I am starting to educate myself on the history of religious beliefs - something I have always been interested in, but never took the time to look into faithfully.
Specifically, I have found that many religions seem to have a common thread of similarity between their gods, creation ideas, etc.
I am looking to start from the beginning, which as far as I am aware is the Sumerian culture. What are some good books, articles, videos, etc. that would start me off on a good starting point on Sumerian beliefs - and I'd especially be interested in works that put a heavy emphasis on surviving literature from those time periods.
Also, any help in general on good authors on these topics or even sites/ books that have translations of ancient scriptures and stories so I can look at it from the cultures own words would be great.
Thanks!
The AskHistorians reading list has some great suggestions for all periods of history, and a section is devoted to the Ancient Near East.
For Sumerian and Mesopotamian religion in particular, I recommend beginning with Bottero's Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia and The Literature of Ancient Sumer by Jeremy Black (a compilation of ETCSL entries). The major books on the Sumerians - Crawford's Sumer and the Sumerians, The Sumerian World edited by Crawford, and Postgate's Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History - all contain chapters on temples and religion in early Mesopotamia.
The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion by Thorkild Jacobsen is somewhat outdated, and I don't subscribe to all of his views, but it's an extraordinary book and very thought-provoking. The Harps that Once... Sumerian Poetry in Translation, his set of translations, is also utterly fantastic.
Finally, Kramer's Myths of Enki, the Crafty God provides a good overview of one of the most interesting figures in Sumerian mythology.
To take a step back to look at the bigger picture, I recommend Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age by Robert Bellah, which attempts to chart the development of religion from the Paleolithic to the classical Greek period.