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[[File: Babylonia_God_Nabo.png|300px|thumbnail|left|Statue of the Ancient Mesopotamian God of Writing and Knowledge, Nabu]]

Ancient Mesopotamia developed contemporaneously with ancient Egypt and although there were many differences between the two civilizations – such as the fact that many different ethnic groups ruled over and influenced ancient Mesopotamia throughout its history as opposed to Egypt being fairly homogenous – both societies viewed and recorded history in a similar manner.

The Sumerians were the first people to bring civilization to Mesopotamia around the year 3100 BC, and like their Egyptian counterparts, they had no word that corresponds to the modern English word “history.” <ref> Speiser, E. A. “Ancient Mesopotamia.” In <i>The Idea of History in the Ancient Near East.</i> Edited by Robert C. Denton. Second Reissue. (New Haven, Connecticut: American Oriental Society, 1983), p. 38</ref> Also like in Egypt, nothing comparable to a narrative history developed in Mesopotamia and historiographical texts were all theological in nature. <ref> Speiser, p. 55</ref>