What color were the sumerians?

Answer 1

The Sumerians were the same color as the other inhabitants of the Ancient Near East, which is to say that they would be considered Caucasian or Caucasoid in modern terms. Their artistic depictions of themselves confirm this (see related links below). Whether this means they were "white" or not is a matter of semantics.

The speculation that Sumerians were actually black-skinned invaders from Africa is based on their name for themselves, uĝ saĝ gíg-ga, which means "black-headed people", and the fact that their language was not related to the languages of their neighbors. However, all the archaeological and linguistic evidence indicates that they were a settled nation of farmers, not a band of invaders or nomads, and no cultural or linguistic ties have been found between the Sumerians and any contemporary African culture.

The term "black-headed" has been explained in a number of ways. The reference may have been to hair color, distinguishing the Sumerians from fairer-haired neighbors. The Assyriologist Herman Vanstiphout has a different take:

The expression undoubtedly derives from the ideological imagery, which represents humanity as a flock of sheep-that are black-headed to this day-under the care and protection of their divine and royal pastor bonus [good shepherd].

Whatever one thinks of these explanations, the artistic evidence alone is enough to call into question the notion that "black-headed" meant "black-skinned" and that the Sumerians were "black" by today's standards.