Sacred water. Pools and rituals in southern Mesopotamia during the III millennium BC.

In southern Mesopotamia during the III millennium BC, the sacred pools, erected within urban centres to emulate the natural landscape (lakes and rivers), denote the ability of human beings to manipulate the morphology of the territory at will, recreating natural phenomena even where they are not present. Through comparison of texts and iconographies, the rituals related to the sacred bath and the relationship between nature and seasonal cycles will be highlighted. Furthermore, this research will try to de ne how environmental interfaces, climatic changes, and the cycle of heavenly bodies have in uenced rituality. The myths, which often accompany seasonal rituals, aim to present merely functional acts in terms of ideal situations. However, the myth must not be considered as a mere extension of the rite, but rather as the expression of a parallel aspect inherent in it from the beginning with the function, within the seasonal model, of translating the individual case into durative and absolute terms.