The Sumerians also used it as early as the third millennium BCE in statuary, mortaring brick walls, waterproofing baths and drains, in stair treads, and for shipbuilding. Other cultures such as Babylon, India, Persia, Egypt, and ancient Greece and Rome continued these uses, and in several cases the bitumen has continued to hold components securely together to this day. In some versions of the Book of Genesis in the Bible, the name of the substance used to bind the bricks of the Tower of Babel is translated as bitumen. Although its existence has not been confirmed, a one-kilometer tunnel beneath the river Euphrates at Babylon in the time of Queen Semiramis (ca. 700 B.C.) was reportedly constructed of burnt bricks covered with bitumen as a waterproofing agent. The term bitumen comes from Latin. The Greek name for the substance was (asphaltos). Approximately 40 A.D. Discords described production of asphalts (as distinguished from piss asphalt and naphtha): (1655 Goodyear translation). The terms asphalt and bitumen are often used interchangeably to mean both natural and manufactured forms of the substance.

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Naturally occurring deposits of bitumen are formed from the remains of ancient, microscopic algae and other once-living things. When these organisms died, their remains were deposited in the mud on the bottom of the ocean or lake where they lived. Under the heat and pressure of burial deep in the earth, the remains were transformed into materials such as bitumen, kerogen, or petroleum. Deposits at the La Brea Tar Pits are an example.
There are structural similarities between bitumen and the organic matter in carbonaceous meteorites. However, detailed studies have shown these materials to be distinct.
Given that analogous matter is found in certain meteorites and bitumen are also found in Archean rocks it is possible that some bitumen are primordial material formed during accretion of the Earth and reworked by bacteria that consume hydrocarbons.

The natural adhesive and waterproofing characteristics of Bitumen is been utilized by people in various ways such as paving roads, roof waterproofing and etc.
Bitumen is either a mixture of several different organic liquids also known as Crude bitumen or the remnant of the process of distillation of petroleum or coal known as Refined Bitumen , referred to as Asphalt Cement or Asphalt in North America.