The ancient civilization in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins is one of the oldest civilizations in human history. The ancient Greeks called the two river basins "Mesopotamia", which means "the place between the two rivers". Mesopotamia is divided into two parts: Babylonia in the south and Assyria in the north. As of today, the Mesopotamia is equivalent to today's Iraq.
The earliest inhabitants of the Mesopotamia civilization were the Sumerians. They came here
before 4000 BC. The first civilizations in the Mesopotamia were established by them. The Akkadians, Babylonians (Amorai
people), Assyrians and Chaldeans, who belong to the Semitic language family, inherited and developed the achievements of the Sumerians, making the two rivers The civilization in the river basin has become an important page in the history of human civilization. Among them, the Babylonians made the greatest achievements. Therefore, the civilization in the Mesopotamia is also called the Babylonian civilization.
The Mesopotamian civilization originated in the southern Mesopotamia. This is the alluvial plain and delta of the two rivers. Like the Nile River in Egypt
the two rivers also flood regularly, rising and falling. Only by building dams and ditches to store and drain water can people farm and harvest< /p>
Get. Residents in the two river basins mainly use wooden plows pulled by oxen and donkeys to cultivate the land. The main crops are barley and dates. Barley
Wine is people’s favorite drink, and dates are one of people’s staple foods.
The people of the ancient Mesopotamia river basins compiled the "Farmer's Almanac", the earliest agricultural book in human history. "Farmer's Almanac" was written with the spirit of an old farmer educating his son. The old farmer never tired of telling his son how to farm and the various things he should pay attention to. For example, how to save irrigation water, prevent livestock from trampling fields, drive away grain-eating birds, harvest in time, etc.
About 5,000 years ago, the ancient residents of Mesopotamia were able to make pottery. The pottery they make is mainly painted pottery, with rich and eye-catching colors, and some are coated with layers. Almost all common household utensils such as wine glasses, oil jars, stoves, lamps, etc. are made of pottery. The most interesting thing is that the coffins used after death are also made of clay and are shaped like a large rectangular box with a lid.
In ancient times, there was a lack of stone in the Mesopotamia basin, and the main building material was clay. To build walls, build houses, and pave roads, they all used clay mixed with adobe bricks made from chopped wheat straw. Urban buildings in the ancient Mesopotamia were built with this clay.
The metal manufacturing technology in the ancient Lianghe region reached a very sophisticated level. During the Shang Dynasty in my country, there was a large square tripod called Simuwu. About the same period
there were bronze statues weighing about 2 tons in the two river basins. There were many handicraft industries, such as brick making, hemp weaving, stone carving, and beads
Treasure, leather, wood, etc.
The people of the ancient Mesopotamia also made great achievements in culture and left a rich legacy in the treasure house of human culture.
They had writing very early, which is the famous cuneiform writing. Although cuneiform writing has never developed into
pinyin writing, it is a relatively fully developed type among early human writings.
The main literary achievements of the Mesopotamia are proverbs, myths and epics. A few of the Sumerians' rich proverbs were recorded on clay tablets, and some of them reflected the social contradictions and customs of the time. For example: It is better for poor people to die than to live." "If you want to eat meat, you will have no sheep. If you have sheep, you will not be able to eat meat." "The wife is the husband's future, the son is the father's support, and the daughter-in-law< /p>
He is my father-in-law’s nemesis.” Some are profound summaries of life experience: “Shoes are people’s eyes, and walking increases people’s knowledge.”
And so on.
Two The myths and legends of the river basin have particularly aroused the interest of future generations. People have found that some stories in the Christian Bible and Old Testament have their origins in the ancient Mesopotamia. The poem is very similar to the creation story in the Bible. They both say that God created man on the sixth day and rested on the seventh day. The Bible tells of a snake tempting Adam and Eve to eat and drink.
As a result, the myths of Mesopotamia also talk about human ancestors being tempted into committing crimes.
The epic "Gilgamesh" is the most famous heroic epic in Mesopotamia in ancient times. The poem creates a heroic image that defies God's will and benefits the people, and expresses people's desire to know the secrets of life and death. It is the earliest epic poem in the world. The main achievements of river basin science are in mathematics and astronomy. The Sumerians already knew the decimal system and the hexadecimal system, and the latter was more widely used in ancient Mesopotamia for measurement today. The use of hours, minutes, and seconds for time, as well as dividing a circle into 360 degrees, are all inherited from the ancients in the Mesopotamia. Their units of area and weight were mostly 6.
0 carry. Ancient Greece and Rome adopted some weight units here, and some places in Europe even used them until the 18th century.
The astronomical calendar knowledge in the ancient Mesopotamia directly influenced European astronomy. The Sumerians divided the year into 12 months with a total of 354 days according to the waxing and waning of the moon. They also set up leap months to adjust the difference between the lunar and solar calendars. By the 7th century BC, a seven-day week system was formed. Every day, a star god was "on duty" and the day was named after him. The order is:
Sunday (Sun God)
Monday (Moon God)
Tuesday (Mars God)
Wednesday (Mercury God)
Thursday (Jupiter)
Friday (Venus)
Saturday (Saturn)
To this day, European countries still use these 7 stars 7 days a week name. However, the calendar at that time was still rough and not very accurate.
In addition, the people in the ancient Mesopotamia also had rich knowledge about medicines, plants, animals, geography, etc.
It is really fascinating that people in the Mesopotamia and Mesopotamia created such a developed civilization more than 5,000 years ago. The highest achievement of ancient European civilization is ancient Greek culture. However, when the ancient Greeks had not yet entered the era of civilization, the civilization in the Mesopotamia had already lasted for about 2,000 years. Many of the subsequent achievements of the Greeks were developed on the basis of the Mesopotamian civilization.