The earliest inhabitants of the civilized era in the two river basins were Sumerians. They came here before 4000 BC. They established the initial civilization of the two river basins. Akkadians, Babylonians (Amorites), Assyrians and Chaldeans belonging to Semitic languages inherited and developed the achievements of Sumerians, making the civilization of the two river basins an important page in the history of human civilization. Among them, the Babylonians made the greatest achievements, so the civilization in the two river basins is also called Babylonian civilization.
The civilization of the two river basins originated in the south of the two river basins. Here are the alluvial plains and deltas of the two rivers. Like the Nile in Egypt, these two rivers flood regularly, rising and falling. Only by building dams, ditches and beams to store water and drain water can people cultivate and harvest. Residents in the two river basins mainly use cattle and donkeys to pull wooden plows, and the most important crops are barley and dates. Highland barley wine is people's favorite drink, and date palm is one of people's staple foods.
In ancient times, people in the two river basins compiled the earliest agricultural book "Agricultural Book" in human history. The Farmer's Yearbook was written with the anger of an old farmer educating his son. The old farmer took pains to tell his son how to farm and what to pay attention to. For example, how to save irrigation water, prevent livestock from trampling on the fields, drive away birds that eat food, harvest in time and so on.
About 5000 years ago, the residents of the ancient two river basins made pottery. The pottery they make is mainly painted pottery, which is colorful and dazzling, and some of them are coated with layers. People's daily life is like wine glasses, oil drums, stoves and lamps, almost all of which are made of pottery. The most interesting thing is that the coffin used after death is also made of clay and shaped like a rectangular box with a lid.
In ancient times, the two river basins lacked stones, and the most important building material was clay. Clay bricks made of broken wheat straw are used to build walls, build houses and pave roads. In ancient times, urban buildings in the two river basins were all built with this clay.
In ancient times, the metal manufacturing technology in Lianghe area reached a fairly skilled level. In Shang Dynasty in China, there was a Simuwu Dafang Ding. At about the same time, bronze statues weighing about 2 tons appeared in the two river basins, and there were also many handicrafts, such as brick making, hemp spinning, stone carving, jewelry, leather and wood industry.
The people in the ancient two river basins also made great cultural achievements and left a rich legacy in the treasure house of human culture.
They wrote a long time ago, and this is the famous cuneiform. Although cuneiform has never developed into pinyin, it is a relatively developed one in early human writing.
The main achievements of literature in the two river basins are proverbs, myths and epics. Some Sumerian proverbs were recorded on clay tablets, some of which reflected the social contradictions and ethos at that time. For example, the poor are worse than dead. "If you want to eat meat, there will be no sheep, and if you have sheep, you can't eat meat." A wife is her husband's future, a son is her father's backer, and a daughter-in-law is her 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.
The myths and legends of the two river basins have particularly attracted the interest of future generations. It has been found that some stories in the Christian Bible and the Old Testament originated from the ancient two river basins. If there is a poem that tells the story of God's creation of the world, it is very similar to the creation story in the Bible, saying that God created man on the sixth day and rested on the seventh day. In the Bible, it is said that snakes lured Adam and Eve to steal the forbidden fruit, and in the myth of the two river basins, it is also said that human ancestors committed crimes because of being lured.
The Forgotten is the most famous heroic epic in the ancient two river basins. It creates a heroic image that despises God's will and benefits the people, and expresses people's desire to know the secret of life and death. This is the earliest epic in the world. The main achievements of the two river basin science are in mathematics and astronomy. Sumerians already knew the decimal system of 10 and the decimal system of 600, and the latter was more widely used in the ancient two river basins. Today, we measure time by hours, minutes and seconds, and divide a circle into 360 degrees, all of which inherit the achievements of the ancients in the two river basins. Their units of area and weight are mostly decimal 60. Ancient Greece and Rome all adopted some weight units here, and some places in Europe even used them until18th century.
The knowledge of astronomical calendar in ancient two river basins directly influenced European astronomy. Sumerians divided a year into 12 months and ***354 days according to the moon's profit and loss, and set leap months to adjust the difference between the lunar calendar and the solar calendar. In the 7th century BC, a system of seven days a week was formed. Every day, a star god was on duty, and this day was named after him in the following order:
Sunday (Sun God)
Monday (Moon)
Tuesday (Mars God)
Wednesday (Mercury)
Thursday (Jupiter)
Friday (Venus)
Saturday (Saturn)
To this day, European countries are still named after these seven stars, seven days a week. However, the calendar at that time was still rough and inaccurate.
In addition, the people in the ancient two river basins also had rich knowledge of medicine, plants, animals and geography.
As early as more than 5000 years ago, people in the two river basins created such a developed civilization, which is really fascinating. The highest achievement of ancient European civilization is ancient Greek culture. However, before the ancient Greeks entered the era of civilization, the civilization of the two river basins had lasted for about 2000 years. Many of the later achievements of the Greeks were developed on the basis of the civilization of the two river basins.