The Exploration Of The Sumerian Story - 1842 Words

The Exploration of the Sumerian Story Although, the ancient stories of the Sumerians are widely attributed to pure mythology, they went to great lengths to understand and create a way to record their history, discoveries, and development. The most accepted view on what makes a culture civilized, â€Å"is a culture which has attained a degree of complexity, usually characterized by urban life† (Guisepi). Even though human exploration continues to discover previously unknown chapters of the Sumerian story, the extensive amount of archeological evidence found and the time frame; allows us to accredit them for the foundation of what is considered today, as the standards for human civilization. Everything from their mythological creation,†¦show more content†¦Sumerians say, Nammu gave birth to ‘An’ meaning Heaven, and ‘Ki’ meaning Earth; and this union produced the Anunna or Anunnaki, meaning â€Å"those who descended from Heaven to Earth† (Bolman). This creation story has been retold in many forms, most commonly in the Greek Mythology and more recently in Genesis, of the Bible. The initial evidence showed that there had been human existence around 4500 BCE in southern Mesopotamia, however this date is 500 years too early for the Sumerians. In fact, excavations show that the first settlers of the Fertile Crescent were a person of unknown origins named the Ubaid people. This name is given to them because of where their existence was first unearthed by Henry Hall and later Leonard Woolley, at the excavated mound of al-Ubaid. The settlement and artifacts date back beyond 4500 BCE and the excavation proved the Ubaid people had been hunter-gathers who started to develop signs of agrarian society around 5000 BCE. (Mark, Sumerian Civilization) The Sumerians settled in Mesopotamia around 4000 BCE, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, known today as southern Iraq. Notice the word â€Å"settled† in the previous sentence. Research shows, that the Sumerian people have been traced further through excavations and improved DNA testing, to the Murgab River Delta of Turkmenistan, dating back to the 7th millennium