[Cronos]

Well Abraham was Semitic, Amorite in origin, the second wave of Semitic people from Yemen who came to Mesopotamia after the Akkadians (ancestors of the Assyrians and Babylonians). But the original Sumerians were not Semites but related to the Indus valley people and the elamites namely Dravidian Tamil peoples

[ckilmer]

Well Abraham was Semitic, Amorite in origin, the second wave of Semitic people from Yemen who came to Mesopotamia after the Akkadians
.............
Why then are the Kurds of northern Iraq said to be related to the Jews if the Jews came from Yemen.

[chesley]

I did a little reaseach on Wikipedia before posting this, but I didn’t see that. could be I was in too much of a hurry as I am at work.

do you have a link, or a reference? This stuff fascinates me.

Thanks

[fatez]

Hey Cronos, not to nit-pick, but what you wrote you stated as fact. I am currently working on my masters in History and this is very closely related to what I am actually working on for my thesis. There are five major theories for the homeland of the proto-Semites: North Africa, northern Syrian / Turkish border, Northeast Anatolia, Northern Arabia, and Southern Arabia. There are variations of all of these.

The Sumerians may be related to the Indus peoples, but that has not been proven at all linguistically nor through DNA. The Elamites could be related to Dravidian people (this is more likely than the Sumerians). Some look to the transcaucasus area for the roots of the Sumerians. The origins of the Sumerian people and their language is known as the "Sumerian Problem".

I personally think that they came from the Iranian plateau, or even up the dry Persian gulf, but that is pure speculation (but would possibly link them up to the Dravidian people).

I personally think the proto-Semites came from Northern Africa to the Levant during the 7th Millennium BC. Juris Zarins, an American archaeologist thinks the proto-homeland of the proto-Akkadians is northern Arabia / the Syrian desert. I think he is right and I am using a lot of his work for my thesis.

Sorry about the length and I hope I did not come across as pedantic, I just love this stuff...

[BlueDragon]

I could be wrong..but after reading what there is of English translation of the oldest Sumerian legends and following what I could of alleged retracing of movements and migrations of peoples by study of artifacts and dna of populaces still in place, I got the impression that people spread from Mesopotamia regions towards the Indus, instead of the other way around.

That could be affected by the biases of the different researchers I've stumbled upon -- along with a few outlandish and/or ill-informed storytellers...

I can't find it right now, but there was one line of Sumerian writing which said to those still in Mesopotamia "don't go East" with the hint there was the 'God stories' were all mixed up and the people fierce, or something like that.