How did the Sumerians differ from the Egyptians in the way they viewed an afterlife?

Answer 1

The Egyptians believed that if they recited the right incantations and pass all of the tests from the Book of the Dead, they would make it to their paradise, Happy Field of Food. The Sumerians however, believed when they died they would descend to the grim underworld, a point of no return.

The Sumerians believed at death, they were expected to descend forever into a dark underworld, a huge cave filled with nothing but dust and silence. As the textbook says, they had a gloomy outlook on aftterlife.

Answer 2

The Sumerians believed at death, they were expected to descend forever into a dark underworld, a huge cave filled with nothing but dust and silence. As the textbook says, they had a gloomy outlook on aftterlife.

Answer 3

Mesopotamian afterlife was a descent into a gloomy netherworld, occupied by the god of the underworld, Nergal. Whereas, the Egyptians thought of the afterlife as a happy, place- a continuation of life on earth. Although both civilisations existed at the same time it is from geographical purposes that the two have such different views of the afterlife.

Answer 4

Ancient Sumeria viewed death as similar to life but in the underworld. There was a great city with seven gates where the dead lived. There was no heaven or hell.

http://www.ancient.eu/article/701/

Answer 5

Mesopotamian afterlife- bad no matter regardless of person or what they did Egyptian- depending on person, judged with a feather of justice by Osiris

Answer 6

The Sumerians believed that there wasn't an afterlife, per say. After someone died, he became "a wisp of smoke in a house of dust that faded away after a few centuries."