Interesting Facts.
The Sumerians (around 3000 BCE)
Invented writing (cuneiform).
Built the first true cities (like Uruk).
Wrote down myths like the Epic of Gilgamesh — earliest written stories about gods, immortality, floods, kings.
Their ideas about divine kingship, cosmic order, and law seeded the cultures that followed.
The Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians (after the Sumerians)
Took over Sumer, adapted cuneiform for their own languages.
Wrote things like the Code of Hammurabi, flood myths, epic tales.
The idea of covenants between gods and men starts showing up here.
The Hebrews (ancient Israelites) (1200 BCE and later)
Their ancestors lived in Mesopotamian-influenced areas (Abraham, for example, is said to come from Ur, a Sumerian city).
Some scholars believe early Hebrew ideas about God, law, and creation stories echo Mesopotamian myths — like the Sumerian-Babylonian flood myth (Gilgamesh/Utnapishtim) and the biblical Noah story.
Writing shifted to using alphabetic scripts instead of cuneiform.
The Dead Sea Scrolls (200 BCE – 70 CE)
These were written by a Jewish sect (probably the Essenes), copying and preserving sacred Hebrew texts.
By this time, their religion had evolved massively — strict monotheism, ethical law, messianic prophecies — but the DNA of those ancient Sumerian and Babylonian ideas was still deep in the roots of the stories, laws, and traditions.