Within the sunlit spires of University Hall, associate Prof. Benjamin Sommer talked Wednesday about how people in ancient Mesopotamia believed a statue could be activated, becoming radiant and turning into the body of a god.

The ritual to activate a statue included cutting off the sculptor’s arms to sever the statue’s connection with people, he said. The audience of about 20, mostly students and staff of the religion department, laughed.

The point was that Mesopotamian gods were seen as fundamentally separate and distinct from people, Sommer said.

“They were made of a different kind of stuff,” he said.

Sitting in a student desk, Sommer leaned forward with his arms folded as he spoke in University 102 about the ways that Mesopotamian culture believed gods manifested themselves and the insight these beliefs provided into comparative religion in general.

Mesopotamia is an area that covers parts of modern Iraq and Syria. Known as the “cradle of civilization,” it has been conquered by numerous societies dating back 6,000 years, including the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians.