Religion
The first known religion within this area began with the Sumerians. Each city erected ziggurats in the town center to their patron gods. The priests worked within these temples preforming rituals to the gods in order to bring good health and prosperity to the city, and some civilians would leave food on the steps of the ziggurats as offerings to the gods. Religion was a major aspect of their culture as the believed that the outcome of the harvest depended on how the gods felt at the time. The gods were often attributed to many aspects of nature as is with most polytheistic religions. When the Babylonians came into power, they essentially retained the religion of the Sumerians but paid special attention to the god Marduk. It is also said that the Sumerian religion had influence on many present day religions with stories such as a flood killing humans as punishment and ideas such as an afterlife of punishment.