Mesopotamia was divided into two parts, Babylon in the south and Assyria in the north. Today, the two river basins are equivalent to today's Iraq. 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. The earliest agricultural book in ancient times, people in the two river basins wrote the earliest agricultural book in human history. In the book, an old farmer tells his son how to farm and what to pay attention to. About 5000 years ago, the residents of the ancient two river basins began to make pottery for daily use. The most important building material in ancient two river basins was clay. Wall-building, building and paving are all adobe made of clay mixed with broken wheat straw. At that time, all the urban buildings there were built with this kind of mud brick. Sumerians invented writing almost at the same time as Egyptians. They used sharpened reeds as pens, carved words on the clay embryo, and then dried the clay embryo to become clay tablets. This kind of writing is called cuneiform because of its sharp shape. Literary achievements The main literary achievements 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 death "; Some are profound summaries of life experience: "shoes are people's eyes, and walking increases people's knowledge" and so on. In Sumerian mythology of the two river basins, God also spent six days creating the world and rested on the seventh day. People's ancestors sinned because of temptation, similar to the Bible. Edit the map of Mesopotamia plain. Most of Mesopotamia is in Iraq and northeast Syria. It starts from the western edge of the Iranian plateau in the east, reaches the Persian Gulf in the south, reaches the Syrian desert in the west and reaches the Armenian mountains in the north. The terrain is low and flat, with an average elevation of less than 200 meters, which inclines from north to south. To the north of Baghdad is Upper Mesopotamia, also known as Assyria, with slightly higher terrain and undulating mountains. Southern Mesopotamia, also known as Babylonia, is low-lying and full of lakes and swamps. The Tigris River and the Euphrates River meet in the south to form the Arabian River and the delta. The plain of the two river basins extends from northwest to southeast in the shape of a crescent moon, which is called "fertile crescent moon". In ancient times, agriculture in this area was developed, irrigation was convenient, rivers and canals were vertical and horizontal, and the land was fertile. 1 Edit the climate data of this section. The mountainous areas in the northeast belong to the Mediterranean climate, and the rest belong to the subtropical arid and semi-arid climate. The annual precipitation dropped from 500mm in the north to less than100mm in the south. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf, it is also the center of Asia Minor, Iranian Plateau and Arabian Peninsula, the transportation hub of West Asia, and the region where all ethnic groups meet. Mesopotamia was originally part of the Persian Gulf. It is formed by the alluvial of the Tigris River and the Euphrates River. The terrain is high in the north and low in the south. The terrain in the north is undulating and the south is swampy. Most of the altitude is below 200 meters. The climate is dry. Produce dates, barley, corn and so on. Edit this historical origin Assyrian Empire Assyria was a slave country in ancient West Asia. At the end of 3rd/Kloc-0th century BC, a branch of Sem people established the city of Azores in the middle reaches of the Tigris River. At the end of 2 1 century, a class society and a country were formed. A huge military empire was established in the second half of the eighth century. Egypt was occupied in the 7th century. The militarism and oppressive rule of the empire aroused the constant resistance of the conquered areas. In 6 12, the capital Nineveh was captured by the allied forces of Medea and Chaldea. Died in the Battle of Hermes in 605 BC. Kingdom of Babylon, King of Babylon, Kingdom of Babylon. Slave city-states in southern Babylonia, Western Asia. Centered on the city of Babylon. In the 0/9th century BC, the Amorites founded the country here. History is called the Kingdom of Babylon (about BC 1894 ~ BC 1595). The sixth king Hammurabi (about BC 1792 ~ BC 1750) conquered other city-states, unified the two river basins, established a powerful centralized country, and became a typical slave country in ancient West Asia. Code of hammurabi is the first written code in ancient West Asia. Economy and culture are highly developed, especially mathematics and astronomy. Hammurabi gradually weakened after his death, and was destroyed by the Hittite kingdom in BC 1595. In 626 BC, a Babylonian tribe of Semitic nationality occupied Babylon and rebuilt a new kingdom of Babylon (626-538 BC). Also known as the Kingdom of Chaldea. In 6 12 BC, it joined hands with Medea to destroy Assyria, covering most of the two river basins, Syria, Palestine and even northern Arabia. In the second half of the sixth century BC, the country became strong. King Nebuchadnezzar II launched many foreign wars and continued to expand. In 586 BC, he captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish kingdom. Its territory includes most of the two major river basins of Syria and Palestine. Since then, coups have continued and the country has declined. It was destroyed by Persia in 538 BC. Cuneiform cuneiform, derived from Latin, is a compound word composed of cuneus and forma. Cuneiform characters are also called "nails" or "arrows". The characters used in ancient West Asia were mostly carved on stones and clay tablets (clay bricks). The strokes are wedge-shaped like nails or arrows. Around 3000 BC, Sumerians in the Bronze Age used clay tablets to record accounts in the form of pictures. Gradually, these symbols have evolved into ideographic symbols, and those things that cannot be described are expressed in any specified way. Moreover, Sumerians also use it to represent sounds, and several ideograms together can represent a complex word or phrase, which makes many symbols redundant. Wedge characters were written straight from top to bottom at first, and then horizontally from left to right, so all wedge symbols were turned 90, from vertical writing to horizontal writing. Because the right hand holds the pen and writes horizontally from left to right, the thick end of the wedge-shaped stroke is on the left and the thin end (nail tail) is on the right. Sumerian cuneiform symbols and notes. After being used and reformed by Babylonians, Assyrians and Arameans, it became a semi-syllabic writing. Contributed to the history of writing development. There are about 500 kinds of cuneiform symbols, many of which have multiple meanings, and their "exact meaning" can only be determined according to the upper and lower contents, which makes cuneiform writing system more difficult to master than later pinyin writing system. However, for two thousand years, cuneiform was the only writing system in Mesopotamia. By about 500 BC, this kind of writing had even become a common commercial communication medium in most parts of West Asia. Archaeologists have discovered a large number of cuneiform tablets or inscriptions, which have been translated since the19th century, thus forming a new discipline to study ancient history-Assyrian studies. Ullner Code and Ullner Code are the earliest written codes in history. It was promulgated by Ullner Mu, the founder of the Third Ur Dynasty in ancient Asia (about 265,438 BC+065,438 BC+03-2006 BC). It adapts to the development of slavery and is mainly used to protect slave possession and private ownership economy and suppress the resistance of slaves and the poor. Most of these codes are damaged, only a few fragments are left. Sumerians invented cuneiform writing, which was used by many countries in the two river basins. The story of the great flood in Sumerian mythology was later adapted by Jews and incorporated into the Old Testament, which is the story of Noah's Ark. The calendar of the two rivers civilization is very distinctive. In Sumerian Akkadian times, the lunar calendar was made with 29 or 30 days per month, 12 months was 1 year (6 months with 29 days and 6 months with 30 days), and it was adjusted by setting leap months. At first, leap was set by experience, then there were 3 leap rules in 8 years and 10 leap rules in 27 years. In astronomy, stars can already be distinguished from the five planets, and the ecliptic has also been observed. Assyrian period defined the name of today's week and the rule of 7 days 1 week. Mathematically, the two rivers civilization uses decimal system and sexagesimal. The circumference is 360 degrees, 1 day is 12 hours, 30 minutes per hour. The ancient Babylonians also mastered four kinds of operations: square, cube and the rules for finding square roots and cubic roots. You can also solve the equations of three unknowns. The pythagorean theorem of right triangle is obtained, and the pi is 3. Astronomical calendar The calendar of the two rivers civilization is very distinctive. During the Sumerian Akkadian era, the lunar calendar was made, with the full and short moon as the timing standard, with 29 or 30 days per month, 12 months as 1 year (29 days in 6 months and 30 days in 6 months) and 354 days per year, and the leap month was invented, which was adjusted by setting leap months. At first, leap was set by experience, then there were 3 leap rules in 8 years and 10 leap rules in 27 years. Divide an hour into 60 minutes. Assyrian period defined the name of today's week and the rule of 7 days 1 week. In astronomy, stars can already be distinguished from the five planets, and the ecliptic has also been observed. Mathematics Sumerians can also calculate fractions, add, subtract, multiply and divide, and solve quadratic equations with one variable, and invented the decimal method of 10 and the decimal method of 16. They divided the circle into 360 degrees until π was close to 3. Even calculate the area of irregular polygons and the volume of some cones. Arithmetic The ancient Babylonians were skilled calculators, and their calculation programs were realized with the help of multiplication tables, reciprocal tables, square tables and cubic tables. The Babylonian method of writing numbers deserves our attention. They introduced a numerical system based on 60 (hexadecimal), which was also used by Greeks and Europeans for mathematical calculation and astronomical calculation in the16th century. Up to now, the angle, time and other records are still in hexadecimal. Babylonians have rich knowledge of algebra, and many clay tablets contain problems of linear and quadratic equations. Their process of solving quadratic equations is consistent with today's solution and formula method. In addition, they also discussed some cubic equations and multivariate linear equations. From 1900 BC to 1600 BC, a table was recorded, and it was found that there were two groups of numbers in it, namely, the hypotenuse length and the right-angled side length of a right-angled triangle with integer length, from which another right-angled side length was deduced, that is, the integer solution of the indefinite equation was obtained. Geometry The geometry of Babylon is closely related to the actual measurement. They know that the corresponding edges of similar triangles are proportional, and they can calculate the area of a simple plane figure and a simple three-dimensional volume. We now divide the circumference into 360 equal parts because of the ancient Babylonians. The main feature of Babylonian geometry lies in its algebraic properties. For example, the problem of horizontal line parallel to one side of right triangle leads to quadratic equation; Cubic equation appeared when discussing the volume of prism. The mathematical achievements of ancient Babylon reached a very high level in early civilization, but the accumulated knowledge was only the result of observation and experience, and there was no theoretical basis. The written language of Sumerians is an isolated language, which is not close to any other known language. Attempts to link Sumerian with other languages, especially the Ural-Altaic family, failed. Sumerian is a kind of sticky language, that is, its characters are composed of sticky characters. Sumerians invented a hieroglyph, which was later developed into cuneiform. This is one of the oldest known human characters. Today, hundreds of thousands of Sumerian objects have been excavated, most of which are carved on clay tablets. These include personal and business letters, remittances, cookbooks, encyclopedias, laws, hymns, prayers, spells and scientific articles including mathematics, astronomy and medicine. Many large buildings, such as large sculptures, are also engraved with words. Multiple versions of many articles have been preserved because they are often copied (for example, as writing exercises). Copying was the only way for people to spread articles at that time. After Sumerians became the rulers of Mesopotamia, Sumerian remained the language of religion and law. Even experts find it difficult to understand Sumerian writing. Especially the early Sumerian characters are very difficult, because they usually do not contain all grammatical structures. Technology Sumerian technology includes: wheels, saws, leather, bracelets, hammers, saddles, nails, pins, rings, shovels, kettles, knives, spears, arrows, swords, glues, daggers, bags, helmets, boats, armor, quiver, scabbard, boots, slippers, forks and wine making. Sumerians had three different kinds of boats: 1. Canoeing is made of reeds and animal skins. 2. Sailing boats use asphalt to prevent water infiltration. 3. Wooden boats are sometimes dragged by human or animal power.