Eigenlijk is niet bekend waar de Sumeriërs (sp?) vandaan kwamen.
Sumer is recognized as the earliest known civilization, emerging in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq 🇮🇶) during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages, between 6th-5th millennium BC. Like Egypt, the Indus Valley, and Mesoamerican cultures, Sumer is regarded as one of the cradles of civilization. The Sumerians thrived in the fertile valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where they cultivated abundant crops, enabling the development of urban settlements. The earliest known written texts, dating back to 3350 – 2500 BC, have been discovered in Sumerian cities such as Uruk and Jemdet Nasr, with proto-writing dating even earlier, around 4000 – 2500 BC.
Scholars generally believe that Sumer was permanently settled between 5500-3300 BC by a West Asian people who spoke Sumerian, an isolated, non-Semitic and non-Indo-European language. However, alternative theories suggest different origins for the Sumerians. Some propose that they migrated from North Africa, possibly from the Green Sahara, contributing to the spread of farming in the Middle East. Genetic studies, such as those by Lazaridis et al. (2016), suggest that some pre-Semitic cultures, like the Natufians, had partial North African ancestry. Craniometric analysis also indicates a connection between Natufians and ancient North Africans.
Other scholars have drawn links between the Sumerians and the Hurrians or Urartians, speculating that they may have originated in the Caucasus region, though this theory remains unproven. Another hypothesis connects the Sumerians to Dilmun, a place mentioned in Sumerian mythology as their homeland. Some believe Dilmun was Bahrain, where Mesopotamian-style artifacts have been found. In Sumerian mythology, Dilmun was the home of deities like Enki, reinforcing the idea of a deep cultural connection. However, no definitive evidence confirms Dilmun as the Sumerians' place of origin.