The Sumerians: First Literature, First Legends
The Urantia Book in part tells the story of civilization. Archaeologists continue to look for its source. As they dig up the ancient clay tablets from the sands of Iraq they encounter fantastic tales of the gods from Heaven interacting with the men of earth. But these inscriptions have been heaped onto the “myth pile” and ignored. The fantastic tales of gods coming down from heaven just does not fit in with contemporary thought.

"As late as two hundred years ago, the existence of Sumer was unknown. Scholars searching the Middle East for traces of the ancient civilizations of Babylon and Assyria known to them from Greek classics and biblical references began discovering evidence of the seminal Sumerian civilization from which much of ancient and even modern civilization has evolved.

We now know the Sumerians first appeared about 4800 B.C. at a place called Al-Ubaid. During the next few centuries they established other cities primarily along the southern half of the Mesopotamian river system.

They were not indigenous: from where they originated is debated by scholars. What is known is that they were a tremendously gifted and imaginative people. Their language, linguistically related to no other, ancient or modern, is preserved for us through the thousands of clay tablets on which they inscribed and developed the first writing as yet known to man.

Fortunately, the Sumerians were prolific writers and meticulous record- keepers: these tablets richly describe their existence. With the invention of writing the simple village life could evolve into complex civilization. They developed schools for an educated elite and for the many scribes who were needed for all the record-keeping and letter-writing they liked to do. Not only business records were written down but also the first numbers, calendars, literature, laws, agricultural methods, pharmacopoeias, personal notes, maps, jokes, curses, religious practices, and thousands of lists and inventories of all manner of human interests.

These cuneiform tablets show the Sumerians established great city states at Ur and elsewhere, absorbing the indigenous peoples and extending their influence beyond Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean Coast, the Arabian Peninsula, to Egypt, and India.

Theirs was an urban civilization in which architects were familiar with all the basic architectural principles known to us today, the artist possessed the highest skills and standards of excellence, and the metal worker had a knowledge of metallurgy and technical skill which few ancient people ever rivaled. The merchant carried on a far-flung trade facilitated by the development of the wheel and axle and the sail-driven boat. The armed forces were well organized and victorious. Agriculture was productive and prosperous. Indeed, the great wealth accumulated by their civilization enabled the Sumerians to live in relative luxury for some 2000 years or more.

The various city states which comprised the Sumerian civilization continued to rise and fall in influence during these two millennia. Ur, Lagash, Kish, Eridu, Larsa Sa, Babylon, Erech, and others - each ruled by a king - were in constant conflict, and their dominion over each other and over surrounding peoples shifted as often as the course of the rivers along side which their cities were built."
(http://www.iraqi-mission.org/historical.htm)

Archaeologists and others who have been translating these forgotten cuneiform tablets and have uncovered written accounts of prehistoric events paralleling some accounts within the Urantia Book. The clay tablets were written by the Sumerians whose earliest existence currently dates back to about 3500 BC. but suspect the Ubaid culture to be pre-Sumerian. Archaeologists find these Sumerians as an historical enigma. They appeared "out of nowhere" with an advanced civilization. They built the first cities, developed the first monarchy, had the first written language, had a highly developed art, their math was based on the decimal - units of ten, base 10, for commerce and base 60 for astronomy, invented the calendar and the zodiac. They also knew of metallurgy and knew how to make bronze alloy. The Sumerians also had a system of laws upon which the Hammurabi Code is based, and did I mention the wheel? But for us, most importantly they had a religion of many gods who were both powerful and anthropomorphic. This is what today’s archaeologists know. We (as Urantia Book readers) know the Sumerians as the Andites, a race blended from the fallen princes staff, Adam and Eve’s progeny and indigenous humans. No wonder the Sumerian history is so unbelievable. Written on the tablet of Gilgamesh is this description of the king: “His name was called Gilgamesh. From the very day of his birth, he was two-thirds god, one third man.” from the prologue of The Epic of Gilgamesh translated by Robert Temple. The earliest known written record describing a great Flood is the Gilgamesh Epic, written about 3000 BC.

"Another important Sumerian legacy was the recording of literature. The most famous Sumerian epic and the one that has survived in the most nearly complete form is the epic of Gilgamesh. The story of Gilgamesh, who actually was king of the city-state of Uruk in approximately 2700 B.C., is a moving story of the ruler's deep sorrow at the death of his friend and of his consequent search for immortality. Other central themes of the story are a devastating flood and the tenuous nature of man's existence. Laden with complex abstractions and emotional expressions, the epic of Gilgamesh reflects the intellectual sophistication of the Sumerians, and it has served as the prototype for all Near Eastern inundation stories."
(http://reference.allrefer.com/country-guide-study/iraq/iraq8.html)

"The Sumerian People were an ‘Aryan’ people who ‘migrated’(?) (from where?) to the fertile area of the river (or seemed rather to ‘suddenly appear’ in the area) and then immediately proceeded to established the first known and quite grand ‘Civilization’. They built wonderful cities, complete with schools, ziggurats (step-pyramid-temples), grand houses, and industrial facilities. They had an odd ‘religion’ that seemed more like ‘a code of homage’ (that one might pay to a group of lords or kings) rather than the mystical worship of ‘God(s)’ that we currently think of when speaking of ‘religion’. In fact, it seems that this relationship with the gods (lower case intended) was the driving force in the rise of this most incredible civilization. The very reason for the existence of Sumer and her people seemed to lie with these strange and mortal ‘deities’. And… the very reason for existence… the reason for ‘being’ for every Sumerian person was to worship the appropriate deity."
(http://www.parascience.org/Part3.htm)

"The origin of the Sumerians, a broad-headed people, who were physically and linguistically quite different from the Semites, is one of the great unsolved problems of history." (http://www.mystae.com/restricted/streams/scripts/dilmun.html)

"The land of the Sumerians
The main name for the land of Sumeria is also a rather enigmatic term "Ki-Engi-ra" or sometimes "Kiengi". It is also not very well understood. While KI=land, place as in FinnUgor *kila, the following Engira or Engur, however doesn't seem to make much sense in this context, since it means fresh- underground waters. Interestingly there was in ancient times another great city-state, which lasted until the coming of the Mongols, next to the Aral Sea. It also was a land of extensive canals and irrigation and known by a very similar name locally as Kanga. The Persians and most historians knew it as the kingdom of Choresmia. According to Russian archaeologists and historians it was probably founded by the Hurrian-Subarians. Its also interesting to know that the Subarians were also known even by the northern Ob-Ugrians, as Sapir and were admired for their superhuman knowledge and abilities, probably as the carriers of a very ancient and high civilization."
(http://users.cwnet.com/millenia/Sumer-origins.htm)

Origins of the Sumerians
Archaeologists contend that the Sumerians were not indigenous to Mesopotamia. But the fact is they were always in Mesopotamia. Not as Sumerians per se but first as Nodites and later as Andites from which the later appearing Sumerians would emerge. The world's first city Dalamatia was located at the north end of the Persian Gulf. This city was built by those who would be known as the Watchers. Today relevant ancient artifacts of Dalamatia are below the surface of the Persian Gulf. We know that both metallurgy and agriculture predate the current historical evidence of the southern Sumerians. Sites located within the fertile crescent and southern Anatolia (the very highlands which the Sumerians claim as their homeland) have established this fact. There are linguistic clues in Sumerian as well. These cultural clues predating the Sumerians are Andite. But it was the Sumerians, who you could call their cousins, put it all together. Over time the Andites migrated out from the lands surrounding the Garden of Eden and southern most Mesopotamia. As Andite culture grew in power and complexity its dominance spread like ripples and was carried along the Eurphates to southern Mesopotamia and traveled the earliest migration routes west across north Africa, north into the future lands of Europe, eastward into China and across the Pacific into South America. This culture has many names but its essence is Andite. Besides the megalithic structures that these people built perhaps the most important feature of their culture was their pantheon of gods. The Sumerians wrote on just about everything but wrote about their gods and in particular the seven great sages. These seven are the top echelon of the collective gods known as the Anunnaki. The Sumerians and Andites are directly related to these so-called mythical gods: the Watchers who are the Anunnaki. Not only as inheritors of an ancient ancient culture which was powerful unto itself but genetically as well. Because of the earlier Lucifer Rebellion and the story of the fallen angels, the earliest beginnings for the Andites and thus the Sumerians have been in Mesopotamia for almost 200,000 years. It would take the additional contribution of the later appearing Adamic stock for the full realization of the Andites. Mesopotamia has been and always shall be the homeland of the Sumerians. 

In deciphering the Sumerian cuneiform tablets it was discovered that Hungarian was very helpful in that the two languages seemed to be related:

"According to an ancient legend known to every Hungarian school child, one day the two noble sons of King Nimrod, Hunor and Magor, went hunting, each taking fifty hunter-warriors on their journey. Suddenly, a glorious white stag appeared before them and, entranced by its unearthly beauty, they pursued the vision far into unknown lands, across mountains and marshland. Finally, in a clearing deep in a strange forest, they encountered the lovely daughter of King Bular. Lifting the laughing maidens onto their horses, they rode away, never to return to their father's land.

In the more specific language of archaeologists and historians, this ancient legend tells the story of the great migration of the Hungarian tribes: and if we go back one more step, we will find a definite connection between the King Nimrod legend and the Sumerian races of ancient history. And closely linked with the history of the Hungarian tribes is the history of their beautiful shepherd dog, the Kuvasz.

Just as the Hungarian language, music and ancient religion can be traced back to the civilization of ancient Sumeria, so can we pursue the footprints of the Kuvasz, through archaeological findings, all the way back to the lost land of Sumer."
(http://www.kuvaszclubofcanada.org/history.htm)

As to the Sumerians migrating south from within the mountains comprising the Fertile Crescent some archaeologists support this view:

"The agricultural revolution started in this general area and adjacent lands, like Anatolia (modern Turkey) long before the flood occurred. From here it first spread into eastern Europe, then toward Asia and lastly around the time of the Black Sea flood, into Mesopotamia. This agricultural revolution, transformed human life on this planet and brought about the early towns and cities which today are so universal, that everything else now is the very rare exception. When the Subarians and Sumerians first appeared in Mesopotamia they came as full blown agriculturalists, who transported their old culture to a new site, with farms, animal husbandry, towns and writing. The earliest known urban civilization. Yet a large concentration of that writing hasn't been found anywhere else, as though it was swallowed up by the sea. Obviously it had to have had a source of origin, and a place where it developed from primitive forms. While no concentration of written material has been found anywhere, there have been some surprising but meager finds in eastern Europe which we will discuss later.

The early Sumerians found a sparsely inhabited Mesopotamia and they descended down its great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, from their previous homelands in the north to eventually colonize southern Mesopotamia over a period of hundreds of years. This colonization required the successive adaptations of new seeds for the warmer climate and new farming methods, such as irrigation. Many early northern Sumerian cities attest to their origin and early presence in the north, and are recorded in early Sumerian legends, such as the legend of "En-Merkar and the lord of Aratta".

The earliest culture of Mesopotamia is called the Ubaid culture, which occurred around the same time as the flooding of the Black Sea basin, around 5,500 to 5,000 BC. There are some uncertainties about whether the Ubaid culture was Sumerian, but in general there is a peaceful evolution from the Ubaid culture to the Sumerian one, so its probably the same. Some have suggested that the Ubaid people were to be identified with the Subarians, which remained for a long time in Northern Mesopotamia. The Subarians were also not Semitic nor Indo-European and were probably similar in language to the Sumerians, even if not identical. We really don't know if that difference was only an archaic dialectical variation or a related language type. They also came from the north, from the same direction as the Sumerians and are mentioned by the Assyrians as "supri" , the aboriginals of Mesopotamia, since they were there before the coming of the Semites from Arabia. They were also called the SU by Sumerians.

Early Sumerian writing found in the north
It would not be surprising that before their southern migrations and even in the early phases of their colonization of southern Mesopotamia, that the Sumerians were in closer contact with their northern relatives. Even after they settled into their new homeland they probably had some trading outposts with the north, which was much richer in many natural resources than the arid Southern Mesopotamia, which was devoid of forests or even many valuable stones and minerals. They must have maintained trading outposts in areas rich in resources they lacked. One of the interesting finds in Central Europe, in Transylvania, which historically was Hungary for a thousand years until WW I, when it was given to Romania by the Allies, were the clay tablets found in Tartaria in 1961, by Nicolae Vlassa.

What is really interesting about this find, was that it shows early forms of Sumerian writing on it, that even the archaeologist who discovered this find recognized as such. Subsequently it has been compared to all kinds of early writing, but the similarity to old Sumerian was really pronounced. The American proffesor Hud, dated this find using Carbon 14 dating, from the associated organic material and found it to be at least 1,000 years earlier than any Sumerian writing found in southern Mesopotamia! What is the strangest fact is that the symbols are already well developed and match precisely the early Mesopotamian form of early pictorial Sumerian writing. Several translations have been made, with some different results, since most Sumerian symbols have more than one meaning. One of the key translations was done by the Russians, using the Sumerian language as the key. The project to study a "Sumerian settlement in Transylvania", was under the direction of T. S. Pasek, doctor of history, who entrusted the archaeologist V. Titov to study the find."
(http://users.cwnet.com/millenia/Sumer-origins.htm)

The occupants of the Garden worked with the local population by sending emissaries out as leaders and teachers to the various groups living nearby. When the late Neolithic truly manifested itself it blossomed in the Sumerian culture. And this should be no surprise considering the bloodline of the Sumerians that can be traced back to the Nodites of the rebellion and the descendants of Adam and Eve. These Andites were the intelligentsia of the common man and from the fertile crescent migrated outwards taking their culture with them. Archaeologists are finding linguistic evidence of the proto Sumerians in Turkmenistan in Central Asia as well. (Click here for more information on the Andites.)

"It is well acknowledged that the Sumerians are not indigenous people to Mesopotamia. In view of the existing close kinship of Sumerian and the Ural-Altaic languages and additionally many cultural evidences showing direct kinship between the Sumerians and the Central Asiatic peoples, it can be said that in order for this affinity to exists, the ancestors of the present day Altaic peoples (such as Turks and Hungarians) and those of the Sumerians must have been in direct contact with each other before Sumerians migrated into Mesopotamia. In other words, the Sumerians must have been a Central Asiatic people and must have been speaking the same or a dialect of a proto-Ural-Altaic language that Ural-Altaic peoples spoke then. That proto-Ural-Altaic language must have been either the same as the Sumerian or a version of the Sumerian language that the linguists have been able to read from thousands of Sumerian tablets. The very fact that the present day Turkish and Hungarian are Sumerian-like languages, is a strong indication that the speakers of these languages are the descendants of an Ural-Altaic people who must have been members of a group that the Sumerians were also a member."
(http://www.compmore.net/~tntr/crescent_starb.html)

The "here" link above will help you understand the preceding paragraph if you have not done so. It gives a short explanation of the migrations of the Andites and the emergence of the Indo-European language.

The following pages are a chronicle of the Sumerian people at a time that others were hunting with stone and flint tools. It is about the Neolithic Revolution, a time when civilization was dawning. The amazing thing is the broad swath of learning that this period encompasses. I am sure that after reading the following achievements of the Sumerians that the adjective "awesome" is truly appropriate.