First, ancient times

Yuanmou, Yunan Yuanmou, was the earliest known human being in China about 6.5438+0.7 million years ago. Beijingers lived about 700,000 to 200,000 years ago. Evaluation: 1, using natural fire; 2. manufacturing tools. Prehistoric caveman

About 18000 years ago, the top cave of Longgu Mountain in Zhoukoudian, Beijing. Evaluation: 1, artificial fire; 2. Enter the clan commune. Hemudu clan in Hemudu village, Yuyao, Zhejiang Province is about 7000 years ago.

Matrilineal clan. Evaluation: 1, using pottery, eating surplus; 2. Plant rice. Banpo Family in banpo village, Xi City, Shaanxi Province. Evaluation: 1, advanced tool; 2, planting and collecting; 3. Original text.

The emergence of civilization

Egypt is one of the cradles of human civilization. It has experienced its own Paleolithic Age and Mesolithic Age. Egyptian Neolithic culture (Merimda culture on the western edge of the delta, Fayong culture in central Egypt, Tasa-Badali culture, etc. ) is a mixed culture of agriculture and animal husbandry. Although it is still controversial when and where Egypt's agriculture originated, its agricultural culture was quite developed in 6000-5000 BC, and the use of bronzes laid the foundation for the early emergence of its civilization.

In the following pre-Egyptian dynasty I, namely the Nigada culture I (also known as Amrat period, about 4000-3500 BC), private ownership and class relations sprouted in Egypt. Some symbols were engraved on the pottery found in some tombs belonging to this period; Each tomb has its own unified symbol, which is probably the symbol of its private rights. At the end of this period, an image of the red crown (with cobra as its symbol), one of the symbols of kingship, was found on a black-topped pottery jar in the tomb of Nigada 16 10. On a piece of pottery found in a grave (Tom Bunol. At the turn of the first phase of Negada culture and the second phase of Negada culture, there is an image of an Horus eagle, which symbolizes the kingship (this is also one of the symbols of kingship). This shows that the kingship has also sprouted. In Dior Spogli? Palver also found a model of a city wall, which shows the growth of social unrest and even the existence of war.

By the second period of the pre-dynasty, that is, the second period of Nigada culture (also known as Grce period, about 3500-3 BC100 BC), private ownership was gradually established in Egypt, and classes were gradually formed. As can be seen from the tombs at this time, in some places, class differentiation is very fierce. Painted graves were found in Nigada and Sheila Campoli, which were very different from the simple graves of ordinary people. For example, Sheila Campoli's painted tomb is made of bricks with paintings on the wall. Its content is about the war scene (land and water war), which may reflect some activities of the tomb owner (scholars think it may be the king) before his death. The painting on a piece of textile fragments found in Gerberlin also reflects the class differentiation. There are some boats painted on this textile. Some people are paddling and another is sitting on it. This man is obviously a nobleman. The Scorpion King wears a white crown symbolizing kingship (symbolized by an eagle) on his head and a oxtail on his waist, which is much higher than ordinary people. At this time, the ivory board left behind has the image of prisoners of war with their hands tied, and these prisoners of war will become slaves. On the head of scorpion kingship, there are also scenes of slave labor. On this weight heading

The fields hanging on the flags of Egyptian pyramids are regarded by scholars as ideographic symbols of civilians. Characters appeared in the second phase of Nigada culture, but they were still primitive.

In the second late period of Nigada culture, with the establishment of private ownership and the formation of class, a country appeared in Egypt. At this time, the country is very small and the population is very small. Egyptians call this small country Spatz, and its hieroglyphic symbol is

, representing a piece of land interwoven with irrigation canals. In Egypt at that time, there were several such small countries. In the homes of these small countries, there is a city centered on government agencies, palaces and temples. Its hieroglyphics are

. It means that the city is built on the main road, surrounded by walls and becomes a fortress. There are many sculptures and paintings that reflect the existence of war in this period. In addition to the marine maps in the above tombs, there are also marine maps on ivory handles unearthed in Arak, battlefield palettes and so on. At this time, the kingship has been formed, like the scorpion king on the head of the scorpion king, who may be both a chief executive and a military leader, and also serve as a priest, presiding over sacrifices, leading agriculture and building water conservancy projects. However, at this time, the Egyptian state has just formed, and the power of the nobility is definitely still very strong. The power of the king is probably bound by the nobility, and the king is not an absolute monarch.

In Sheila Campoli, cultural relics of two kings at the end of the former dynasty, Scorpion King and Kaka King, were discovered. Regarding the Scorpion King, a cultural relic named after him was also found in Tula, near Cairo in northern Egypt. Combined with the inscription on the head of Scorpion King Quan, scholars speculate that he may have conquered the north and even controlled this area, which is the earliest evidence of Egyptian reunification.

Appendix: Table of Archaeological Cultures in Pre-dynasty Egypt: Scholars have different views on the ages of various cultures in pre-dynasty Egypt. This table is based on Hoffman's book Egypt before Pharaoh. See page 16 of this book. Early dynasty

According to Manetto, an Egyptian priest who lived at the turn of the 4th-3rd century BC, the first dynasty was founded by the ancient Egyptian king menes. Since then, Egypt has experienced 3/kloc-0 dynasties (before the Greek conquest). Modern egyptologists divide the history of ancient Egypt into several periods, each of which includes several Manieto dynasties. The early dynasties included the 1-2 dynasty, which lasted about 3 100-2686 BC.

According to Manetto, menes was not only the founder of the first dynasty, but also the founder and unifier of the Egyptian state. After establishing his own country in the south, he conquered the delta in the north. In order to consolidate his rule in the north, he established a fortress city-Memphis (formerly known as Baicheng, as the Greeks called it) at the junction of the river valley and the delta, and its patron saint was Puta (the creator of the world, the patron saint of art and handicrafts). Modern archaeology has not found any physical evidence about the existence of menes. Therefore, modern Egyptian antiquarians often regard Narmai or Aha with cultural relics as one person with menes, while some scholars doubt the authenticity of menes.

Ancient India

The World of Buddha and Dream —— Indian Culture

India is a close neighbor of China, but we know a lot about this neighbor because of the barrier of the towering Himalayan snow-capped mountains.

There were few buildings in ancient India, and "going to the Western Heaven to learn from the scriptures" became synonymous with hardship in the ears of China people. Like the Nile and the two river basins in ancient Egypt and the Yellow River and the Yangtze River in China, the Indus and Ganges rivers also gave birth to splendid ancient cultures.

500 thousand years ago, there were ancient ancestors in the Indian subcontinent. They also slash and burn, fish, hunt and gather, and thrive here. By the Neolithic Age about 10,000 years ago, there were settlements all over India, and people began to engage in agriculture, domesticate livestock and make exquisite household appliances. All these provided fertile soil for the birth of splendid ancient civilization. In South Asia

There is an ancient country in the Indian bronze subcontinent, and there is a towering Himalayan mountain with a Wang Yang sea under its pillow, which is magnificent and full of vitality. This is India, known as the "country of the moon". Because its territory is shaped like a cow's head, some people call it "the country with cow's head bones".

India, an ancient country with a wandering civilization.

The Ganges River, starting from the Himalayas and passing through an Asian peninsula surrounded by the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, nourishes this land, breeds splendid civilization and becomes a "holy river" of a country. And this lucky country is India, one of the four ancient civilizations in the world.

India is a melting pot of culture. The unique historical background of this country makes it contain many cultural trends from ancient times to modern times, from west to east, from Asia to Europe and so on. In addition, it is a country composed of five ethnic groups, and it is like a big cultural museum. Mumbai, located on the west bank of the capital New Delhi, is the cultural center, while Calcutta has news about culture every day. A variety of music, dance, ballet and comedy dazzle tourists and make them linger.

Living in a noisy big city for a long time, people yearn for returning to the original. The foundation of Indian traditional music is "nature". It praises people.

The relationship between man and nature, and the relationship between man and God. The melodies of the four seasons are all reflected in the traditional tune "Lag"-it is said that the ancients wrote the first "Lag" inspired by the singing of birds in the forest and the burning of branches. As for the content of the song, it originated from religious ceremonies in North India. Today, traditional songs still retain the ancient pronunciation, and the singer's sound quality is pure, which makes the song maintain a simple and pure feeling of hymn. Even if you don't understand the lyrics, you can feel the sacredness and tranquility of nature.

——Natyam, one of the oldest dances in India, means "the art of dancing" in Hindi. In addition to emphasizing the rhythm of dance, it also emphasizes that accompaniment music must be pleasant to listen to, consisting of solemn poems and simple music. This is a sacrificial dance, which can fully reflect the feelings of dancers. It was originally performed by the temple dancers in the temple. The key to this dance is to keep your upper body straight, your legs half bent, your knees apart, and your feet like a half-open fan. Although there are strict action norms, in fact, each actor's performance is different, and most of the time the performance is improvisation, so each Natyam's personal style is very strong.

Now, this traditional dance has re-emerged with a retro trend. However, ancient Natyam was generally a solo dance, and now group dance is more popular. A group of graceful dancers in gorgeous traditional costumes danced like fairies in beautiful music, and the effect was better than solo dancing. Today, Natyam has developed into a technical art system.

Ancient Babylon

Ancient Babylon

The earliest civilization in the world-Mesopotamia (Greek means land between two rivers). Civilization (also called "Two Rivers Civilization") originated in Sumer region (middle and lower reaches), a valley between Tigris River and Euphrates River. Mesopotamia is the seat of Babylon, in today's Republic of Iraq.

From 4000 BC to 2250 BC, the civilization of the two river basins reached its peak, which was called "Hina Kingdom" in the Old Testament (land

OfShinar). The fertile soil accumulated on both sides of the two rivers is called "fertile crescent belt" in history (South America, which is as famous as the "Golden Triangle", is called "sinful crescent belt"). Because the two rivers will not flood regularly like the Nile, it is necessary to observe the astronomical phenomena to determine the time. Su, who lives downstream, invented the lunar calendar, which divided a year into 12 months, totaling 354 days, and invented the leap month, placing 1 1 day different from the solar calendar. Divide an hour into 60 minutes and take 7 days as a week. He can also calculate fractions, add, subtract, multiply and divide, solve quadratic equations with one variable, and invent 10 decimal method and 16 decimal method. 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.

In 4000 BC, Ren Sumei first invented hieroglyphics with ideographic and signifier symbols, because most of these characters were carved on bricks, stones or black basalt. On the clay tablet, "the pen is heavy and the imprint is deep", which looks like a wedge, so it is called cuneiform writing.

hanging garden

Garden is one of the seven wonders of the world. Of course, the hanging gardens in Babylon were not suspended in the air. The origin of this name is that people misinterpret the original Greek "kremastos" and Latin "pensilis" (meaning "hanging" besides "protruding") as "hanging".

It is generally believed that the Hanging Gardens were built by King Nebuchadnezzar (604 BC).

-In 562 BC, it was built to comfort the homesick princess Amyitis, modeled after her hometown in the mountains. It is said that slaves need to turn mechanical devices to draw a lot of water from the Euphrates River below to irrigate the flowers and plants in the hanging gardens.

Composition of Hanging Gardens

The most amazing thing about the hanging garden is the water supply system. Because there is not much rain in Babylon, and the ruins of the Hanging Gardens are far away from the Euphrates River, historical researchers believe that the Hanging Gardens should have many water conveyance facilities. The slave kept pushing the handle connected with the gear to transport the groundwater to the storage tank on the top floor, and then returned to the ground through the artificial river. Another problem is maintenance, because ordinary buildings can't withstand the erosion of the river for many years without collapsing. Because the Mesopotamian plain

(Mesopotamia Plain)

There are not many stones, so the researchers think the bricks used in the hanging garden are unusual. They are added with reeds, asphalt and gravel. Some documents even pointed out that a layer of lead was added to the stone to prevent the river from infiltrating into the foundation. It should not be a "hanging garden" originally, but it has become a "hanging garden" because of translation errors. Later, the Nile civilization and the Indus civilization developed under the impetus of the two river civilizations. The Greeks learned mathematics, physics and philosophy from there; Jews learned theology from there and spread it all over the world; Arabs learned architecture from there and used it to educate the whole medieval savage Europe. Around 2000 BC, the Amorites established the Kingdom of Babylon, with Babylon as its capital. In 1792 BC, Hammurabi ascended the throne, conquered Sumerians and Akkadians, unified the Mesopotamian plain, and promulgated the code of hammurabi, which was the first relatively complete written code in the world, but it was not the earliest, and the earliest was called the Ullner Code. There are 282 code of hammurabi, carved on a 2.25-meter-high black basalt pillar. ..

In 689 BC, the kingdom of Babylon was destroyed by Assyria. In 605 BC, the new kingdom of Babylon destroyed Assyria. Later, Templars came to power and were finally wiped out by Persia in the Iranian plateau in 538 BC. The civilization of the ancient two river basins came to an end as an independent whole.