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Can the Sumerian Problem Solve the Mystery of the Tower of Babel? The Sumerians were a people who lived in Mesopotamia, in the land between the great Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Many great inventions can be credited to this people, including irrigation (they actually invented quite an intricate system), seed plowing, sailboats, engraving, brick molds and potters wheels. These are just a few. In about 3100 B.C, this ancient tribe invented writing. Of course, the language written was Sumerian. This fact is fine for people who believe the Sumerians were the first inhabitants of Southern Mesopotamia. But, some of the words were not Sumerian (names of some cities, plants, rivers and animals). A number of ancient texts tell us this. The writing was Sumerian, and yet there were non-Sumerian words in it. This tells us that most likely the first inhabitants to the land were not Sumerian people. When did the Sumerians enter the valley? This is the great “Sumerian Problem.” There are two major groups of people working on this perplexing question. First, there are archaeologists, and second, professional philologists or linguists. The philologists are led be E.A. Speiser and B. Landsberger. They insist that many of the Sumerian words in the documents that we have today are not really Sumerian words at all. What they say is that the Sumerians must have come into the valley, either by force or slowly, and began the Uruk period. The archaeologists, on the other hand, say just the opposite thing. They are/were led by H. Frankfort (in the 1930’s) and J. Gates in the more recent years. They say that the earliest major inhabitants of Southern Mesopotamia were the Sumerians themselves. They have made a detailed study and have come to the conclusion that the Ubiad, Uruk, Proto-Literate and the Sumerian people were on and the same. They say that there is no evidence of an invasion by a new people. However, I believe that the Bible provides a solution to the Sumerian Problem. This solution has been rejected many modern secular peoples. The Sumerians were among the earliest civilizations. Looking to the early chapters of Genesis, I think, will help us solve the “ so-called” “Sumerian Problem.” We remember that after the flood, Shem, Ham, and Japheth began to spread from the Mountains of Ararat, repopulating the earth. We find that a large number of Semitic and Hamitic names have a number of connections with the place names in Southern Mesopotamia. The Towel of Babel, in fact, was constructed in the reign of Babylon (in Southern Mesopotamia). We can tell this from the name, Babylon,. The Bible also states that the tower was built on the planes of Shinar (Sumer). I believe that the events during the construction of the Tower of Babel are the answer to the Sumerian Problem. The work of making with brick began in the Ubiad period, about 4100 – 3750 B.C. The first inhabitants of Southern Mesopotamia spoke a now-unknown language. They gave names to the plants, rivers, trees and cities. As the people built the Tower, God confused their language, so there were many different languages instead of just one. After that, everyone left except for the Sumerian-speaking people (we remember that this is in Sumer). So we see that there is evidence for the confusion of the languages through archaeology. And, taking this into account, we can see that both the archaeologists and the philologists are correct. The archaeologists are correct in that there were not a new people that invade Southern Mesopotamia. The Sumerians were there from the earliest of times; there were still the same people who had lived there before. The philologists are also correct, as I stated above. This is only one of the numerous accounts where the Bible is accurately portrayed through archaeology. We need to remember that even though some mysteries seem impossible to solve, the Bible can provide solutions these otherwise impossible difficulties of ancient history.
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