The land of the Sumerians was called Sumer (Shinar in the Bible).
The land of the Sumerians was called Sumer (Shinar in the Bible). Their origins are shrouded in the past. They were not Semites, like most of the peoples of the region. The Sumerians spoke a language unrelated to other known tongues. They probably came to southern Mesopotamia from Anatolia (now the country of Turkey) between 3500 and 3000bc.