Religionen des Alten Orients

This is the first part of »Religions of the Ancient Near East«. It contains a survey of the religions of ancient Asia Minor, especially the Hittites, and of Iran.The Hittite religion is primarily documented in a comprehensive corpus of ritual text containing essential parts of Hittite mythology witnessed in the 2nd mill. BC when the Hitties founded an empire in Asia minor.The earliest inhabitants of the land of Iran have been the Elamites, who developed an important culture since about 4000 BC. On one hand there are many connections to Mesopotamia, their neighbours to the West, but on the other hand there are very peculiar ideas of their own. Some of them even influenced the Iranian people, Indo-Europeans, who immigrated into their realm since the 2nd mill. BC. The Iranian religion is determined by the teachings of Zoroaster, which did influence also the Old Testament.