Chapter 16: Mesopotamian Civilization
readx;? Mesopotamia is one of the cradles of human culture, and irrigated agriculture is the main foundation for its cultural development. The www.biquge.info of the pen "Fun" has appeared in Sumerian, Akkad, Babylonian, Assyrian and other civilizations. It was then ruled by the Persian, Macedonian, Roman and Ottoman empires. After the First World War, the main part of it became independent Iraq.
Written by Jews and Greeks, Mesopotamia was a paradise that everyone aspired to, and the Garden of Eden in the Bible was here.
However, in today's Mesopotamia, the climate and natural conditions are clearly very different from those described by the Jews and Greeks. The climate is dry, the soil is bare, the dunes are abundant, and like all desert areas, precipitation is scarce and the temperature varies widely. For example, Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, receives 156 mm of precipitation a year, with zero from June to September, and temperatures can reach as high as 49 degrees Celsius in summer and as low as -9 degrees Celsius in winter. Even if you go to the legendary "Garden of Eden" Kurla, you will be disappointed. Today it is a lonely area, less than a kilometre from the riverbank, where nothing but a nodule bramble (said to be the legendary "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil") remains, and all that meets the eye is desolation and gravel. It seems difficult for us to imagine that such relatively harsh natural conditions would have become the cradle of advanced human civilization thousands of years ago.
Researchers of geology and environmental change have made the insightful conclusion that Mesopotamia had a humid rather than arid climate between 4000 and 2000 BC. According to the geographer Ram, much of the climate around the Mediterranean was arid during the warmest period of the post-glacial period, but due to the expansion of the southwest monsoon and the moistening of the monsoon rains during this period, a humid climate existed in Mesopotamia between 34 and 35 degrees north latitude.
Excavations by archaeologists in this area have confirmed this assertion. Archaeological excavations have shown that during the period 4000-2000 BC, several floods caused discontinuities in the soil layer. The clay tablets excavated from these sites account of the Great Flood and how the Sumerians built the dikes, which are also strong evidence of the particularly fertile climate during this period. Geologists also confirmed the existence of a humid climate in the two river basins during this period through a series of scientific methods such as radiocarbon dating, amino acid differential isomerism analysis, and pollen analysis. As a result, Mesopotamia is historically a "paradise". The geography and climate are very good.
Mesopotamia used to have a particularly humid climate. At that time, abundant precipitation from the mountainous regions of Armenia flowed into the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and the two mother rivers nourished the fertile land of the plains. Therefore, it is certain that around 4000-2000 BC, during the critical period of the establishment of Mesopotamian civilization, the natural conditions were suitable.
That is, it was during this critical period of humid climate that the Sumerians created the oldest documented civilization in human history. It is indeed impossible to imagine how the Sumerians would have extracted enough water to irrigate their fields without the abundant flow of the two river basins, and that these civilizations would not have existed in arid and barren lands without the unnecessarily beneficial benefits of monsoon rains.
Through a large number of studies, scientists have confirmed that at that time, the Lianghe Plain was once a green field with lush forests and green ridges, and it was also once crisscrossed by ditches, dense river networks, and densely populated. The Jews and Greeks did not lie in calling it "heaven."
The whole of Mesopotamia is usually divided into north and south regions by the latitude of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq.
The northern part is called Silesia, and the southern part is called Babylonia.
Babylonia is bounded by Nipur and is further divided into north and south. The northern region is called the Akkadian region, and the southern region is called the Sumerian region.
The Sumerian civilization is the earliest civilization in the entire Mesopotamian civilization, and it is also the earliest civilization in the world that has been accurately researched and left written records, and it is mainly distributed in the Sumerian region.
The previous Harappan civilization was based on white people as the ruling core, even the Aryan civilization that conquered and inherited the Harappan civilization was created in the way that white people digested white people, only the Sumerian civilization belonged to the branch of the Harappan civilization (its core was absorbed by the Aryan civilization), but the ruling core has changed to the yellow race, that is, the Sumerians as the core.
In fact, any city is gradually developed from settlements, and it is not possible to say who is the founder. By the time the Sumerians arrived, there were already several scattered settlements established by the local Indo-European yellow natives, mainly in the late Sovan culture. And the local people believe in the water god Enki. Therefore, the Sumerians, who were latecomers, believed that Eredu was built by the god of water, Enki.
The so-called Indo-European languages refer to the indigenous yellow people who were widely distributed in Eurasia before the Aryans and Semites moved south from the northern steppes, and in this sense, the Sumerians are also the indigenous yellow people of the Indus Valley and also belong to the Indo-European language family, but they have been completely assimilated by the Harappan civilization and have been separated from the Indo-European language family.
In order to win the support of the local people, Arulim claimed that he had Enki's permission to become the lord of Eredu, and built a grand temple for the water god Enki along with the construction of the city. The local people are convinced. As a result, the local population was quickly assimilated into the Sumerian civilization.
This started the tradition of "divine authority of kings" in Sumerian civilization, just as the rulers of feudal societies claimed to be the sons of heaven.
In 4120 BC, Arulim established the First Dynasty of Eredu.
Arulim, reign: 80 BC, 4120-4040 BC.
The Sumerian civilization, like the Harappan civilization, was a typical urban civilization, and was the first to create an urban civilization in the valley of the two rivers.
The Sumerians reached a very high level of ancient architecture in terms of architecture, which was characterized by the fact that the walls were of earth and stone, the houses were of civil engineering, and the main building material was sun-dried mud bricks, showing a difference from the Harappan civilization (burnt brick construction).
The Plains of the Two Rivers lacked stone mines and trees, so Sumerian buildings were made of mud bricks, and burning bricks required a lot of wood. There is no mortar or cement connection between bricks and bricks. Mud brick buildings deteriorate over time, so they have to be demolished, bulldozed and rebuilt over time. Over time, the cities of the Two Rivers Plain were raised as a result. Such monuments are called Taylor. Such monuments can be found everywhere in the Middle East. Sumerian temples and palaces used more complex structures and techniques such as pillars, chambers, and clay nails. Most of the artifacts that can be found in Western Asia are from these Taleri.
Erethus was the southernmost of the Sumerian city-states, and was the first city built by the Sumerians.
The city of Eridu was home to a temple dedicated to Enki, which was much larger than that of other Sumerian city-states.