Chapter 7 Chapter Five Types of Ancient Civilizations
The development of the earliest human civilizations thousands of years ago can be analyzed in terms of technological innovation, geographical environment and economic organization.Although these factors are extremely important for understanding the past, they are of little use for understanding the ancient people themselves-how they viewed life and death, and how they viewed the relationship between human beings. , whether it is Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, the civilization of the Indus River Valley; or the civilization of the Yellow River Valley, all have unique outlook on life and a way of life to practice their outlook on life.These different ways of life of the ancients also showed their own essence and characteristics when expressed through art, philosophy, literature and law.
Because some fundamental questions have not been answered so far, many views are still speculation.For example, we still don't know exactly who the Sumerians were, where they came from, whether they were the earliest inhabitants of the Mesopotamian basin, or whether they developed on the basis provided by earlier inhabitants. up.As for other ancient peoples, we know even less.Nevertheless, it is discernible that different regions have different ways of life, and these are the subjects of this chapter.
The way of life of ancient Eurasian civilizations, like their earlier Neolithic cultures, was deeply influenced by geography.In the case of Mesopotamia, the influence of geographical location is very obvious-in this case, the vulnerability of the region to invasion, because the development of the region from ancient times to the present is inseparable from repeated foreign invasions .In fact, the history of Mesopotamia, to a large extent, is the battle between the Indo-Europeans from the north and the Semites from the south to compete for this fertile river basin area. A history of millennia of struggle.
Strangely enough, the Sumerians, the great founders of the earliest Mesopotamian civilization, seem to have been neither Indo-European nor Semitic.Their language is similar to Chinese, which shows that their origin may be somewhere in the East.But in any case, it was the Sumerians who dug ditches in southern Mesopotamia, relied on complex irrigation networks, and successfully harnessed the rushing waters of the Tigris and Euphrates to create the first civilization.By 3000 BC, 12 independent city-states had emerged in the Sumer region, such as Uruk, which covered an area of 1,100 acres and had a population of about 50,000.City-states fought each other for supremacy; warfare became increasingly professional and costly.As a result, the Sumerians were greatly weakened and made to submit to the Semites.The famous Semitic leader Sargon I is famous in history as the founder of the first empire.Based on Akkad in the middle of the basin area, he first conquered the entire Sumer, then invaded far away, and finally established a huge empire from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.
The Akkadian Empire was a vast country at the time.But its life is short.The new invaders from Iran defeated the grandson of Sargon I and destroyed Akkad, making it disappear from history.As a result, the Sumerian city-states reappeared one by one and enjoyed a certain degree of independence until the city-state of Ur rose and established a pure Sumerian empire.This empire lasted for a century from 2113 BC to 2006.During this period, a group of Semitic nomads, the Amorites, invaded the Mesopotamia. Under the leadership of their famous ruler Hammurabi (about 1704-1662 BC), after a long campaign, they established of the Babylonian Empire.As will be mentioned in later chapters, this pattern of successive invasions has continued into modern times, because the invaders after the Amorites were the Hittites, Assyrians, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Arabs and Turks.
For all the boasting of these empires, the civilization of ancient Mesopotamia was essentially urban and commercial.The most basic unit of a city, each city enshrines a main god, and the city is regarded as a sacred existence belonging to the main god.The monasteries and kings were the greatest richest men at the time, but there was also much private capital invested in land, handicrafts, business ventures and moneylending.Most commoners earn their living as farmers, artisans, merchants, fishermen, and cattle breeders.Every city has a class of craftsmen, including stonemasons, blacksmiths, carpenters, potters, and jewelers.They sell their handicrafts on the free market, and the buyer pays money or replaces money in kind.Currencies are usually coins or silver rings, which must be weighed after each transaction.
Outside the city walls is farmland, and the life of city dwellers ultimately depends on the harvest of the farmland.Most of the land was held in the form of large estates, occupied by kings, priests, and some wealthy people.They divided the land into small plots and distributed them, along with seeds, implements, and draft animals, to the farmers who worked for them.Farmers provide labor, manage their own business, and then pay the surplus products produced to monasteries, courts or landlords as a reward.The basic crops at that time were barley and wheat.The livestock that provide the lotion are goats and cows.Sheep provided wool, the main tissue fiber in Mesopotamia.The most common vegetables are broad beans, peas, garlic, leeks, onions, radishes, endives, and cucumbers.Fruits include melons, dates, pomegranates, figs and apples.
Diorama: The city-state of Ur (in present-day Iraq) circa 2000 BC.
When running a real estate, you need to keep accounts, such as: the rent received from the tenant farmers, the number of heads in the herd, the amount of feed required for the livestock, the amount of seeds required for the next planting, and information about irrigation facilities and All the intricate details of the irrigation plan had to be accounted for or recorded.Management items and accounts are written on the clay tablets with a reed pole cut into a triangular point as a pen, and then the clay tablets are dried for preservation.This earliest form of writing, called cuneiform, was clearly not invented for intellectual activity; rather, it was a tool of business administration.As one eminent scholar put it, "Writing is not a deliberate invention, but a by-product of a strong sense of private property. Writing has always been a feature of classical Soerian civilization."
Two stone sculptures of Khafajah, Early Dynastic Sumer, 2700-2500 BC.
The original cuneiform script consisted of graphic symbols.The scribes used simple graphics to draw cattle, sheep, grains, fish, etc., that is to say, they recorded the things to be recorded in this way.Soon, graphic symbols were fixed and no longer depended on the artistic imagination of each scribe, thus ensuring the consistency of writing and reading.However, there is still a fundamental problem that has not been resolved, and graphical symbols cannot be used to express abstract concepts.The Sumerian scribes coped with this difficulty by adding new meanings to pictorial symbols and, more importantly, choosing to represent sounds rather than objects or abstractions. Notes of ideas.This is the essence of the phonetic alphabet that gradually developed over the next few centuries, but the Sumerians were not yet able to apply phonetic principles systematically and comprehensively.By 2900 BC they had reduced the number of graphic symbols from about 2000 earlier to about 600.This was a huge improvement, but cuneiform was still far more cumbersome than the later alphabetic scripts developed by the Phoenicians and Greeks.Scribes are indispensable, and only scriveners have mastered the difficult art of writing, so they enjoy high status and privileges.
Although the origin of writing can be found in the new environment created by the production of surplus products, the influence of writing is extremely significant and far-reaching.Writing enables people to record and accumulate various real situations, which can be passed on from generation to generation, thereby promoting the development of intelligence.Similarly, writing enables people to record religious traditions, social customs, and oral myths and legends in written form, making them permanently preserved as holy books, legal codes, and classics, thus making various unique cultures more unique. Clearer and more solid.Writing has become the main means of integrating the cultures of human civilizations into one.
The Sumerians developed not only writing but also mathematics and other disciplines in response to the specific needs of an increasingly complex society.They described herd counting, grain measurement, and land measurement in the earliest mathematical texts.Their main contribution was the development of the earliest methods of timekeeping, metering, and measuring distances and areas.And, as early as 3000 BC, they were carefully observing and recording the movements of celestial bodies, and they did so for practical purposes.They believe that the will of the gods determines the movement of the celestial bodies, and by understanding the movement of the celestial bodies, human beings will be able to perceive the will of the gods and act accordingly.Thus, over many centuries, Mesopotamian astrologers accumulated a wealth of astronomical data that was later used to develop scientific astronomy.
The religious beliefs of the Sumerians and their successors were deeply influenced by the natural environment, especially by the annual flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.What impresses them is not the periodicity of the river's flooding, but the unpredictability of the timing and amount of flooding.Heavy rains in the north, combined with snow on the Zagros and Taurus Mountains, often cause catastrophic floods, filling irrigation ditches and destroying farmland.In the eyes of the Sumerians, their flood god Ninota was not a benevolent god, but a malevolent one.In the literary works of the Sumerians, such words and sentences are often seen:
The fear of annual floods, combined with the ever-present threat of alien invasion, left the Sumerians feeling helpless in the face of forces beyond their control.There is a Sumerian poem that reads, "There is only man, and he does not live long, and whatever he does is nothingness." The Mesopotamian outlook on life was tinged with fear and pessimism. color, which reflects the insecurity of the natural environment.They think that man is born to serve God, and God's will and actions cannot be predicted.Therefore, they use various methods to predict the unpredictable future.One way is to interpret all kinds of omens, especially dreams.Another method is hepatic divination, which is to predict good and bad fortune by examining the liver of a slaughtered animal.Another method is astrology. As mentioned earlier, it is to predict the fate of people by observing the movement of the stars, because in their imagination, the movement of the stars has an impact on the fate of people.In the end, each one worships a personal god who is his own teacher.They think that a person's wishes and needs can be conveyed through it to the great gods who are far away and inconvenient to communicate directly.
The Mesopotamians also tried to alleviate the insecurity that gripped the people through well-crafted legal codes.The Code of Hammurabi is the most prominent of these, and later became the basis for the laws of other Semitic peoples such as the Assyrians, Chaldeans and Hebrews.The beginning of the code is an introduction by Hammurabi. In the introduction, he said that the ancient gods had already predestined that Babylon should be the supreme one in the world, and that Babylon should be responsible for "let the light of justice shine on the whole earth and destroy all sinners and wicked, so that the strong cannot oppress the weak".Following the introduction is the text of the code, which consists of about 300 articles and aims at the definitive and permanent regulation of all social relations.Thus, this code not only clarifies the legal system of ancient Babylon, but also illuminates the society at that time.Here are a few key features of Codex:
1.The law of homomorphic revenge is to follow the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth: "If a person hurts a nobleman's eyes, he also hurts his eyes. If a person breaks a nobleman's brother, he also breaks his brother." (Code No. Article 196, Article 197)
2.Class discrimination; pay less for the lower classes than for the upper classes: "If a man of the noble class hits a man of noble birth, he shall be fined a mina. If any man's slave hits a freeman, he shall be punished by cutting off his ear." penalty.” (Articles 203 and 205 of the Code)
3.Strict regulations were imposed to protect the property of the commercial community: "If a person steals goods from a temple or a business house, he is punished with death; he who accepts the stolen goods is also punished with death." (Article 6 of the Code)
4.Enacted many "welfare state" regulations, including: fixing the annual price of basic goods, limiting the interest rate at 20%, carefully regulating family relations, guaranteeing the credibility of weights and measures, and responsible for the city's responsibility for the victims of robbery or homicide detected compensation. "If the robber in the way is not caught, the person robbed shall state his loss by oath, and the loss shall be repaid by the mayor or magistrate of the place or district where the robbery took place." "If a life [was lost", The mayor or magistrate shall pay one minna of silver to the relatives of the deceased. " (Code XXIII, XXIV)
5.It has the common feature of all nations before modern man - holding a static view of the past, present and future.The law code is an order of the gods, promulgated for the benefit of human beings to be treated fairly.The code vividly and sharply cursed any future ruler who dared to tamper with the code: "The rule of complaints will not last long, and there will be years of famine, darkness, and sudden death... His city will be destroyed, his people will be scattered, and his kingdom will be destroyed." shall be replaced, and his name forever forgotten...his ghost 'in hell' without water." (Code, Epilogue)
The emergence of a second civilization, that of Egypt, is largely due to the earliest civilizations formed in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.It is generally believed that there are two areas that connect and influence the seats of these two civilizations, one is between the Nile and the Red Sea, where there are gold mines that attract Sumerian merchants; the other is in Lebanon, where Egypt wood that people need.In the subsequent trade process, the Egyptians learned about the Sumerian civilization and were deeply motivated to accelerate the effect of certain forces that had already had an impact on their watershed areas, thereby promoting the early arrival of civilization.However, the civilization created by the Egyptians was by no means a replica of the Sumerian civilization.Egyptian civilization reflected characteristics unique to the Egyptians and their natural environment, and thus had its own characteristics.
The Nile River Basin is different from Mesopotamia. To the west is the Libyan Desert, to the east is the Arabian Desert, to the south is the Nubian Desert and waterfalls, and to the north is the coast without a harbor in the delta region. These natural barriers make it particularly well protected from being invaded by foreigners.Living in this safe watershed area, the Egyptians were free to arrange their own destiny, free from occasional floods of Semitic or Indo-European incursions, and thus were able to preserve their race itself from the time of the Pharaohs to the Nowadays.The farmers on both sides of the Nile are very similar to the characters carved or depicted on ancient temples and pyramids. They are all short, thin, straight black hair, deep-set eyes, and slightly hooked noses.
This environmentally protected life in Egypt created the conditions not only for racial stability but also for political stability.Egypt did not have the kaleidoscopic replacement of empires caused by occasional foreign invasions.On the contrary, the Nile River is like a natural link, connecting the entire basin area into a stable and effective whole.The gentle river of the Nile makes it extremely easy to sail north, and the prevailing north and northwest winds make the return effortless.Thus, the Egyptians possessed an invaluable means of reliable transportation, which facilitated the unification of the entire basin region around 3100 BC.
In previous centuries, the first farmers in Egypt began to cultivate the banks of the Nile, as the agricultural pioneers in Mesopotamia had done earlier.Fertile new farmlands produced a surplus sufficient to support the various skilled men who soon amassed in the cities.Egypt formed two separate kingdoms - the Kingdom of Lower Egypt and the Kingdom of Upper Egypt.Each kingdom consists of about 20 provinces or states.Around 3100 BC, King Menes of Upper Egypt unified Upper and Lower Egypt, and began the dynastic period known in history.At this time, Egypt already had the basic characteristics of civilization, not only full-time administrative officials, soldiers, religious leaders and entertainers, but also writing.
Remarkable political continuity is the main feature of dynastic periods.What is commonly known as the Old Kingdom consisted of six dynasties that lasted over eight centuries, from 3100 to 2270 BC.Such a long period of political stability is not found in the annals of Mesopotamia.Towards the end of the Sixth Dynasty, the king's power was no longer absolute and was increasingly challenged by independent governors of the states.The result was a period of turmoil known to history as the "First Intermediate Period" (2270-2060 BC).The independent governors regarded themselves as independent monarchs, and the aristocrats quarreled with each other. Invaders from Libya and Asia took the opportunity to invade Egypt.Finally, the Eleventh Dynasty gradually restored Egypt's unity and entered the second political hidden period, the Middle Kingdom period (2060-1785 BC).Egypt's history repeats itself as it did in the past, but the repetition process is significantly shortened.Less than three centuries passed; Egypt began to experience the "Second Intermediate Period" (1785-1580 BC).During this period Egypt was invaded and conquered for the first time by the Hyksos who fought in chariots.As will be mentioned in the next chapter, the Hyksos were only one tribe involved in the invasion by peoples who ravaged the centers of civilization in Eurasia in the second millennium BC.
Egyptian civilization was generally stable and conservative, but by no means static.In the 15 centuries from the unification of Egypt by King Menes to the invasion of the Hyksos, many changes have taken place in Egyptian institutions and customs.However, certain characteristics have always remained, such as: the Egyptians, in contrast to the Sumerians, generally held a confident and optimistic worldview.Just as the unpredictable and ferocious annual floods of the Tigris and Euphrates contributed to Sumerian insecurity and pessimism, so the predictable and gradual annual floods of the Nile contributed to Egyptian self-confidence and optimism.The Sumerians saw their flood god as an evil god, while the Egyptians saw their flood god as a god whose coming would bring joy to everyone.An ancient Egyptian poet described the charity of the river that gives life to all things:
The religious beliefs and customs of the Egyptians are very complex and consist of many components—worship of natural forces, various local sects worshiping their respective city and state gods, the gradually formed belief in the priesthood, which came from abroad, especially from the East. Various influences - composition.Today, at least 2,000 gods are known by their names, but none of these gods is something their worshipers can fully obey or fear.The Egyptians believed that they could evade or manipulate the gods for personal or public gain; they could turn to the gods for moral or immoral purposes.Therefore, the implementation of complex religious rituals in temples is an activity of worshiping gods, and it is also an activity of chanting mantras to seek help from gods.During the reign of the later dynasties, the idea that the righteous and good people in this life can obtain an eternal afterlife has gradually developed.But, with some notable exceptions, there was little moral content in the religion of the Egyptians.Moreover, their mythology and theology lacked coherence, as the Egyptians were generally not interested in the origins, characteristics, and relationships of their gods.
Sphinx
Concern with death and material preparation for the afterlife—especially that of the king—was a central feature of Egyptian religion.Because the death of the king was not the final outcome, the king used sesame oil and other medicinal materials to embalm the body after his death, and then put the body, food and other necessities into the huge mausoleum, that is, the pyramid.Among the pyramids, the pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu in the fourth dynasty is the largest.The bottom of the tower covers an area of 13 acres, and the tower is 481 feet high. The whole tower is made of about 2,300,000 huge stones, each weighing about 2.5 tons on average.This pyramid was built with the simplest tools, namely ramps, rollers and levers; there were not even iron pulleys then!
It is said that the Egyptian farmers built these pyramids with great enthusiasm, believing that they were building the mansion for a god who could determine their mutual happiness.Whatever the reasoning for this claim—and it might be conceivable that the Egyptian peasants had no choice in the matter whether they were enthusiastic about building the pyramids—the claim does strongly suggest that what is still speculative the majesty of Egyptian kingship.The pharaoh was always considered to be a god-king, and the notion that there is no distinction between the holy pharaoh and the secular pharaoh is really puzzling.For this reason, Egypt did not have any laws that corresponded to Mesopotamia's codes.Pharaoh was the god-king; his power was also deified, and his word was the law.
Crown power was strengthened by a bureaucracy headed by the Prime Minister, the "steward of the nation," the "eyes and ears of the king."The officials under the prime minister are: the Minister of Seals (in charge of the transportation of the Nile River), the Minister of Rewards (in charge of all livestock), and the Minister of Finance (in charge of the financial branches of the country; each branch has no warehouse and is responsible for collecting taxes. When it is not good, it is also responsible for distributing seeds and livestock), the governors who govern the states and the subordinate municipalities that manage cities and surrounding villages are similar to the situation in other empires. The local governors gradually accumulated a large amount of property and became a hereditary bureaucratic class: They strengthened their power and status, and finally confronted the central government openly.The division of the ancient Three Kingdoms and the centuries-long chaos that followed can largely be explained by this.The pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom never regained their former despotic power.Although the pharaohs generally remained shrouded in a halo of divinity, they found that their power was actually shared with priests and nobles.Hence; the Middle Kingdom is sometimes referred to as the feudal era of Egypt, although a powerful bureaucracy did also play a role in keeping the aristocracy in check.
The absolute control of the state over economic life was the last characteristic of Egyptian civilization.Although there was private property and private enterprise, it was not as common as it was in Mesopotamia.The state not only controlled most of the production in agriculture and handicrafts, but was also responsible for the distribution of the products.The great treasuries and government granaries were filled with taxes in kind levied: corn, cattle, cloth, and metals of every kind;It is said that "the Ministry of food supply for all belongs to the king".In addition to paying taxes, each village community has to send men to perform corvee, that is, compulsory labor.The pyramids are the most famous fruits of the labor of these laborers, who were also sent to quarry stone, dig mines and repair irrigation ditches.
The skills of Egyptian artisans, especially in the manufacture of luxury goods, are unanimously recognized.The jewelry they made was so exquisite that it is almost unsurpassed to this day.Their enamelware and ivory.The pearl inlays are also very fine.They invented the coloring of glass and were the first to tan leather in a way that is still practiced today in most parts of the world.The linen they wove is very clean, not inferior to those weaved by people today.The Egyptians may have invented beauty products very early and developed the technology for making them.Their medical literature described ways to eliminate wrinkles and to dye black and gray hair.Items used for makeup are: cosmetic ink for eyebrows and eye corners, malachite and lead ore for eye circles in green and gray, red ochre for rouge or lipstick, henna for nails, palms and soles of feet, Human hair for wigs (the tops of which are sealed with melted beeswax), etc.Ladies and ladies who wished to look the most fashionable painted their breasts gold and their nipples blue.
The Minoan civilization of Crete is named after the legendary king Minos.Until the end of the 19th century, there was no doubt that such a civilization actually existed.The stories of heroes and gods narrated by Homer in the epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" had earlier been dismissed by scholars as folk myths.But the German Romantic writer Heinrich Schliemann believed in these stories.He vowed to find and excavate the ancient city of Troy, where the Greeks and Trojans fought for Helen.He obtained the necessary funds by smuggling tea to Russia, and began exploring in 1870.He was a great success, discovering the ruins of Troy in Asia Minor and Mycenae in the Peloponnese.Although some of his results were disastrous for archaeology—because of his enthusiasm, his lack of expertise, and his disappointing indiscriminate and haphazard collection of the remains of several cultural layers—the Greek The existence of preclassical civilizations is thus proved. At the end of the 19th century, British archaeologist Arthur Evans discovered the center of the Minoan civilization at Knossos on Crete.
At the beginning of the third millennium BC, when immigrants from Asia Minor or Syria arrived in Crete with new technologies, local Neolithic villages had been established for a long time.The land these settlers discovered was fertile and famous for its fish, fruit, and especially olive oil.Its location in the middle of the eastern Mediterranean, surrounded by calm seas and favorable weather conditions for small boats propelled by oars or sails, made its location ideal for commercial trade.From Crete sailors can sail north to the mainland of Greece and the Black Sea, to the east to the countries and islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, to the south to Egypt, and to the west to the islands and coastal areas of the central and western Mediterranean; no matter which direction they sail, Land is almost always in sight.Not surprisingly, Crete became the trading center of the Mediterranean region.Its location is ideal not only for commercial development but also for cultural development.The distance between the Cretans and the outside world is close, close enough to receive various influences from Mesopotamia and Egypt, yet far away, far enough to maintain their own characteristics and express themselves without any worries. own personality.This has given them great success, and there is no doubt that the civilization of the Cretans was the most elegant and characteristic of the ancient world.
The artists of the Minoan civilization did not try to be noticed solely by the size of the artwork, nor were they concerned with distant, feared gods or divine kings.They depicted the life around them on their household utensils, on the walls of their homes, and in their own artwork.In their view, there are models everywhere - natural scenes such as flowers, birds, seashells and various sea creatures, scenes of daily life such as farmers returning from farming, strong men fighting bulls and women dancing to pay homage to the goddess .Cretans built buildings not with regard to their appearance, but with personal comfort.The king's wealth in Knossos is large in scale, complex in structure, with thousands of households and twists and turns. It was obviously built over several centuries.There are not only the king's palace, reception room and living room, but also numerous warehouses and handicraft workshops that occupy more than half of the royal palace. This situation is consistent with the people engaged in trade.The most remarkable thing is the complicated water intake and drainage system installed by the Cretans. Up to modern times, no one has surpassed them.The drainage system is very ingeniously arranged. When it rains, the rainwater will flush the sewers to keep them clean; the entrance of the sewers is very large, and craftsmen can go inside for repairs.
Women seem to enjoy the same freedom and social status as men.As can be seen in some of the murals, women filled the bleachers of the bullring and actually took part in wrestling with the bulls.Some women even went to war, unlike in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and classical Greece, where women lived reclusively and at the center of their lives.
The northern gate of Knossos, the site of the earliest center of civilization on Crete.
The Cretans do not seem to have erected grand temples or huge monuments to their gods, but set aside areas a few feet square in their homes as private places of prayer.The palace of Knossos is large in scale, but it has only one small room as a chapel.The main places of religious worship are in nature - mountain tops, forests or limestone caves.The most important god was a goddess, the ancient Mother Earth, to whom priestesses rather than male priests acted as acolytes.There is no evidence of human or large animal sacrifices, the most common offerings being agricultural products.
Farming is undoubtedly the majority among the Cretans, but to be precise, their civilization is both land and water.They have mastered the sea, and their civilization is a maritime civilization.The mountains on the island are covered with forests, which provide timber for the construction of long-distance ships.They drove a single-masted ship, loaded with grain, ivory and glass from Egypt, horses and timber from Syria, silver, pottery and marble from the Aegean Islands, copper from Cyprus, olive oil and pottery from their own island, and traveled to and from the Mediterranean Sea. .The Cretans undoubtedly practiced piracy whenever they had the opportunity.The epic poem "The Odyssey" records that King Nestor once politely asked Odysseus' son Telemachus, "Are you a merchant or a robber?" Both professions were considered extremely popular at the time. Respectable occupations, not very different, but two means by which the seaman may choose in obtaining what he needs.
Cretan communes seem to be more egalitarian than those on the mainland, both socially and economically.Unlike the mainland, Crete is a poor area surrounded by several grand temples and royal palaces; Crete is mainly composed of villages, the villages are very large, and the place of religious worship is outdoors, which is the center of village life .Families usually live in separate houses made of wood and stucco.There may have been domestic slaves, but the number is not large. So far, no houses dedicated to slaves have been found on the island.So Crete's single-stern deck galleon was probably rowed by free people.The lack of city defenses in each city shows that the Cretans believe that their sea power is sufficient to protect the safety of the island. It also shows that the various villages and communities of Crete live in peace, which is consistent with the traditional cities of Mesopotamia. The opposite is true for combat.On the whole, it is understandable that the ancient writers called Crete the island of the blessed "great, rich, well-fed".
Around 2500 BC, that is, about 1,000 years after the first human civilization appeared in Sumer, another civilization appeared on the banks of the Indus River.It was a splendid civilization that existed on its own until about 1500 B.C., then gradually disappeared for reasons that are not entirely clear.Later, this civilization was completely forgotten, so that the Indians thought that their history began with the Aryan invasion of the Indus Valley around 1500 BC, just as the Greeks in classical times believed that their history began in AD. 776 BC, the year when the first Olympiad was held. In the 1920s, a desolate area in the Lower Indus River region known locally as Mohenjo-Daro, or Land of the Dead, attracted archaeologists from all over.There are several tumuli there, which have been looted; not only by local residents who took advantage of the inexhaustible bricks there, but also by Lahore-Mortan, who were looking for bricks for ballast. Construction workers on the railway.Although Mohenjo-Daro has been plundered, excavations have shown that it is the site of a series of once prosperous cities; each of these cities was built on the ruins of the previous city.Subsequent excavations elsewhere in and around the Indus Valley revealed that the spread of this ancient civilization was several times larger than that of Egyptian or Mesopotamian civilizations.It covers a triangular area about 1,000 miles on each side, with the coast north and south of the mouth of the Indus River as its base, and extending northeast to the foothills of the Himalayas.
Understanding of this civilization is still in its infancy, and further excavations may completely change current assumptions.Tracing the origin of this civilization, it can be found that it was jointly created by the local Neolithic village community and the foreign farmers who migrated southward from the Baluchistan Mountains to the Indus Valley in the early third millennium BC. respective characteristics.It is generally believed that the arrival of these settlers made the local people aware of the cities and other aspects of Sumer, and promoted the emergence of the Indus civilization, just as it had happened earlier in the Nile Valley.Archaeologists have unearthed two large cities, sixty or seventy towns and villages within the triangle of this great civilization.It can be predicted that with further excavations, more ancient settlements will be discovered.
Like all other ancient civilizations, the Indus civilization was primarily agricultural.主要农作物有小麦和大麦，不过，当地居民还种植紫花豌豆、甜瓜、芝麻、椰枣和棉花——印度河流域是最早用棉花织布的。已经驯养的动物有狗、猫、牦牛、水牛，可能还有猪、骆驼、马和驴。与外部世界也有了相当的贸易关系；其中包括美索不达米亚，在那里属于公元前230O年的废墟中发现了印度河流域的印章。在波斯湾的巴林岛上还发现了一些别的印度河流域的产品，这表明巴林岛是美索不达米亚与印度河流域之间进行海运贸易的一个中间站。
印度河流域的城市在当时是独特的，因为这些城市不是象养兔场那样任意建造的，而是按照一个中央计划精心建成的。各城市全盛期时占地六至七平方英里。城市布局呈格子型，宽阔的主要街道环绕长方形的大街区，各街区约长400 码、宽200码，比今日城市通常的街区要大得多。埃及的建筑物用的是石头，美索不达米亚的建筑物用的是太阳晒干的砖，而这些城市的建筑物是用窑内烧的砖建造的。整个印度河流域做砖的模子只有两种标准尺寸：11x5．5X2．5英寸和9．2x4．5X2．2英寸。可见，各地的度量衡也是一致的。如此整齐划一的布局和有条不紊的组织似乎遍布整个印度河文明区。这一文明于公元前2500年左右达到成熟期，在以后的IOOO年中，实际上处于静止不变的状态而且，甚至达到这样的程度，这些城市每遭到洪水毁灭性的破坏后，重建的新城市总是造得跟原来的城市一模一样。如此一贯、连续的传统世上从来没有过，即使在埃及也没有，因而，产生这样一种假说：控制这一纪律严明的社会的也许是一种精神上的力量。没有军事装备，没有城防工事，也为这一假说提供了证据。但是，这一切毕竟只是推测，而且，在发掘更多的古城遗址，并能释读印度河流域的文字之前，始终只能是推测。印度河流域的文字为象形文字，上一行由左往右读，下一行由右往左读。这种写法也为早期希腊人所仿效，被称为“由左而右，复由右而左交互成行之书法”——“就象牛犁地一样”。
印度河文明衰落的起因和详情尚不清楚。迄今为止，普遍认为主要由于雅利安人入侵才衰落；不过，最近有人提出，这一文明也许实际上是为泥浆所淹没的。按照这种说法，地下的火山活动使大量的泥浆、淤泥和沙子涌出地面，堵塞河道，形成一个很大的湖泊，把摩亨约·达罗全给淹了。几十年后，堵塞河道的堤坝渐渐磨损，河水流过堤坝，大河又恢复原来的水道，不过，摩亨约·达罗的城市已遭毁灭。从摩享约·达罗一层又一层的淤泥判断，这一灾难至少发生过五次以上。最后，给印度河文明的中心带来了无可挽救的损害，使北部的边沿地区十分虚弱，不能抵抗雅利安人的侵略，使南部的边沿地区过于衰弱，不能抵挡本土文化的同化。
黄河流域的文明是在最早的美索不达米亚文明繁盛约20O0 年之后才出现的。养育黄河流域文明的是一片密集的粉沙细土，这种泥土被称为黄土，它覆盖了从华北高原向东到大海的整个地面。一般认为，黄土是更新世时期的北风送来的，有些地方的黄土堆积得很厚，厚达二、三百英尺。由于其天然的肥力和吸水性，黄土不逊于世界上任何种植农作物的土壤。而且，由于华北的降雨量不足，黄河流域同美索不达米亚、埃及和印度河流域一样，没有茂密的森林来阻碍只有原始的石头工具的早期农人。
黄河流域之所以成为最初的中国文明的中心，其原因还在于那里是西方最易进入的地区。一道道山脉挡住了横越欧亚大陆中部大草原的游牧部落南下的去路，使他们折向华北。正如前面所提到的，这些游牧部落不仅大肆侵扰劫掠各文明区，而且还起了传播、交流各种文化的作用（见第一章第2 节）。这就产生一个问题：商朝文明在多大程度上是土生土长的，在多大程度上是由于受中东的间接影响而发展起来的？一般人公认的看法。商人是一小群蒙古种人，兴起于西北大草原，他们通过间接的途径掌握了中东人冶铸青铜和制造战车的技能，然后利用这些技术带来的军事优势，侵入华北，征服了当地尚处于新石器时代的农业村社。
result.中国获得了一种新的发展形式：商人采用的新技术丰富了当地的文化，而商人最终又为当地文化所同化，使中国人的传统毫不间断地流传下去。这种发展形式在中国每遭到侵略之后便重演，在以后数千年中曾重演过多次。商朝文明由诸多成分组成，如大麦、小麦、羊、牛、马、青铜和轮子等若追溯到其新石器时代的起源，无疑将发现，它们最早发源于中东。但是，有一点不容置疑，东亚的本土文化有它自己的特点，正是这些特点与外来文化相结合，构成了伟大、独特的中国文明，这一文明以举世无双的连续性从商朝一直持续到现代。
独特的中国文化有不少特点，一个特点是养蚕和将纤细的蚕丝织成精美的丝织品；另一特点是避免将牲畜乳汁供人消费之用——这一点特别引人注目，因为乳汁和乳制品是欧亚大陆各游牧部落的主食品。祖先崇拜从最古代起就一直是中国宗教的一个主要特征，对一个人的姓十分重视与这一点有密切的联系。中国人的姓总是位于个人的名字之前，而不象西方那样，位于个人的名字之后；这反映了中国社会历来起主要作用的是家庭，而不是个人、国家或教堂。常见的中国建筑物屋顶华丽，由一排排木柱支承，这种式样也是从远古时代起就有了。
商朝的青铜冶铸技术尤其值得注意，它在世界上居遥遥领先的地位。商朝崇拜祖先、祭把祖先时用来存放和奉献肉类、谷物和酒等祭品的礼器都是青铜制的。礼器的体积大小不等，形状各式各样，有四足大方鼎、各种酒坛、精致的酒杯、奇特的船形调味汁壶，还有动物头像和纪念用的假面。这些青铜制品的表面价有丰富多彩的几何形花纹和许多真实或想象的动物图案。虽然这些花纹图案与西方各地的截然不同，但与南太平洋和太平洋西北部印第安人的图案极相类似，因而被公认为是一种太平洋区域的图案。
在商朝废墟中发现的复杂的表意文字，对中国和整个东亚后来的历史极为重要。它是现代汉字的直系祖先；这一点也可用来说明中国文明的连续性。几千年来，中东人一直不能释读他们祖先的象形文字和楔形文字，而现代中国人却能读通商朝文字。幸存到今天的商朝文字大多发现于龟甲兽骨上，过些龟甲兽骨是当时占卜吉凶祸福用的——这也是中国人的一个独特的习俗。他们把有关疾病、梦、田猎、天时、年成等方面的疑问刻在龟甲兽骨上，然后在甲骨的不同点上划几道切口，将用火烧得通红的小棒子按在这些切口上，使其产生裂缝。卜人就根据这些裂缝的形状、排列和方向来判断所占问之事的吉凶情况。这些甲骨都被小心地埋藏起来，因而其中许多能幸存下来，不仅揭示了商前的文字，并使我们能了解到商人日常生活的许多情景。
商朝创立了中国第一个正式的政治机构。商朝在其统治期间建立起来的官僚机构是不能与美索不达米亚和埃及在好多世纪里发展起来的官僚机构相比的。因而，管辖各地区的世袭的贵族家族拥有很大的自治权。在这种情况下，中央政府的权威主要取决于统治者本人的所作所为。
和欧亚大陆其他文明中的情况一样，商朝农民也必须拿出一部分农产品来供养聚居在城市的贵族、书吏和官吏。而且，战争时期他们还得充当步兵，替他们的贵族领主打仗。不过，他们拿的只是一些轻武器，象两匹马曳引的战车和冲锋陷阵时穿戴的青铜盔甲，只有居统治地位的武士阶层才配备得起。对青铜冶铸业的垄断使商朝社会的阶级分化更其尖锐。只要将结构复杂的宫殿和商王陵墓与老百姓居住的原始坑洞相映对照，便可清楚地看出这一点。置放在陵墓里的贵重陪葬品，如青铜制的礼器、精美的丝织品、翡翠、大理石、乐器和精致的武器等，也可用来说明这一点。而给人印象最深刻的是，商王死后还要屠杀许多人殉葬，通常一次要杀死几十人。现在还不清楚，让这些不幸的人——大概是奴隶或战俘——作牺牲品，究竟是为了抚慰复仇之神，还是为了让他们充当死去的君主的奴隶和妃妾。
Diorama: The city-state of Ur (in present-day Iraq) circa 2000 BC.
When running a real estate, you need to keep accounts, such as: the rent received from the tenant farmers, the number of heads in the herd, the amount of feed required for the livestock, the amount of seeds required for the next planting, and information about irrigation facilities and All the intricate details of the irrigation plan had to be accounted for or recorded.Management items and accounts are written on the clay tablets with a reed pole cut into a triangular point as a pen, and then the clay tablets are dried for preservation.This earliest form of writing, called cuneiform, was clearly not invented for intellectual activity; rather, it was a tool of business administration.As one eminent scholar put it, "Writing is not a deliberate invention, but a by-product of a strong sense of private property. Writing has always been a feature of classical Soerian civilization."
Two stone sculptures of Khafajah, Early Dynastic Sumer, 2700-2500 BC.
The original cuneiform script consisted of graphic symbols.The scribes used simple graphics to draw cattle, sheep, grains, fish, etc., that is to say, they recorded the things to be recorded in this way.Soon, graphic symbols were fixed and no longer depended on the artistic imagination of each scribe, thus ensuring the consistency of writing and reading.However, there is still a fundamental problem that has not been resolved, and graphical symbols cannot be used to express abstract concepts.The Sumerian scribes coped with this difficulty by adding new meanings to pictorial symbols and, more importantly, choosing to represent sounds rather than objects or abstractions. Notes of ideas.This is the essence of the phonetic alphabet that gradually developed over the next few centuries, but the Sumerians were not yet able to apply phonetic principles systematically and comprehensively.By 2900 BC they had reduced the number of graphic symbols from about 2000 earlier to about 600.This was a huge improvement, but cuneiform was still far more cumbersome than the later alphabetic scripts developed by the Phoenicians and Greeks.Scribes are indispensable, and only scriveners have mastered the difficult art of writing, so they enjoy high status and privileges.
Although the origin of writing can be found in the new environment created by the production of surplus products, the influence of writing is extremely significant and far-reaching.Writing enables people to record and accumulate various real situations, which can be passed on from generation to generation, thereby promoting the development of intelligence.Similarly, writing enables people to record religious traditions, social customs, and oral myths and legends in written form, making them permanently preserved as holy books, legal codes, and classics, thus making various unique cultures more unique. Clearer and more solid.Writing has become the main means of integrating the cultures of human civilizations into one.
The Sumerians developed not only writing but also mathematics and other disciplines in response to the specific needs of an increasingly complex society.They described herd counting, grain measurement, and land measurement in the earliest mathematical texts.Their main contribution was the development of the earliest methods of timekeeping, metering, and measuring distances and areas.And, as early as 3000 BC, they were carefully observing and recording the movements of celestial bodies, and they did so for practical purposes.They believe that the will of the gods determines the movement of the celestial bodies, and by understanding the movement of the celestial bodies, human beings will be able to perceive the will of the gods and act accordingly.Thus, over many centuries, Mesopotamian astrologers accumulated a wealth of astronomical data that was later used to develop scientific astronomy.
The religious beliefs of the Sumerians and their successors were deeply influenced by the natural environment, especially by the annual flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.What impresses them is not the periodicity of the river's flooding, but the unpredictability of the timing and amount of flooding.Heavy rains in the north, combined with snow on the Zagros and Taurus Mountains, often cause catastrophic floods, filling irrigation ditches and destroying farmland.In the eyes of the Sumerians, their flood god Ninota was not a benevolent god, but a malevolent one.In the literary works of the Sumerians, such words and sentences are often seen:
The fear of annual floods, combined with the ever-present threat of alien invasion, left the Sumerians feeling helpless in the face of forces beyond their control.There is a Sumerian poem that reads, "There is only man, and he does not live long, and whatever he does is nothingness." The Mesopotamian outlook on life was tinged with fear and pessimism. color, which reflects the insecurity of the natural environment.They think that man is born to serve God, and God's will and actions cannot be predicted.Therefore, they use various methods to predict the unpredictable future.One way is to interpret all kinds of omens, especially dreams.Another method is hepatic divination, which is to predict good and bad fortune by examining the liver of a slaughtered animal.Another method is astrology. As mentioned earlier, it is to predict the fate of people by observing the movement of the stars, because in their imagination, the movement of the stars has an impact on the fate of people.In the end, each one worships a personal god who is his own teacher.They think that a person's wishes and needs can be conveyed through it to the great gods who are far away and inconvenient to communicate directly.
The Mesopotamians also tried to alleviate the insecurity that gripped the people through well-crafted legal codes.The Code of Hammurabi is the most prominent of these, and later became the basis for the laws of other Semitic peoples such as the Assyrians, Chaldeans and Hebrews.The beginning of the code is an introduction by Hammurabi. In the introduction, he said that the ancient gods had already predestined that Babylon should be the supreme one in the world, and that Babylon should be responsible for "let the light of justice shine on the whole earth and destroy all sinners and wicked, so that the strong cannot oppress the weak".Following the introduction is the text of the code, which consists of about 300 articles and aims at the definitive and permanent regulation of all social relations.Thus, this code not only clarifies the legal system of ancient Babylon, but also illuminates the society at that time.Here are a few key features of Codex:
1.The law of homomorphic revenge is to follow the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth: "If a person hurts a nobleman's eyes, he also hurts his eyes. If a person breaks a nobleman's brother, he also breaks his brother." (Code No. Article 196, Article 197)
2.Class discrimination; pay less for the lower classes than for the upper classes: "If a man of the noble class hits a man of noble birth, he shall be fined a mina. If any man's slave hits a freeman, he shall be punished by cutting off his ear." penalty.” (Articles 203 and 205 of the Code)
3.Strict regulations were imposed to protect the property of the commercial community: "If a person steals goods from a temple or a business house, he is punished with death; he who accepts the stolen goods is also punished with death." (Article 6 of the Code)
4.Enacted many "welfare state" regulations, including: fixing the annual price of basic goods, limiting the interest rate at 20%, carefully regulating family relations, guaranteeing the credibility of weights and measures, and responsible for the city's responsibility for the victims of robbery or homicide detected compensation. "If the robber in the way is not caught, the person robbed shall state his loss by oath, and the loss shall be repaid by the mayor or magistrate of the place or district where the robbery took place." "If a life [was lost", The mayor or magistrate shall pay one minna of silver to the relatives of the deceased. " (Code XXIII, XXIV)
5.It has the common feature of all nations before modern man - holding a static view of the past, present and future.The law code is an order of the gods, promulgated for the benefit of human beings to be treated fairly.The code vividly and sharply cursed any future ruler who dared to tamper with the code: "The rule of complaints will not last long, and there will be years of famine, darkness, and sudden death... His city will be destroyed, his people will be scattered, and his kingdom will be destroyed." shall be replaced, and his name forever forgotten...his ghost 'in hell' without water." (Code, Epilogue)
The emergence of a second civilization, that of Egypt, is largely due to the earliest civilizations formed in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.It is generally believed that there are two areas that connect and influence the seats of these two civilizations, one is between the Nile and the Red Sea, where there are gold mines that attract Sumerian merchants; the other is in Lebanon, where Egypt wood that people need.In the subsequent trade process, the Egyptians learned about the Sumerian civilization and were deeply motivated to accelerate the effect of certain forces that had already had an impact on their watershed areas, thereby promoting the early arrival of civilization.However, the civilization created by the Egyptians was by no means a replica of the Sumerian civilization.Egyptian civilization reflected characteristics unique to the Egyptians and their natural environment, and thus had its own characteristics.
The Nile River Basin is different from Mesopotamia. To the west is the Libyan Desert, to the east is the Arabian Desert, to the south is the Nubian Desert and waterfalls, and to the north is the coast without a harbor in the delta region. These natural barriers make it particularly well protected from being invaded by foreigners.Living in this safe watershed area, the Egyptians were free to arrange their own destiny, free from occasional floods of Semitic or Indo-European incursions, and thus were able to preserve their race itself from the time of the Pharaohs to the Nowadays.The farmers on both sides of the Nile are very similar to the characters carved or depicted on ancient temples and pyramids. They are all short, thin, straight black hair, deep-set eyes, and slightly hooked noses.
This environmentally protected life in Egypt created the conditions not only for racial stability but also for political stability.Egypt did not have the kaleidoscopic replacement of empires caused by occasional foreign invasions.On the contrary, the Nile River is like a natural link, connecting the entire basin area into a stable and effective whole.The gentle river of the Nile makes it extremely easy to sail north, and the prevailing north and northwest winds make the return effortless.Thus, the Egyptians possessed an invaluable means of reliable transportation, which facilitated the unification of the entire basin region around 3100 BC.
In previous centuries, the first farmers in Egypt began to cultivate the banks of the Nile, as the agricultural pioneers in Mesopotamia had done earlier.Fertile new farmlands produced a surplus sufficient to support the various skilled men who soon amassed in the cities.Egypt formed two separate kingdoms - the Kingdom of Lower Egypt and the Kingdom of Upper Egypt.Each kingdom consists of about 20 provinces or states.Around 3100 BC, King Menes of Upper Egypt unified Upper and Lower Egypt, and began the dynastic period known in history.At this time, Egypt already had the basic characteristics of civilization, not only full-time administrative officials, soldiers, religious leaders and entertainers, but also writing.
Remarkable political continuity is the main feature of dynastic periods.What is commonly known as the Old Kingdom consisted of six dynasties that lasted over eight centuries, from 3100 to 2270 BC.Such a long period of political stability is not found in the annals of Mesopotamia.Towards the end of the Sixth Dynasty, the king's power was no longer absolute and was increasingly challenged by independent governors of the states.The result was a period of turmoil known to history as the "First Intermediate Period" (2270-2060 BC).The independent governors regarded themselves as independent monarchs, and the aristocrats quarreled with each other. Invaders from Libya and Asia took the opportunity to invade Egypt.Finally, the Eleventh Dynasty gradually restored Egypt's unity and entered the second political hidden period, the Middle Kingdom period (2060-1785 BC).Egypt's history repeats itself as it did in the past, but the repetition process is significantly shortened.Less than three centuries passed; Egypt began to experience the "Second Intermediate Period" (1785-1580 BC).During this period Egypt was invaded and conquered for the first time by the Hyksos who fought in chariots.As will be mentioned in the next chapter, the Hyksos were only one tribe involved in the invasion by peoples who ravaged the centers of civilization in Eurasia in the second millennium BC.
Egyptian civilization was generally stable and conservative, but by no means static.In the 15 centuries from the unification of Egypt by King Menes to the invasion of the Hyksos, many changes have taken place in Egyptian institutions and customs.However, certain characteristics have always remained, such as: the Egyptians, in contrast to the Sumerians, generally held a confident and optimistic worldview.Just as the unpredictable and ferocious annual floods of the Tigris and Euphrates contributed to Sumerian insecurity and pessimism, so the predictable and gradual annual floods of the Nile contributed to Egyptian self-confidence and optimism.The Sumerians saw their flood god as an evil god, while the Egyptians saw their flood god as a god whose coming would bring joy to everyone.An ancient Egyptian poet described the charity of the river that gives life to all things:
The religious beliefs and customs of the Egyptians are very complex and consist of many components—worship of natural forces, various local sects worshiping their respective city and state gods, the gradually formed belief in the priesthood, which came from abroad, especially from the East. Various influences - composition.Today, at least 2,000 gods are known by their names, but none of these gods is something their worshipers can fully obey or fear.The Egyptians believed that they could evade or manipulate the gods for personal or public gain; they could turn to the gods for moral or immoral purposes.Therefore, the implementation of complex religious rituals in temples is an activity of worshiping gods, and it is also an activity of chanting mantras to seek help from gods.During the reign of the later dynasties, the idea that the righteous and good people in this life can obtain an eternal afterlife has gradually developed.But, with some notable exceptions, there was little moral content in the religion of the Egyptians.Moreover, their mythology and theology lacked coherence, as the Egyptians were generally not interested in the origins, characteristics, and relationships of their gods.
Sphinx
Concern with death and material preparation for the afterlife—especially that of the king—was a central feature of Egyptian religion.Because the death of the king was not the final outcome, the king used sesame oil and other medicinal materials to embalm the body after his death, and then put the body, food and other necessities into the huge mausoleum, that is, the pyramid.Among the pyramids, the pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu in the fourth dynasty is the largest.The bottom of the tower covers an area of 13 acres, and the tower is 481 feet high. The whole tower is made of about 2,300,000 huge stones, each weighing about 2.5 tons on average.This pyramid was built with the simplest tools, namely ramps, rollers and levers; there were not even iron pulleys then!
It is said that the Egyptian farmers built these pyramids with great enthusiasm, believing that they were building the mansion for a god who could determine their mutual happiness.Whatever the reasoning for this claim—and it might be conceivable that the Egyptian peasants had no choice in the matter whether they were enthusiastic about building the pyramids—the claim does strongly suggest that what is still speculative the majesty of Egyptian kingship.The pharaoh was always considered to be a god-king, and the notion that there is no distinction between the holy pharaoh and the secular pharaoh is really puzzling.For this reason, Egypt did not have any laws that corresponded to Mesopotamia's codes.Pharaoh was the god-king; his power was also deified, and his word was the law.
Crown power was strengthened by a bureaucracy headed by the Prime Minister, the "steward of the nation," the "eyes and ears of the king."The officials under the prime minister are: the Minister of Seals (in charge of the transportation of the Nile River), the Minister of Rewards (in charge of all livestock), and the Minister of Finance (in charge of the financial branches of the country; each branch has no warehouse and is responsible for collecting taxes. When it is not good, it is also responsible for distributing seeds and livestock), the governors who govern the states and the subordinate municipalities that manage cities and surrounding villages are similar to the situation in other empires. The local governors gradually accumulated a large amount of property and became a hereditary bureaucratic class: They strengthened their power and status, and finally confronted the central government openly.The division of the ancient Three Kingdoms and the centuries-long chaos that followed can largely be explained by this.The pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom never regained their former despotic power.Although the pharaohs generally remained shrouded in a halo of divinity, they found that their power was actually shared with priests and nobles.Hence; the Middle Kingdom is sometimes referred to as the feudal era of Egypt, although a powerful bureaucracy did also play a role in keeping the aristocracy in check.
The absolute control of the state over economic life was the last characteristic of Egyptian civilization.Although there was private property and private enterprise, it was not as common as it was in Mesopotamia.The state not only controlled most of the production in agriculture and handicrafts, but was also responsible for the distribution of the products.The great treasuries and government granaries were filled with taxes in kind levied: corn, cattle, cloth, and metals of every kind;It is said that "the Ministry of food supply for all belongs to the king".In addition to paying taxes, each village community has to send men to perform corvee, that is, compulsory labor.The pyramids are the most famous fruits of the labor of these laborers, who were also sent to quarry stone, dig mines and repair irrigation ditches.
The skills of Egyptian artisans, especially in the manufacture of luxury goods, are unanimously recognized.The jewelry they made was so exquisite that it is almost unsurpassed to this day.Their enamelware and ivory.The pearl inlays are also very fine.They invented the coloring of glass and were the first to tan leather in a way that is still practiced today in most parts of the world.The linen they wove is very clean, not inferior to those weaved by people today.The Egyptians may have invented beauty products very early and developed the technology for making them.Their medical literature described ways to eliminate wrinkles and to dye black and gray hair.Items used for makeup are: cosmetic ink for eyebrows and eye corners, malachite and lead ore for eye circles in green and gray, red ochre for rouge or lipstick, henna for nails, palms and soles of feet, Human hair for wigs (the tops of which are sealed with melted beeswax), etc.Ladies and ladies who wished to look the most fashionable painted their breasts gold and their nipples blue.
The Minoan civilization of Crete is named after the legendary king Minos.Until the end of the 19th century, there was no doubt that such a civilization actually existed.The stories of heroes and gods narrated by Homer in the epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey" had earlier been dismissed by scholars as folk myths.But the German Romantic writer Heinrich Schliemann believed in these stories.He vowed to find and excavate the ancient city of Troy, where the Greeks and Trojans fought for Helen.He obtained the necessary funds by smuggling tea to Russia, and began exploring in 1870.He was a great success, discovering the ruins of Troy in Asia Minor and Mycenae in the Peloponnese.Although some of his results were disastrous for archaeology—because of his enthusiasm, his lack of expertise, and his disappointing indiscriminate and haphazard collection of the remains of several cultural layers—the Greek The existence of preclassical civilizations is thus proved. At the end of the 19th century, British archaeologist Arthur Evans discovered the center of the Minoan civilization at Knossos on Crete.
At the beginning of the third millennium BC, when immigrants from Asia Minor or Syria arrived in Crete with new technologies, local Neolithic villages had been established for a long time.The land these settlers discovered was fertile and famous for its fish, fruit, and especially olive oil.Its location in the middle of the eastern Mediterranean, surrounded by calm seas and favorable weather conditions for small boats propelled by oars or sails, made its location ideal for commercial trade.From Crete sailors can sail north to the mainland of Greece and the Black Sea, to the east to the countries and islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, to the south to Egypt, and to the west to the islands and coastal areas of the central and western Mediterranean; no matter which direction they sail, Land is almost always in sight.Not surprisingly, Crete became the trading center of the Mediterranean region.Its location is ideal not only for commercial development but also for cultural development.The distance between the Cretans and the outside world is close, close enough to receive various influences from Mesopotamia and Egypt, yet far away, far enough to maintain their own characteristics and express themselves without any worries. own personality.This has given them great success, and there is no doubt that the civilization of the Cretans was the most elegant and characteristic of the ancient world.
The artists of the Minoan civilization did not try to be noticed solely by the size of the artwork, nor were they concerned with distant, feared gods or divine kings.They depicted the life around them on their household utensils, on the walls of their homes, and in their own artwork.In their view, there are models everywhere - natural scenes such as flowers, birds, seashells and various sea creatures, scenes of daily life such as farmers returning from farming, strong men fighting bulls and women dancing to pay homage to the goddess .Cretans built buildings not with regard to their appearance, but with personal comfort.The king's wealth in Knossos is large in scale, complex in structure, with thousands of households and twists and turns. It was obviously built over several centuries.There are not only the king's palace, reception room and living room, but also numerous warehouses and handicraft workshops that occupy more than half of the royal palace. This situation is consistent with the people engaged in trade.The most remarkable thing is the complicated water intake and drainage system installed by the Cretans. Up to modern times, no one has surpassed them.The drainage system is very ingeniously arranged. When it rains, the rainwater will flush the sewers to keep them clean; the entrance of the sewers is very large, and craftsmen can go inside for repairs.
Women seem to enjoy the same freedom and social status as men.As can be seen in some of the murals, women filled the bleachers of the bullring and actually took part in wrestling with the bulls.Some women even went to war, unlike in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and classical Greece, where women lived reclusively and at the center of their lives.
The northern gate of Knossos, the site of the earliest center of civilization on Crete.
The Cretans do not seem to have erected grand temples or huge monuments to their gods, but set aside areas a few feet square in their homes as private places of prayer.The palace of Knossos is large in scale, but it has only one small room as a chapel.The main places of religious worship are in nature - mountain tops, forests or limestone caves.The most important god was a goddess, the ancient Mother Earth, to whom priestesses rather than male priests acted as acolytes.There is no evidence of human or large animal sacrifices, the most common offerings being agricultural products.
Farming is undoubtedly the majority among the Cretans, but to be precise, their civilization is both land and water.They have mastered the sea, and their civilization is a maritime civilization.The mountains on the island are covered with forests, which provide timber for the construction of long-distance ships.They drove a single-masted ship, loaded with grain, ivory and glass from Egypt, horses and timber from Syria, silver, pottery and marble from the Aegean Islands, copper from Cyprus, olive oil and pottery from their own island, and traveled to and from the Mediterranean Sea. .The Cretans undoubtedly practiced piracy whenever they had the opportunity.The epic poem "The Odyssey" records that King Nestor once politely asked Odysseus' son Telemachus, "Are you a merchant or a robber?" Both professions were considered extremely popular at the time. Respectable occupations, not very different, but two means by which the seaman may choose in obtaining what he needs.
Cretan communes seem to be more egalitarian than those on the mainland, both socially and economically.Unlike the mainland, Crete is a poor area surrounded by several grand temples and royal palaces; Crete is mainly composed of villages, the villages are very large, and the place of religious worship is outdoors, which is the center of village life .Families usually live in separate houses made of wood and stucco.There may have been domestic slaves, but the number is not large. So far, no houses dedicated to slaves have been found on the island.So Crete's single-stern deck galleon was probably rowed by free people.The lack of city defenses in each city shows that the Cretans believe that their sea power is sufficient to protect the safety of the island. It also shows that the various villages and communities of Crete live in peace, which is consistent with the traditional cities of Mesopotamia. The opposite is true for combat.On the whole, it is understandable that the ancient writers called Crete the island of the blessed "great, rich, well-fed".
Around 2500 BC, that is, about 1,000 years after the first human civilization appeared in Sumer, another civilization appeared on the banks of the Indus River.It was a splendid civilization that existed on its own until about 1500 B.C., then gradually disappeared for reasons that are not entirely clear.Later, this civilization was completely forgotten, so that the Indians thought that their history began with the Aryan invasion of the Indus Valley around 1500 BC, just as the Greeks in classical times believed that their history began in AD. 776 BC, the year when the first Olympiad was held. In the 1920s, a desolate area in the Lower Indus River region known locally as Mohenjo-Daro, or Land of the Dead, attracted archaeologists from all over.There are several tumuli there, which have been looted; not only by local residents who took advantage of the inexhaustible bricks there, but also by Lahore-Mortan, who were looking for bricks for ballast. Construction workers on the railway.Although Mohenjo-Daro has been plundered, excavations have shown that it is the site of a series of once prosperous cities; each of these cities was built on the ruins of the previous city.Subsequent excavations elsewhere in and around the Indus Valley revealed that the spread of this ancient civilization was several times larger than that of Egyptian or Mesopotamian civilizations.It covers a triangular area about 1,000 miles on each side, with the coast north and south of the mouth of the Indus River as its base, and extending northeast to the foothills of the Himalayas.
Understanding of this civilization is still in its infancy, and further excavations may completely change current assumptions.Tracing the origin of this civilization, it can be found that it was jointly created by the local Neolithic village community and the foreign farmers who migrated southward from the Baluchistan Mountains to the Indus Valley in the early third millennium BC. respective characteristics.It is generally believed that the arrival of these settlers made the local people aware of the cities and other aspects of Sumer, and promoted the emergence of the Indus civilization, just as it had happened earlier in the Nile Valley.Archaeologists have unearthed two large cities, sixty or seventy towns and villages within the triangle of this great civilization.It can be predicted that with further excavations, more ancient settlements will be discovered.
Like all other ancient civilizations, the Indus civilization was primarily agricultural.主要农作物有小麦和大麦，不过，当地居民还种植紫花豌豆、甜瓜、芝麻、椰枣和棉花——印度河流域是最早用棉花织布的。已经驯养的动物有狗、猫、牦牛、水牛，可能还有猪、骆驼、马和驴。与外部世界也有了相当的贸易关系；其中包括美索不达米亚，在那里属于公元前230O年的废墟中发现了印度河流域的印章。在波斯湾的巴林岛上还发现了一些别的印度河流域的产品，这表明巴林岛是美索不达米亚与印度河流域之间进行海运贸易的一个中间站。
印度河流域的城市在当时是独特的，因为这些城市不是象养兔场那样任意建造的，而是按照一个中央计划精心建成的。各城市全盛期时占地六至七平方英里。城市布局呈格子型，宽阔的主要街道环绕长方形的大街区，各街区约长400 码、宽200码，比今日城市通常的街区要大得多。埃及的建筑物用的是石头，美索不达米亚的建筑物用的是太阳晒干的砖，而这些城市的建筑物是用窑内烧的砖建造的。整个印度河流域做砖的模子只有两种标准尺寸：11x5．5X2．5英寸和9．2x4．5X2．2英寸。可见，各地的度量衡也是一致的。如此整齐划一的布局和有条不紊的组织似乎遍布整个印度河文明区。这一文明于公元前2500年左右达到成熟期，在以后的IOOO年中，实际上处于静止不变的状态而且，甚至达到这样的程度，这些城市每遭到洪水毁灭性的破坏后，重建的新城市总是造得跟原来的城市一模一样。如此一贯、连续的传统世上从来没有过，即使在埃及也没有，因而，产生这样一种假说：控制这一纪律严明的社会的也许是一种精神上的力量。没有军事装备，没有城防工事，也为这一假说提供了证据。但是，这一切毕竟只是推测，而且，在发掘更多的古城遗址，并能释读印度河流域的文字之前，始终只能是推测。印度河流域的文字为象形文字，上一行由左往右读，下一行由右往左读。这种写法也为早期希腊人所仿效，被称为“由左而右，复由右而左交互成行之书法”——“就象牛犁地一样”。
印度河文明衰落的起因和详情尚不清楚。迄今为止，普遍认为主要由于雅利安人入侵才衰落；不过，最近有人提出，这一文明也许实际上是为泥浆所淹没的。按照这种说法，地下的火山活动使大量的泥浆、淤泥和沙子涌出地面，堵塞河道，形成一个很大的湖泊，把摩亨约·达罗全给淹了。几十年后，堵塞河道的堤坝渐渐磨损，河水流过堤坝，大河又恢复原来的水道，不过，摩亨约·达罗的城市已遭毁灭。从摩享约·达罗一层又一层的淤泥判断，这一灾难至少发生过五次以上。最后，给印度河文明的中心带来了无可挽救的损害，使北部的边沿地区十分虚弱，不能抵抗雅利安人的侵略，使南部的边沿地区过于衰弱，不能抵挡本土文化的同化。
黄河流域的文明是在最早的美索不达米亚文明繁盛约20O0 年之后才出现的。养育黄河流域文明的是一片密集的粉沙细土，这种泥土被称为黄土，它覆盖了从华北高原向东到大海的整个地面。一般认为，黄土是更新世时期的北风送来的，有些地方的黄土堆积得很厚，厚达二、三百英尺。由于其天然的肥力和吸水性，黄土不逊于世界上任何种植农作物的土壤。而且，由于华北的降雨量不足，黄河流域同美索不达米亚、埃及和印度河流域一样，没有茂密的森林来阻碍只有原始的石头工具的早期农人。
黄河流域之所以成为最初的中国文明的中心，其原因还在于那里是西方最易进入的地区。一道道山脉挡住了横越欧亚大陆中部大草原的游牧部落南下的去路，使他们折向华北。正如前面所提到的，这些游牧部落不仅大肆侵扰劫掠各文明区，而且还起了传播、交流各种文化的作用（见第一章第2 节）。这就产生一个问题：商朝文明在多大程度上是土生土长的，在多大程度上是由于受中东的间接影响而发展起来的？一般人公认的看法。商人是一小群蒙古种人，兴起于西北大草原，他们通过间接的途径掌握了中东人冶铸青铜和制造战车的技能，然后利用这些技术带来的军事优势，侵入华北，征服了当地尚处于新石器时代的农业村社。
result.中国获得了一种新的发展形式：商人采用的新技术丰富了当地的文化，而商人最终又为当地文化所同化，使中国人的传统毫不间断地流传下去。这种发展形式在中国每遭到侵略之后便重演，在以后数千年中曾重演过多次。商朝文明由诸多成分组成，如大麦、小麦、羊、牛、马、青铜和轮子等若追溯到其新石器时代的起源，无疑将发现，它们最早发源于中东。但是，有一点不容置疑，东亚的本土文化有它自己的特点，正是这些特点与外来文化相结合，构成了伟大、独特的中国文明，这一文明以举世无双的连续性从商朝一直持续到现代。
独特的中国文化有不少特点，一个特点是养蚕和将纤细的蚕丝织成精美的丝织品；另一特点是避免将牲畜乳汁供人消费之用——这一点特别引人注目，因为乳汁和乳制品是欧亚大陆各游牧部落的主食品。祖先崇拜从最古代起就一直是中国宗教的一个主要特征，对一个人的姓十分重视与这一点有密切的联系。中国人的姓总是位于个人的名字之前，而不象西方那样，位于个人的名字之后；这反映了中国社会历来起主要作用的是家庭，而不是个人、国家或教堂。常见的中国建筑物屋顶华丽，由一排排木柱支承，这种式样也是从远古时代起就有了。
商朝的青铜冶铸技术尤其值得注意，它在世界上居遥遥领先的地位。商朝崇拜祖先、祭把祖先时用来存放和奉献肉类、谷物和酒等祭品的礼器都是青铜制的。礼器的体积大小不等，形状各式各样，有四足大方鼎、各种酒坛、精致的酒杯、奇特的船形调味汁壶，还有动物头像和纪念用的假面。这些青铜制品的表面价有丰富多彩的几何形花纹和许多真实或想象的动物图案。虽然这些花纹图案与西方各地的截然不同，但与南太平洋和太平洋西北部印第安人的图案极相类似，因而被公认为是一种太平洋区域的图案。
在商朝废墟中发现的复杂的表意文字，对中国和整个东亚后来的历史极为重要。它是现代汉字的直系祖先；这一点也可用来说明中国文明的连续性。几千年来，中东人一直不能释读他们祖先的象形文字和楔形文字，而现代中国人却能读通商朝文字。幸存到今天的商朝文字大多发现于龟甲兽骨上，过些龟甲兽骨是当时占卜吉凶祸福用的——这也是中国人的一个独特的习俗。他们把有关疾病、梦、田猎、天时、年成等方面的疑问刻在龟甲兽骨上，然后在甲骨的不同点上划几道切口，将用火烧得通红的小棒子按在这些切口上，使其产生裂缝。卜人就根据这些裂缝的形状、排列和方向来判断所占问之事的吉凶情况。这些甲骨都被小心地埋藏起来，因而其中许多能幸存下来，不仅揭示了商前的文字，并使我们能了解到商人日常生活的许多情景。
商朝创立了中国第一个正式的政治机构。商朝在其统治期间建立起来的官僚机构是不能与美索不达米亚和埃及在好多世纪里发展起来的官僚机构相比的。因而，管辖各地区的世袭的贵族家族拥有很大的自治权。在这种情况下，中央政府的权威主要取决于统治者本人的所作所为。
和欧亚大陆其他文明中的情况一样，商朝农民也必须拿出一部分农产品来供养聚居在城市的贵族、书吏和官吏。而且，战争时期他们还得充当步兵，替他们的贵族领主打仗。不过，他们拿的只是一些轻武器，象两匹马曳引的战车和冲锋陷阵时穿戴的青铜盔甲，只有居统治地位的武士阶层才配备得起。对青铜冶铸业的垄断使商朝社会的阶级分化更其尖锐。只要将结构复杂的宫殿和商王陵墓与老百姓居住的原始坑洞相映对照，便可清楚地看出这一点。置放在陵墓里的贵重陪葬品，如青铜制的礼器、精美的丝织品、翡翠、大理石、乐器和精致的武器等，也可用来说明这一点。而给人印象最深刻的是，商王死后还要屠杀许多人殉葬，通常一次要杀死几十人。现在还不清楚，让这些不幸的人——大概是奴隶或战俘——作牺牲品，究竟是为了抚慰复仇之神，还是为了让他们充当死去的君主的奴隶和妃妾。