Editing Week (section)

===Ancient Near East===
The earliest evidence of an astrological significance of a seven-day period is  decree of king [[Sargon of Akkad]] around 2300 BCE. Akkadians venerated the number seven, and the key celestial bodies visible to the naked eye numbered seven (the Sun, the Moon and the five closest planets).<ref>{{cite web |title=How we divide time |url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/why-12-months-year-seven-days-week-or-60-minutes-hour |website=[[Royal Museums Greenwich]] |access-date=12 September 2024}}</ref>

[[Gudea]], the priest-king of [[Lagash]] in [[Sumer]] during the [[Gutian dynasty of Sumer|Gutian dynasty]] (about 2100 BCE), built a seven-room temple, which he dedicated with a seven-day festival. In the flood story of the [[Mesopotamia|Assyro-Babylonian]] [[Epic of Gilgamesh]], the storm lasts for seven days, the dove is sent out after seven days (similarly to Genesis), and the [[Noah]]-like character of [[Utnapishtim]] leaves the ark seven days after it reaches the firm ground.{{efn|1=Copeland (1939) states as the date for Gudea "as early as 2600 BCE";<ref>{{cite journal |last=Copeland |first=Leland S. |title=Sources of the Seven-Day Week |journal=Popular Astronomy |date=1939 |volume=47 |issue=4 |page=176 |bibcode=1939PA.....47..175C}}</ref> the modern estimate according to the [[short chronology]] places Gudea in the 22nd century BCE. By contrast, [[Anthony R. Michaelis]] claims that "the first great empire builder, King Sargon I of Akkad ([ruled] 2335 to 2279 BCE [viz., middle chronology]), decreed a seven-day week in his empire. He lived for 56 years, established the first Semitic Dynasty, and defeated the Sumerian City-States. Thus the Akkadian language spread, it was adopted by the Babylonians, and the seven-day week was similarly inherited from him."<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Enigmatic Seven |url=http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/michaelis/title310.pdf |journal=Interdisciplinary Science Reviews |volume=7 |page=373 |last=Michaelis |first=Anthony R.|year=1982 |issue=1 |doi=10.1179/030801882789801278 |bibcode=1982ISRv....7....1M }}</ref> The number seven is significant in Sumerian mythology.<ref>{{cite news |title=The power of seven |date=20 December 2001 |url=http://www.economist.com/node/895542?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/ar/thepowerofseven |newspaper=[[The Economist]]}}</ref><!--surely(!) we can come up with a better source for whatever we want to say with this.-->}}

Counting from the [[new moon]], the Babylonians celebrated the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th of the approximately 29- or 30-day lunar month as "holy days", also called "evil days" (meaning inauspicious for certain activities). On these days, officials were prohibited from various activities and common men were forbidden to "make a wish", and at least the 28th was known as a "rest day".<ref name=ere/>
On each of them, offerings were made to a different god and goddess. Though similar, the later practice of associating days of the week with deities or planets is not due to the Babylonians.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Emil Schürer |title=Die siebentägige Woche im Gebrauche der christlichen Kirchen der ersten. Jahrhunderte |journal=[[Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft]] |date=1905 |pages=1–66 |url=https://dlibra.bibliotekaelblaska.pl/Content/56671/01.pdf |author1-link=Emil Schürer }}</ref>