Atrahasis is the ancient Mesopotamian work that describes humans being created from clay to serve the gods.
The Akkadian poem explains that lesser gods became exhausted by labor, so the creator goddess Nintu, also called Mami, made humans from clay mixed with the flesh or blood of a slain deity. Humanity was created to take over work such as maintaining canals and providing offerings.
The poem later tells of population growth, divine disasters, and a devastating flood. Its account of the flood predates the surviving form of the Epic of Gilgamesh and shares important motifs with that later epic and with the biblical flood narrative.
Atrahasis is not simply a creation story. It connects human mortality, labor, divine responsibility, and limits on population. The surviving text is preserved on cuneiform tablets from the Old Babylonian period, especially the eighteenth century BCE.