The four ancient civilizations are the old names of the four ancient civilizations, and the four ancient civilizations are also reasonable. The significance of the four ancient civilizations lies not in the chronological order, but in the fact that they are the birthplace of modern civilization and can also be said to be a creative point. There are also concepts of "four ancient civilizations" in western history, or concepts like "cradle of civilization".
West Babylon 1
Around 7000 BC, Sumerians began farming, and in 3500 BC, primitive city-states appeared and Mesopotamian civilization was formed. "Mesopotamia" is an ancient Greek word, which means "the place between the two rivers", so it is also called the basin of the two rivers. These two rivers refer to the Euphrates River and the Tigris River. Sumerians, Babylonians and others established civilization.
On this plain, the world's first archaeological Eurasian city was developed, and the first complete code of hammurabi in Eurasia was promulgated. Sumerians invented cuneiform, which divided a year into twelve months and seven days a week. They know the hexadecimal method, such as one minute and sixty seconds, and the circumference is 360.
Wheels were also invented to facilitate transportation. As we all know, they use the lunar calendar.
2. Ancient Egypt
Around 7000 BC, people settled in the Nile Valley and began to build houses on the shore and carry out agricultural and animal husbandry activities. The civilization of the Nile valley in Egypt began around 4500 BC, and hieroglyphics also appeared at this time, which was used for more than 4000 years and a large number of city-states appeared.
Around 3500 BC, two countries, Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt, were formed in the Upper Nile Valley and the Nile Estuary Delta respectively. In 47 BC, when Julius Caesar attacked Egypt, the war spread to the library of Alexandria. Hundreds of thousands of books written in ancient Egyptian characters were burned, including the most complete Egyptian history at that time.
This history book was written by Manetho, an Egyptian priest and scholar, at the request of General Ptolemy, whose ambassador became independent after the death of Alexander the Great. The most complete history of Egypt at that time was burned when Julius Caesar attacked Egypt. This "History of Egypt" was burned, which is an irreparable loss.
Fortunately, some other works quoted part of this book at that time, which made people know some fragments of ancient Egyptian history. Egyptian scholars still use Maneteau's division of Egyptian history, but there are still many unclear places about the rise and fall of many emperors and their exact ages.
3. Ancient India
As early as around 3200 BC, in today's Pakistan, civilization has been bred, and the remains of the ancient cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Legalist heroes have left many traces of this early civilization. The residents measured, wrote and dug ditches. The city under the fortress was built under strict plans, including temples, houses, bathrooms, streets, geometric patterns and the design of drainage ditches and canals for sanitary systems.
Unearthed cultural relics are very rich, including gold jewelry and precious stones, stone carvings, bronzes and clay figurines. Brass and bronze are mainly used to make utensils and weapons. Pottery is usually made into a wheel, fired and painted with geometric, floral and animal patterns.
4. China
The main civilization in China originated from the Yellow River Basin. Archaeology in the Central Plains (such as Peiligang Site, Jiahu Site and Dadiwan Site) found millet, rice, wine making, musical instruments, millet, the earliest writing prototype, palace-style architecture, painting and decimal system left over from farming culture about 6000 BC.
According to the ruins of Hongshan Culture, the earliest cities appeared in 4000 BC, and there was a class division. The class society after 3500 BC, the earliest primitive state, patina shows the formation of Chinese civilization. According to the Longshan Cultural Site, around 2600 BC, more than 50 city states and 2.8 million square meters of cities, Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronzes, shiny and transparent jade articles and black pottery as thin as eggshells were excavated.
At the same time, bronze figures more than 2 meters high were also found in Liangzhu site and Sanxingdui site, the largest city in Asia. By the time of the Yellow Emperor in 2700 BC, China people had merged with Xia, Li and Yi nationalities.
The formation of the Chinese nation, Xia, Shang and Zhou appeared around 2 100 BC. Zhou is divided into Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou, and Eastern Zhou is divided into Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period.
Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties adopted feudal system, and the feudal system in Zhou dynasty was relatively perfect, and the population was mainly common people. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the feudal system in China gradually disintegrated, and the original hereditary class in the feudal era was gradually broken and replaced by a highly unified centralized hereditary dynasty. After the Qin Dynasty, Huaxia people merged with other neighboring ethnic groups to form the Han nationality.
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The origin and content of the concept
Liang Qichao thought that "there are four ancient civilizations on the earth: China, India, Egypt and Asia Minor" in his "Song of the Pacific in the Twentieth Century" written at 1900.
However, Liang Qichao did not invent the Four Civilizations. Western countries have long said that there are four early (ancient) civilizations, and some American history textbooks also have this saying.
In the British BBC documentary "The Trajectory of Civilization", ancient China, ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon and ancient India are called the four ancient civilizations in the world.
Scholars believe that the four ancient civilizations are all built near the river platform, because there is a fixed water source, it is easier to develop agriculture and commerce. Although human beings can't live without water, historians believe that China's civilization began in the mountains and then spread to rivers.
7000-5000 years ago, the world's four major civilizations were born in the two river basins in the northern hemisphere, the Nile, the Indus River, the Ganges River basin, and the Yellow River and the Yangtze River basin, and successively entered the Bronze Age from the Neolithic Age to the Metal Age. Much knowledge of philosophy, science, literature and art that human beings have today can generally be traced back to the contributions of these ancient civilizations.
Among the social systems of the four ancient civilizations, Babylon adopted slavery, India adopted caste system, and China adopted feudalism and Jing Tian system before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Everyone has their own myths and legends. The state power came into being relatively late. In ancient times, religious myths were used to strengthen the monarchy. Hammurabi, the ruler of Babylon, called himself "the descendant of Luna", the Pharaoh of ancient Egypt called himself "the son of Sun God", and the monarch of China called himself "the son of heaven".
The four ancient civilizations all have their own calendars, with leap months divided into 12 months every year. Every civilization has created its own writing. Civilizations in the Indus River, the Yellow River and the two river basins all use pottery wheels to make pottery. Both Egypt and the two river basins calculated pi earlier, China discovered Pythagorean theorem or its practical application earlier ("three strands, four chords and five"), and India invented Indian numerals (Arabic numerals).
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Four Ancient Civilizations