The History of the Sumerians (Chaldeans)!

Have you ever felt relieved by something that you needed to know for many years? That’s how I’ve been feeling lately. I’ll tell you a quick story. One of my siblings told me that while she was growing up in the Middle East, my father never labeled us or told her much about her background. One day my father approached her, though, and he said write ‘Chaldean on everything. You are a ‘Chaldean.’ It’s almost as though he had a revelation, light bulb moment, or recently learned of what his background was.

When my sister told me the story I said to her, ‘Well what did dad refer to us as before he told you that?’ She said he just called us Christians, we were Christians from Iraq. ‘They didn’t know what we were,’ she continued. That was very interesting to me. This incident happened in the early 70s before I was born. Let’s fast forward to today. I’m 45 now. I was born in the United States, but I can speak my mother and father‘s native language of Aramaic and learned how to do so at a very young age.

I always wanted to know more about my background, culture, and where my ancestors came from. I would ask dad questions and we would have history lessons – he said that we were from Mesopotamia, an ancient place, one of the first places of civilization. I loved learning about all of the history behind Mesopotamia, how lucky we were to be from that area, and from one of the ‘cradles of civilization.’

However, as much as I learned about our history there was always something unsettled within me. Even though I knew we were from Mesopotamia, and dad had taught me a lot, I wanted to know more about my ancestors and where they originated from. I had a feeling there was more to the story. After doing lots of research lately and reading up on great scholarly articles and watching videos – I’ve been able to trace back to where my ancestors came from.

They were called the Sumerians. We were actually ‘the mother’s civilization’ of both the Babylonians and the Assyrians. We are not Assyrians or Babylonians-as some may refer to us as-however, our kingdom got mixed in with theirs, so to speak. We were overthrown by the Babylonians and at one point our kingdom overthrew the Assyrians empire. As you know, different tribal peoples would conquer one another during that period.

Our peoples almost became extinct. I believe that there are many Sumerians all over the world. They may be trying to trace back to their history exactly like I have. Perhaps there are millions? I plan to do more research on this ancient race. I learned that it’s difficult to distinguish where they originated out of, it can be murky. I believe they came from the Levant or the Eastern Mediterranean area, consisting of countries like Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. Based on my findings and research, that seems the most highly likely.

I guess it’s no wonder I follow a Mediterranean diet normally and not only love Middle Eastern, but also Mediterranean and other foods. 🙂 What I also learned here is that what I’ve been told about my background is not completely accurate. I guess that is bound to happen when it’s murky where your ancestors originated from, again. Whether they have originated out of the Levant or Ethiopia, a place near Egypt or Damascus, they were amazing indeed.

The Sumerians were the first to develop cuneiform writing, that is writing on clay tablets, they are innovators and inventors of astrology and math, and they also developed the first city-states (similar to countries) and held the first government. They were an amazing people and made the first of many things, including Eridu, the oldest and first city.

What does the Bible say about the Sumerians?

In the biblical Book of Genesis, chapter 1, it states that God divided the night from the day and saw that it was good. If one accepts God’s role in creating day and night then the Sumerians finished the job and, if one does not, it was not God who divided night and day – it was the Sumerians.

They were so great!

More on this ancient culture…

About 200 years ago European archaeologists were searching through the sands for Bible remains in the Middle East. They were mostly searching in Egypt and the southern half of Mesopotamia, what is today called modern-day Iraq. They searched for the works of remains of Greek authors and journals of travelers among other ancient artifacts. Babylon, Ninevah, Ur. These are names of places that many have only heard or read about but that few if any in the world knew the precise locations of.

By the early 1800s, archaeologists had also made many discoveries. They collected numerous bricks, tablets, clay cylinders, and boundary stones that were inscribed with ‘mysterious markings.’ However, these items were not only present in Babylon and Nineveh but were found in many other places including in Iran, for example. They found scripts written in old Persian and there were other tablets in other unknown languages. 

They found these languages by decoding them. The written form of Akkadian, which was called Babylonian, was another language of one of the scripts and the third of the inscriptions were in Elamite. You may have heard Jesus make mention of the ‘Elamites’ in the Bible as well. Akkadian, in written form, was called cuneiform. However, this cuneiform was NOT developed by the Akkadians or the Babylonians-it was developed by other people. By the Sumerians. Writing began with them.

About Zina

Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book(s), Not Without God: A Story of Survival and Not Without God: Hope In the Storm. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s also been featured on The Neil Haley (media giant’s) Show, The Intuitive Edge podcast, and on ESPN’s ‘Solutions from the Huddle’broadcast as well as Grace and Truth Radio World!

Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students from all over the world from many different backgrounds and parts of the world. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among many other places. Last August she created the “Writing Because I Can’t Not Write Group” meetings and workshops where aspiring and seasoned authors can network and learn together.

Zina writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also likes to write about health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm was just published last year.