Ancient Egyptian and ancient chinese civilzations, all of their beginnings are in ancient Sumer. The civilizational achievements of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians of Mesopotamia only started to become known over the course of the last century or so. For our new understanding of the past we have to thank archaeology, in particular for its discovery of many tens of thousands of baked clay tablets which have miraculously preserved the complex cuneiform writing system, languages, and literatures of the ancient Mesopotamians, and for the patient decipherment of these tablets and other cuneiform-bearing artefacts by a small and dedicated group of international scholars. The history of the belly dance dance goes back to the early cult of the Mother Goddess- about 4,000 B.C. in Mesopotomia and was known as the birth magic ritual. Men were excluded from the ritual since it dealt with childbirth and the movements in the ritual imitate the involuntary spasms precading the birth of a child. In the worship of the Mother Goddess there was the hope of a normal pregnancy and a quick and easy delivery. Archaologists have found many Venus and Mother Goddess figurines squatting in the position of childbirth and some are in the process of parturition.

Sumerian religion was polytheistic, that is, the Sumerians believed in and worshipped many gods. These gods were incredibly powerful and anthropomorphic, that is, they resembled humans. Many of these gods controlled natural forces and were associated with astronomical bodies, such as the sun. The gods were creator gods; as a group, they had created the world and the people in it.

Although the gods were unpredictable, the Sumerians sought out ways to discover what the gods held in store for them. Like all human cultures, the Sumerians were struck by the wondrous regularity of the movement of the heavens and speculated that this movement might contain some secret to the intentions of the gods. So the Sumerians invented astrology, and astrology produced the most sophisticated astronomical knowledge ever seen to that date, and astrology produced even more sophisticated mathematics. They also examined the inner organs of sacrificed animals for secrets to the gods' intentions or to the future. These activities produced a steady increase in the number of priests and scribes, which further accelerated learning and writing.

Sumerian religion was oriented squarely in this world. The gods did not occupy some world existentially different from this one, and no rewards or punishments accrued to human beings after death. Human beings simply became wisps within a house of dust; these sad ghosts would fade into nothing within a century or so.

This book has some of the most interesting sample usages of correct Sumerian ever seen. The author is a very well known Sumerian scholar.