed from this token economy, as the inscriptions evolved into an alphabetical representation called cuneiform, which is widely regarded as the first alphabet.
Prayer was likely the offspring of pre-scriptural rituals involving mantras and chants. Watkins (2015:155) points out there should be a stage before writing when cultures fulfilled non-textual functions externally through symbolic movement or vocalization. This likely involved the use of mantras, dances, or other symbolic actions that fulfilled social religious functions. Watkins (2015:154) also points out that ceremonies and rituals were repeatedly performed to establish a collective memory and identity in the community. By these statements he makes a strong argument for the use of ritual as a pre-scriptural form of religious communication that involved a more symbolic form of prayer than the verbal form we know today.
Once writing developed there was less incentive for these physical representations of ritual because it was easier to remember community expressions by writing them down. Prayer likely coincided with the invention of writing since it is mostly a verbal practice. This is most clearly seen in Egyptian civilization, where Thoth, the god who was credited with the invention writing, made no distinction between writing and regular speech (Lamberg-Karlovsky, 2003:64). Verbal prayer may have predated written prayer in Mesopotamia, but there is little archaeologists can do to verify this because records of prayer can only be inferenced through writing. Sculptures of people in praying positions and evidence of offerings may indicate a pre-scriptural form of prayer that was spoken and not written, but we cannot explicitly know what those prayers were since they were not written down.
Nonetheless, Lenzi (2016) states that occasionally there were ritualized prayers involving movement with non-scriptural expression. Otherwise, the practice involved reciting passages from written works using minimal gestures, often in devotion or praise, usually directed toward one god at a time (Smith 1952:138). Lenzi’s (2016) article shows votive statues demonstrating the typical posture of Akkadians in prayer, with hands joined and fingers laced in a standing position. Most documented prayers come from Mesopotamian kings; however Old Babylonian letters reveal that commoners also prayed to the gods generally for the same reasons people do today: forgiveness for sins, protection from a threat, or the restoration of health (Lenzi 2016). It is worth noting that in monotheistic religions, people can pray to the one god about a number of subjects, but in ancient Near Eastern cultures, which were polytheistic, specific gods were prayed to based on what the individual needed.
Prayer was not confined to a single place in the community. According to Ira Spar (2009), a research Assyriologist at the Met Museum, the gods were worshipped at cultic centers and in the home, much like today. Evidently, people could pray anywhere they chose, so long as the god being appealed to was appropriate for that cultic center.
Materials used for prayer were ritual texts that helped recite prayers. This is notable in Egyptian tombs where they were requested as offerings for the deceased, or to accompany the recitation of lamentations to the gods (Watts 2009:54). Da Riva (2019) suggests calendars were used to mark the periodicity of ceremonies that coincided with astronomical events, like the equinox or solstice. Excavated rooms that show calendars, ritual texts, and evidence of rituals or offerings likely hosted people in prayer.
Archaeological researchers can detect the practice of prayer in ancient societies in several ways. There is evidence from Near Eastern written prayers that blessings were given to those who performed rituals to the gods (Watts 2009:54). For that reason, evidence of ritualistic activity also indicates evidence of prayer, particularly if the ritual matches the written prayer. Statues of people in prayer also help to identify the activity, especially when they are found in temples or surrounded by offerings. If many statues of people praying are found together, like those found at Tell Asmar (Lenzi 2016), the evidence may be stronger than an individual one, for it signifies community prayer in great numbers. Finally, the strongest evidence for prayer is written texts that appealed to specific gods, who were thought to reward believers for reciting prayers to them (Watts 2009:54). After the development of writing, evidence for prayer became easier to find because researchers did not need to assume that rituals, statues, and offerings indicated that people were praying, however likely it was.
Prayer was important in the development and maintenance of Near Eastern societies. In Mesopotamia, Bel-Marduk was a god who was thought to maintain natural and moral order by rewards and punishments, also pardoning sinners for their transgressions (Smith 1952:141). Those who prayed to gods such as him were figuratively helping Mesopotamian society by preventing floods, drought, and other natural disasters. Smith (1952:142-144) also shows how the justice of each Mesopotamian god expressed itself as law- that if gods were offended by a lack of prayer or offerings, there would be consequences. Likewise, mercy would be shown by those gods who were adequately worshipped.
There were even laws in cults that dedicated themselves to specific gods (Smith 1952:142-144). These cults typically ordered worship to be conducted under the supervision of a priest, often through rituals involving sacrifice that were similar from one area to another. Civil law and cultic law were believed to be one and the same; they were the specific god’s law (Smith 1952:142-144), reinforced by supernatural rewards and punishment. One has to wonder which god’s law would outrank another’s if there was a conflict of interest between the two, or a conflict between cults. Such scenarios provide a sophisticated level of complexity in ancient Near Eastern societies regarding the law.
This system was important in supporting the social and political structures of Near Eastern societies. Smith (1952:145) elaborates that the punishment of a society was initiated through “drought or flood, famine, pestilence…”, or even defeat by an enemy. Prophets threatened the social order with disastrous miracles if laws were not obeyed- usually by earthquakes, eclipses, and utter destruction. Conversely, good kings were promised to save the people if laws were obeyed (Smith 1952:145). Watts (2009:39) reasserts these findings, stating that ritual performance, which was intimately tied with prayer, was the largest factor in determining the success or failure of societies. Considering how essential prayer was to these communities, one must figure that oral prayer predated the invention of writing by centuries, possibly evolving with ritual itself.
Finally, the importance of writing must be as stressed as the primary social transformation that allowed prayer to fully develop. Lamberg-Karlovsky (2003:63-64) states that in all regions where writing developed, there was a shared belief in its sacredness. Its divine origin was thought to be essential to the maintenance of power, social order, and justice. Divinizing the very art of writing was essential to the use of prayer in communication with the gods. That Thoth was an Egyptian god dedicated to the art of writing should be substantial enough to derive its sacredness in relation to prayer.
The various expressions of religion in prehistorical times, including prayer, folklore, and mythology, had ritual and oral traditions that kept a religious memory for the community intact. As writing made it easier to share and spread these traditions, mass assemblages of religious events involving prayer were catalyzed as cities grew larger. With the co-evolution of writing, prayer became transformed from oral, symbolic rituals into something more personal and verbal. Yet written prayers also provided a community-driven approach that strengthened social functions pertaining to religion.
Though it is difficult to detect prayer prior to the invention of writing, its relationship to ritual suggests it was heavily used in prehistoric times. Because of writing, prayer was able to reach its full potential. Its written liberation allowed it to reach more people, along with other texts that conglomerated to represent some of the religions we know today, including Judaism and Christianity. Several books in the Bible may have originated as prayers, such as Proverbs and Psalms, which have some of the strongest prayers in those religions. These prayers, which can be so essential to the communal identity of a church, owe their existence to the successive generations who were able to rediscover them through the power of writing. The introduction of writing in the Ancient Near East strengthened the tradition of prayer, fashioning it into the practice as we know it today.
Bibliography
Da Riva, Rocio, 2019, What Sorts of Rituals Really Went on Inside Late Babylonian Temples? The Ancient Near East Today, 7:7.
Lenzi, A. (2016). Akkadian Prayers in Ancient Mesopotamia, The Ancient Near East Today, 4:3.
Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C. 2003. To write or not to write. Culture Through Objects: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of P.R.S. Moorey, 59-75. Oxford: Griffith Institute.
Smith, Morton, 1952, The Common Theology of the Ancient near East, Journal of Biblical Literature, 71:33, 135–147.
Spar, Ira, 2009, Mesopotamian Deities, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Watkins, Trevor, 2015, Ritual performance and religion in early Neolithic societies. Defining the Sacred, Defining the Sacred, 154-160. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Watts, James, 2009, Ritual Rhetoric in Ancient Near Eastern Texts, Ancient Non-Greek Rhetorics, 39-66. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press.
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