"Scholars working on the Sumerian Problem can be divided into two major groups.
First, there are the archaeologists. These researchers, led by Henri Frankfort in the 1930s and J. Oates more recently, have made a detailed study of the material and skeletal remains from early
southern Mesopotamia.
In summary, their conclusion is that the first major group of settlers in the region, the ancestors of the Ubaid people, exhibits physical and material culture continuity with the later inhabitants of the valley. In other words, the Ubaid people, the Uruk people, the Proto-Literate people (also called the Jemdat Nasr Culture), and the Sumerians were the same people.
They see no great invasion by a new people, nor are there any changes in material culture the cannot be explained by normal development. To the archaeologist, the earliest major inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia were the Sumerians, even if they were unable to tell us so themselves.
The second group of scholars is the professional philologists, the students of the Sumerian language. Many of these linguistic experts have never excavated, just as the archaeologists are not
necessarily readers of Sumerian. It must be remembered that these fields are highly specialized. E.A. Speiser and B. Landsberger, who insisted that many of the words in Sumerian documents are not Sumerian words at all, led the linguists and philologists in the early days.
Landsberger pointed out that this is especially true of words pertaining to agriculture, showing that the basic farming vocabulary and common farming techniques used in southern Mesopotamia were the invention of non-Sumerian people.
But notice what the Bible tells us; people of Shinar built a great tower, so God confounded their speech. And that tower, most probably a ziggurat, can best be dated according to our current archaeological information to the Uruk Culture. Perhaps what happened is this: the people of Mesopotamia spoke a now unknown language, a few words of which are preserved in place names, river names, and the words for some plants and animals.
The Tower of Babel was built as a monument to human pride and independence from God. God then confounded their speech, and several new language families (including Sumerian) were created. The Sumerian speakers stayed in Shinar, but the other groups
moved on. Only the few words now found in Sumerian survive from the first language.
If this solution is accepted, both the archaeologists and the linguists are correct. While many people left the area after God changed language, no new major group came in, so the archaeologists are right. But a new language, Sumerian, came into existence, so the philologists are also correct." ABR
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
Genesis 11:7
First, there are the archaeologists. These researchers, led by Henri Frankfort in the 1930s and J. Oates more recently, have made a detailed study of the material and skeletal remains from early
In summary, their conclusion is that the first major group of settlers in the region, the ancestors of the Ubaid people, exhibits physical and material culture continuity with the later inhabitants of the valley. In other words, the Ubaid people, the Uruk people, the Proto-Literate people (also called the Jemdat Nasr Culture), and the Sumerians were the same people.
They see no great invasion by a new people, nor are there any changes in material culture the cannot be explained by normal development. To the archaeologist, the earliest major inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia were the Sumerians, even if they were unable to tell us so themselves.
The second group of scholars is the professional philologists, the students of the Sumerian language. Many of these linguistic experts have never excavated, just as the archaeologists are not
Landsberger pointed out that this is especially true of words pertaining to agriculture, showing that the basic farming vocabulary and common farming techniques used in southern Mesopotamia were the invention of non-Sumerian people.
But notice what the Bible tells us; people of Shinar built a great tower, so God confounded their speech. And that tower, most probably a ziggurat, can best be dated according to our current archaeological information to the Uruk Culture. Perhaps what happened is this: the people of Mesopotamia spoke a now unknown language, a few words of which are preserved in place names, river names, and the words for some plants and animals.
The Tower of Babel was built as a monument to human pride and independence from God. God then confounded their speech, and several new language families (including Sumerian) were created. The Sumerian speakers stayed in Shinar, but the other groups
If this solution is accepted, both the archaeologists and the linguists are correct. While many people left the area after God changed language, no new major group came in, so the archaeologists are right. But a new language, Sumerian, came into existence, so the philologists are also correct." ABR
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
Genesis 11:7
