Where did it all start? This is the BIG question? How did humans come to be? Why is there religion? Who built the pyramids? Why are we black, white, brown and yellow? Where did WE come from? Although there is not one definite answer to these questions and many other questions, there is a lot of evidence which gives us some information to be able to make an assumed answer but still not 100% factual. In learning the history of Mesopotamia, we are still left with questions but are given information that can somewhat clear up the who, what, when, where, how and why of the history of humans. As shown in our text book The Ancient World and the Classical Past, on page 33, a timeline is shown to show the cultures of Mesopotamia. It starts with Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, Assyria, Neo-Babylonia then Persia. The culture of Sumer started around (as no one is sure) 4000BCE. The question remains, where did the people who populated Sumer come from prior to 4000 BCE? What is seen by the remnants that archeologist have found is that Sumer was a complex culture based on large urban centers. This is what formed the government, political, urban and religious structures we currently use in the world. As cited in Gordon Childe, New Light on the Most Ancient East, page 114, prior to the Neolithic farmers arrival, "Arable land had literally to be created out of a chaos of swamps and sand banks by a 'separation' of land from water; the swamps ... drained; the floods controlled; and life-giving waters led to the rainless desert by artificial canals." This alone is surprising based on the time, there were no manuals, diagrams or replicas to copy. This also gives us some idea of who may have been intelligent enough to design and build the pyramids but again, no concrete evidence.
When we consider the stories of Gilgamesh and Sargon as stated in our class audio lecture, here we question religion, especially biblically, and wonder if we have gotten the complete and truthful story. Since both Gilgamesh and Sargon came before Noah or Moses, one would possibility question the validity of the bible and religious leaders. Perhaps due to Sargon, as legend says, was a great ruler and Gilgamesh was probably an historical king of Uruk as written on tablets (www.Ancienthistory.about.com), the writers of the Bible perhaps wanted to use someone who was not in a position of authority as their Noah or Moses. Again, this is just an assumption but is definitely very interesting as their stories regarding being placed in a basket as birth and the story of the flood are not only similar but identical and leaves one wondering how many other discrepancies are there with what we are taught and the truth.
The pictographs that the cultures of Mesopotamia left on caves and such are also not so clear as far as telling us the history of these people or where they came from. We can make assumptions to determine their meanings although there isn’t anything too concrete or factual. The narrative scenes as shown in our text book cause wonder as to are these mythical creatures, aliens from another planet, or some really an animal with a human head?
With the information presented by the books, archeologist, etc. we are still left to wonder where exactly humans came from and what color/race were the first people of civilization. What is clear is that the people from Mesopotamia were
