The Sumerians were the first people to migrate to Mesopotamia, they created a great civilization. The Sumerians believed that the world was created out of an an ancient sea from whence the universe, gods, and people were created.
Like people before the rise of farming the Sumerians saw movement around them as the magic of spirits, magic being the only explanation they had for how things worked. These spirits were their gods, and with many spirits around, the Sumerians believed in many gods – gods that had humanlike emotions. The Sumerians believed that the sun, moon and stars were gods. They believed in a goddess of the reeds that grew around them and in a goddess of the beer that they distilled. The Sumerians believed that crops grew because of a male god mating with his goddess wife. They saw the hot and dry months of summer when their meadows and fields turned brown as a time of death of these gods. When their fields bloomed again in the autumn, they believed their gods were resurrected. They did not believe in social change, but Sumerian priests altered the stories that they told, creating a new twist to old tales – without acknowledging this as a human induced change or wondering why they had failed to get it right the first time. New ideas were simply revelations from the gods. The Sumerians were the most extraordinary people who ever lived on the face of the earth. They seemed to come from out of nowhere, and they single-handedly invented civilization when most of the rest of the world was still living in the Stone Age. What’s more, they did it thousands of years before anyone else. Statuettes from the Ubaid period, the prehistoric era of the Sumerians. This kind of statue, along with the Sumerians' sudden rise to civilization, has caused some people to speculate that the Sumerians were assisted by aliens from outer space. The Sumerians were the first people to migrate to Mesopotamia, they created a great civilization. Beginning around 5,500 years ago, the Sumerians built cities along the rivers in Lower Mesopotamia, specialized, cooperated, and made many advances in technology. This is why Mesopotamia is part of the fertile crescent, an area of land in the Middle East that is rich in fertile soil and crescent-shaped. Ancient Mesopotamia and the Sumerians. The word Mesopotamia comes from Greek words meaning land between the rivers.. The rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates. Learning about Ancient Mesopotamian Religion and Culture. Located in the Tigris-Euphrates valley was the land of Mesopotamia. It was here that the world’s first cities were founded between 4000 – 3500 BC by the Sumerian people. They developed their own belief system, with a variety of gods and goddesses. Mesopotamian Religion. The cultures of Mesopotamia had a polytheistic belief system, which means that the people believed in multiple gods instead of just one. They also believed in demons created by the gods, which could be good or evil. Sumerian religion has its roots in the worship of nature, such as the wind and water. The ancient sages of Sumer found it necessary to bring order to that which they did not understand and to this end they came to the natural conclusion that a greater force was at work.  The Sumerians believed that the world was created out of an an ancient sea from whence the universe, gods, and people were created. They believed that the universe was ruled by these gods, who were anthropomorphic (they had human features and personalities) and who represented various natural phenomenon. Sumerians also believed that the reason for their existence was to delight the gods. The observance of certain rituals and animal sacrifices were considered necessary in order to satisfy these often capricious deities. Sumerians cities. The Sumerians lived in Mesopotamia around 4000 BC. Mesopotamia or the Fertile Crescent was a region in the Middle East between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in the territory of modern Iraq, Iran and Syria. Ancient Sumeria was very small: it occupied only a narrow stretch of this territory, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers reach the Persian Gulf. Sometimes the Akkadians were in the ascendency, sometimes the Sumerians. Thus their history continued for hundreds of years. Not only did Sumer and Akkad have to contend with each other, they also had to deal with the Gutians and the Elamites, their foreign enemies to the north and northeast. Statuettes from the Ubaid period, the prehistoric era of the Sumerians. This kind of statue, along with the Sumerians' sudden rise to civilization, has caused some people to speculate that the Sumerians were assisted by aliens from outer space. The Sumerians were polytheistic, which means they believed in many gods. The Sumerians worshiped their gods at huge temples they called ziggurats. They dedicated each ziggurat to a different god, whom the Sumerians believed ruled over their city-state. When a city was conquered, the invaders would force the conquered people to accept their gods. Most people in the Western Hemisphere today practice monotheism. This means they believe in only one God. At the dawn of history, the Egyptians were the only people with a civilization comparable to that of the Sumerians (although the Sumerian civilization was much older). Statuettes from the Ubaid period, the prehistoric era of the Sumerians. This kind of statue, along with the Sumerians' sudden rise to civilization, has caused some people to speculate that the Sumerians were assisted by aliens from outer space.
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Who were the Sumerians and what did they believe in?