Who were the Sumerians?

Answer

The Sumerians were an ancient people who inhabited Sumer, the southern region of Mesopotamia, now located in southern Iraq. The exact arrival time of the first settlers in the region remains unclear, but they were a non-Semitic people believed by historians to have originated from the Samarra culture in northern Mesopotamia or Assyria. Establishing numerous city-states in southern Mesopotamia, the Sumerians flourished until approximately 1700 BC when Babylonia conquered them, taking control of the region during the rule of Hammurabi, the final Sumerian king.

The Sumerians are recognized for developing one of the earliest writing systems, cuneiform, consisting of wedge-shaped marks inscribed into clay using a stylus. The renowned Epic of Gilgamesh, inscribed in cuneiform, posed a significant challenge for archaeologists to decode. Upon translation, the epic revealed a heroic tale about a Sumerian king. The narrative recounts the adventurous exploits of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, a wild man initially created by the gods to oppose Gilgamesh but who later becomes his ally in battle. Additionally, the epic includes a captivating narrative of a massive flood, bearing striking resemblances to the Genesis flood account.

The Sumerians were responsible for constructing the city-state of Ur and the Ziggurat of Ur, an impressive edifice erected in honor of the Sumerian moon deity, Nanna. Archaeological findings indicate that the Sumerians excelled as formidable warriors, adept in agriculture, architecture, and literature.

Cultivating the fertile lands along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, historians have classified the Sumerians as “proto-Euphrateans.” These rivers, mentioned in Genesis 2:14, are two of the four rivers believed to have flowed from the Garden of Eden. Presently, these rivers originate from the same source in the mountains of Turkey, coursing through Syria and Iraq. This regionLater became known as the “Fertile Crescent” and the “cradle of civilization” because agriculture flourished there, and the peoples of that region developed glass, the wheel, and irrigation techniques.

The Sumerians have a connection with biblical history. In the Bible, Ur is mentioned as the home of Abram, or Abraham, who became the first Hebrew patriarch and later the spiritual father of all those who would have faith in the Lord (Genesis 17:5; Acts 3:25; Romans 4:12, 16). The Bible tells us that Abram was a descendant of Shem (Genesis 11:10-26), so he was a Semite living in Sumer, or southern Mesopotamia when the Lord spoke to him and told him to leave his family and the land of his fathers and go to a new land «Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: », (Genesis 12:1). By faith (Hebrews 11:8-9), Abram took his wife, Sarai; his nephew Lot; and all their possessions, and they left their land and traveled to Canaan, which is present-day Lebanon and Israel. Many scholars also see the Bible’s references to “Shinar” in Genesis 10:10 and 11:2 to mean Sumer.