Link: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iraq/article/gods-in-the-classroom-religion-and-education-in-1st-millennium-bce-babylonia/EB059EE81804DCBC1848CACBD6298E0B

Zaia S. GODS IN THE CLASSROOM: RELIGION AND EDUCATION IN 1ST MILLENNIUM BCE BABYLONIA. Iraq. Published online 2026:1-25. doi:10.1017/irq.2026.10057

(Posting the real article this time because it’s quite readable, and the news coverage of it doesn’t summarize it well)

Abstract

While there was no separate “religious education” program in ancient Mesopotamia, the formal scribal curricula reveal several discrete learning outcomes related to religion that were conveyed through the selection of texts scribal students copied and excerpted. Using case studies from 1st millennium BCE Babylonia, this article elucidates some of these learning outcomes, including divine names and characteristics of the gods, Babylon (and Nippur) as a religious center, religious spaces and the temple cult, and the relationships between gods and humans. These all served to instill the next generation of imperial scribes, specialists, and administrators with a common set of religious traditions and ideology.