First, the text
One of the greatest cultural achievements in ancient West Asia was the invention of cuneiform. As early as the Uluruk culture period (3500-3 BC100 BC), Sumerians created hieroglyphics, which are based on the principle of hieroglyphics, with one symbol and one meaning, such as (head), (sun) and (water). Later, in order to express more complex and abstract concepts, some were combined by meaning (knowing) and some were combined by sound and meaning (pictophonetic characters). Some words are only indicative words, such as "mouth" with two or three pictures on the basis of (head). In addition, there are several (extended) word-making methods, such as the "Gunu" word-making method, that is, in a certain
Sumerians used semi-dry clay tablets made of clay as writing materials, and mainly used reed sticks, bone sticks or triangular wooden sticks as pens. After writing, let them dry naturally, and some will dry with fire. Because the imprint on the writing place is deep and wide, and the shape of the pen is narrow and like a wedge, it is called cuneiform writing. Cuneiform writing may have been formed in 3000 BC.
There are many homonyms in Sumerian. This language phenomenon is reflected in the existence of a large number of homonyms (that is, homonyms), which is a major feature of cuneiform writing. Another feature is polysemy, polysemy. For example, the word plow means "plow" and "tiller", which is obviously an extension of the former meaning. In order to eliminate the ambiguity in the use of words, people invented the "determiner symbol". This symbol itself is silent, and its function is only to remind readers (not listeners) of the meaning of the words it defines. For example, adding the qualifier gis in front of it means that the word is "plow" here; If you add lú in front of it, it means that the word here is "cultivator". Homophone loanwords also appeared very early, but there are not many such examples. A frequently cited example is ti Arrow. The Sumerian word "arrow" is homophonic with "destiny", so "destiny" is also expressed by the word "arrow", and there is no need to create new words to express "destiny".
The early Sumerian script was ideographic, or as westerners say, ideographic. By the Akkadian who spoke Sem, Sumerian ideographs had undergone a qualitative change: all characters were syllabic symbols, except some of them. Akkadians also added new phonetic values to many syllable symbols. From then on, cuneiform has the function of expressing language accurately or more accurately.
Later, cuneiform was accepted by Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians, and some supplements were made to enable them to record all complicated languages. Later, Elam, Hittites, Hulites, Medani and Uratu all took a slightly different approach to this writing according to their own language needs? Right-handed 9? Shore? Hey? Tsukizuka? I'm sorry, but I'm sorry Cough stew? What happened to the money? What's wrong with it? What's wrong with it? Climb high and blow the flag? /FONT & gt；
Although the number of cuneiform symbols as syllables is less than 600, each symbol has at least one or two meanings, representing four or five syllables on average. The grammar rules of Sem are very complicated and difficult to learn. In 75 BC, cuneiform finally withdrew from the historical stage and was gradually forgotten. At the beginning of 2008+2009, German scholar Grotthus Fen began to interpret cuneiform and achieved some results.10000.000805 Cuneiform was finally interpreted, and Assyrianism was born. Assyrian studies is a subject that studies the language, writing, history and culture of the people who use cuneiform characters in the two river basins and their nearby areas. The birth of Assyrianism opened the door to many mysteries in the history of West Asia.
Second, literature.
In West Asia, the literary works in the two river basins were formed earlier, which had a great influence on later generations.
The literature of ancient two river basins originated from the oral creation of working people. As early as the Sumerian era, myths, legends, epics, fables and other works were produced, which had a great influence on the literary and artistic development of the whole West Asia. Due to the limitation of the times, the oral creation of working people is rarely handed down, and a large number of religious epics and legends are adapted by priests. The most famous is Sumer's epic of Gilgamesh. This is the earliest epic known in the world. This epic first appeared in the Uruk period and began to spread orally among the people. After several generations of praise, tempering and processing, a complete epic was finally compiled in the Babylonian era.
The Epic of Gilgamesh consists of 12 epics, each with about 300 lines, which are written on 12 clay tablets respectively. Epic mainly describes the story of the forgotten, the deified king of uruk (1/3 is a god, 1/3 is a man). The epic tells the story that the forgotten people want the residents of uruk to build a wall. The people are miserable. Pray for Anu to control him. Anu saw all this, and he created a savage Jean to compete with a forgotten one. After a fierce duel, the two heroes made up, became close friends, began to eliminate harm for the people of uruk, and made many contributions. They killed the desert lion that had been harmful, and then went to the mountains of Lebanon to kill the monster Hongbaba, saving the goddess Ilanda from embarrassment. Ask Anu to send a minotaur to kill the forsaken. The minotaur came to uruk, breathed fire and killed the people, but was killed by Forgotten and Jean, killing the people. The actions of the heroes angered the gods in the sky, and they decided to take the life of Jean, a close friend of the forgotten. Jean died after 12 days of illness. The forgotten are sad and determined to seek eternal life. After hardships, he finally got the guidance of his ancestor Utnapiti (Sesutura), overcame many difficulties, and finally picked rejuvenation fairy grass at the bottom of the sea. Unfortunately, when he was taking a bath on his way home, the fairy grass he put on the shore was stolen and eaten by a snake. Forgotten people have no choice but to return to uruk fruitlessly. The forgotten one was fearless of difficulties and devoted to friendship, which won the memory of future generations.
Although this epic was tampered with by the priest and permeated with many religious superstitions, it still retained the theme of the hero's selfless resistance to theocracy. Objectively, it reflects the perseverance and indomitable fighting spirit of ancient people in their struggle with nature. The History of Poetry has a great influence on the literary creation of later generations. The poetic history of The Forgotten One also mentioned the flood legend which had a far-reaching influence on later generations for the first time. The epic tells the story that Sezutura was inspired by God in his dream, built a big ship ahead of time, led his family and various animals to board the ship, and was saved in the flood. Since then, God has given him eternal life. The flood story may be related to the history of frequent floods in Sumer at that time. It is widely spread throughout West Asia and has a far-reaching impact on the myths of many ethnic groups in later generations. Later, the Jews slightly changed the "flood story" and compiled the legend of Noah's Ark, which was recorded in the Genesis of the Old Testament and has been passed down to this day and is known to people of all nationalities in the world.
There are also some fables in Sumer's literary works, which take animals as the theme and aim at satirizing the bad qualities of the exploiting class. For example, the fable of dogs going to dinner to find bones satirizes greed, and the fable of cunning wolves killing sheep to get more trophies satirizes cunning. These works are humorous and meaningful.
Among the ancient literary works in the two river basins, there are also some excellent works that reflect the social contradictions at that time, such as the poem Ode to the Suffering of the Honest Man in Babylon, which describes an upright man who is very pious and awe-inspiring to the king, and still endures suffering after doing many things that God and the king like as much as possible. He shouted, "Why are evil things everywhere?" "My hardships are increasing day by day, but I can't get justice!" Finally, he had to doubt God's justice. He said, "I called my God, but he ignored me. I prayed to my goddess, but she didn't even look up. " This philosophical poem reveals the psychology of those suffering people at that time, shows doubts about God and religious beliefs, and clearly reflects the deepening social contradictions at that time.
Dialogue between Master and Slave is another prose work of Babylon, which describes a brief dialogue between master and slave on 12. Real slaves agree with all the greedy desires of their masters. Every time the master said something to do, the slave agreed and gave reasons. Later, the master said he wouldn't do it, and the slave agreed, giving reasons. These dialogues also vaguely reflected the sharp social contradictions that existed at that time. In the seventh dialogue, the host said that he wanted to do something. Who feeds your stomach? "The master said that he didn't want to riot, and the slave said that the riot had the pain of being killed and imprisoned. From this moment, we saw the irreconcilable contradiction between slaves and slave owners. In the ninth dialogue, the master said he would sacrifice to God, and then he said he didn't want to do it. The slave agreed and said, "When God wants you, you can let God run after you like a dog. "This not only reminds the slave owners of the mutual utilization relationship between God. It also shows the slaves' blatant contempt for God. In the dialogue of 12, the master felt desperate and didn't know what to do, but the slave replied in a arrogant and sarcastic tone: "Finally, I will break your necks and throw them into the river, and that will be fine." The master said angrily, "No, slave, I will kill you and let you die first." The slave retorted. This is the end of the work. The author's description of slaves' turning from agreeing with their masters to resisting is profound.
Three. Astronomy and mathematics
In order to meet the needs of agricultural production, the ancient working people observed the astronomical phenomena very early. This calendar is compiled on the basis of observing astronomy. As early as the Sumerian Akkad era, people in the two river basins compiled the lunar calendar on the basis of observing the laws of the moon. They regard the appearance of two new moons as a month. In this way, each month includes 29 or 30 days. They take 12 months as 1 year (6 months with 29 days and 6 months with 30 days), and each year includes 354 days. In this way, every year is shorter than the solar year 1 1 day (5: 48: 46 on 365), and a leap must be set. In the third dynasty of Ur, three leap months were added in a year. During the Babylonian period, people were able to distinguish the stars among the five planets, and the apparent motion orbit of the sun could be observed in the background of the stars-the ecliptic. Later, the Babylonians distinguished the twelve constellations on the zodiac and drew a picture of the zodiac. During the Assyrian Empire and New Babylon, people took seven days as a week. The names of seven stars, namely sun, moon, fire, water, wood, gold and earth, are used as the names of the seven days from Sunday to Saturday. The method of setting leap is also improving. By the end of the 6th century BC, Babylonians stipulated three leap years for eight years and ten leap years for twenty-seven years. However, there are also many superstitious elements in the astronomical knowledge in the two river basins, which is closely related to the limitations of scientific level at that time and the gradual monopoly of astronomical knowledge by priests.
The development of astronomy must be based on mathematics. Building water conservancy, measuring land, measuring volume, building cities and making utensils also require mathematical knowledge. Therefore, ancient Babylon made great progress in mathematics. Babylonians used decimal and hexadecimal double notation. They use hexadecimal method to calculate time and circumference, for example, dividing the circumference into 360 degrees. This method is still widely used all over the world. They also began to implement the principle of digital positioning. The same number occupies different positions in the connection of numbers, and its value is also different. The position value principle enables them to write huge numbers with fewer numbers, which is an important contribution in mathematics.
Babylonian mathematicians not only mastered the arithmetic of four sums and fractions, but also were the founders of algebra. They can find the square root and cube root and solve the equation with three unknowns. On the stone tablets in Babylon, multiplication tables, square tables and cubic tables were developed. In geometry, they have been able to use the quotient height theorem (hook 2+ rope 2 = chord 2). In order to calculate the irregular site area, they divided it into rectangles, triangles and cubes. Babylonians also calculated pi as 3 (Egyptian mathematicians calculated pi as 3. 16), which solved the problems of measuring the volume of truncated pyramids in solid geometry.
Four. Architecture and sculpture
In the middle of 400 BC, there were buildings of cities and temples in Sumer. Pagoda Temple is the basic form of Sumerian architecture, and all the city-states in Sumerian regard it as the center of urban architecture. Baota Temple is a shrine built of adobe and placed on a graded earthen platform. By the time of the third Ur Dynasty, the building representing the architectural technical achievements at that time was the Temple of Urta, which was completed in the 22nd century BC. The website still exists on the ground. Urda Tower Temple is composed of four upper towers, the bottom of which is 62.5 meters high and 43 meters wide. The surface of each floor is sintered brick, and the inner layer is adobe and blue brick. All pagodas at all levels are built in the arch of the garden roof. This architectural technology will become a common feature of buildings in the two river basins in the future, and will be widely used in temples and palaces. There is a magnificent staircase on the high facade of Urda Pagoda, which can directly reach the temple on the top floor. The brick color of the four-level earth tower is different. The second floor is red, representing the world, the third floor is blue, representing heaven, and the top floor is white, representing the sun. There are exotic flowers and grasses on all floors. Besides the Tower Temple, there are buildings such as Wang Guan and Mausoleum, and the palace is also built on a tall pedestal.
In terms of carving art, the sculptures in Sumerian Akkad period formed a unique primitive style. For example, the famous vulture stone tablet (pictured above) is a monument to lagache's victory over Ma Wencheng. This stone tablet shows the marching of the infantry led by King lagache in relief, depicts the neat queue and high morale of lagache soldiers, and is full of vitality in simplicity. Another sculpture masterpiece is the victory column of Nalamusin. It was made to commemorate the victory of the army led by Akkad King Nara Mu Xin over the mountain tribes. The whole relief is centered on the king, showing the winner's majestic posture with an upward step. However, on the whole, the sculpture art in Sumerian Akkad period is monotonous and rigid in the technique of expressing characters, and most of the sculptures handed down are rough and rigid.
The relief of the stigma of code of hammurabi in the Babylonian kingdom shows the scene where Hammurabi stood devoutly in front of Chamakh, the sitting sun god, and accepted the title of king (see above). With skillful carving techniques, rigid and simple lines and carefully carved inscriptions, it became the most important artistic relic of Babylon.
The Assyrian Palace belonging to Cole Szabad in the 8th century BC was built during Sargon II. This is one of the Assyrian palaces that have been completely excavated. The palace is built on a brick platform in the center of the city, like a fortress, with a height of 14m and an area of about 130 m3. All palace buildings have 265,438+00 halls and 30 courtyards, with bricks as the main part. Between the two white towers, there is a copper-plated arch. The top of the arch is decorated with glazed tiles and murals, and there are a pair of neatly arranged stone carvings on both sides of the gate: lion face, eagle wing and cattle foot monster. This is the patron saint of the royal palace, about 3.4 meters high, beautifully carved, with solemn expression and bright eyes, and it is a treasure of carving art in West Asia. In addition to the above decoration, most of the buildings in the palace have no external decoration. The main artistic decoration is the inner hall of the palace. It is decorated with colorful reliefs, murals and colored glazed tiles, especially the famous Assyrian reliefs. These reliefs are carved on huge stone slabs and embedded in the walls of quadrangles, which are mostly manifested in themes such as king's expedition, hunting and daily life in the palace. These reliefs depict people in a stiff way, but only animals are very vivid.
In the new Babylonian era, architectural art developed to the highest level. The city of Babylon, the temple and the palace, as representatives, marked the outstanding achievements of architecture in this period. The city of Babylon and the palace were built more magnificently. The most famous building in this period is the "hanging garden" in the palace. Babylonian historian Berussus said: "He (referring to Nebuchadnezzar) built a towering stone platform in the palace, where he carefully recreated the mountain scenery. Planting all kinds of trees on the terraced fields to make their appearance perfect, thus building the so-called hanging garden, because his wife grew up on the bottom of rice and has deep feelings for the mountain environment. " Due to the lack of stone materials in the two river basins, the buildings are mostly brick-soil structures, which are not as durable as the pyramids and temples in Egypt. Only with the help of modern archaeological excavations, people have a more specific understanding of the ancient buildings in the two river basins.
In addition, colored glazed tiles are the most spectacular relief art in the new Babylonian period. For example, at the gate of Hista and the tower wall of Babylon, there are 575 white bison and golden hydralisks embedded in glazed tiles. In Babylonian religion, the cow is the image of the god Ata: hydralisks are completely different from dragons, which are snake-headed animals with lion's feet on their forelimbs and eagle's claws on their hind limbs. It is the symbol of the Babylonian god Marduk. The whole relief picture is mainly yellow and white, which fully shows the majestic atmosphere of the palace. 100 years later, Herobadus praised Babylon when he visited it: "It is more magnificent than any city in the world." In addition, the walls on both sides of the "parade avenue" in Babylon are also decorated with lion patterns in stained glass, which is quite spectacular. The invention of colored glass tiles can be traced back to Cuba. It reached its peak in New Babylon and was widely used to decorate the walls and outer walls of palaces, shrines and tombs. It has the characteristics of gorgeous image and majesty and is deeply loved by people. The glazed tile technology continued to spread in Persia and Arabia, and then it was introduced to China from Central Asia. It was more innovative when combined with the traditional craft in China. For example, the "Nine Dragons Wall" with China's traditional cultural style is a masterpiece after glazed tiles were introduced into China.
On the basis of absorbing the consequences of the two river basins and Egypt, the architecture of the Persian Empire has made new development. Buildings are usually built on high stone platforms. Ju Lushi's tomb is a stone house built on a six-story stone platform. The Persian Palace (pictured above) was also built on a high stone platform. The platforms and walls of palaces are often decorated with stone reliefs, and some are decorated with patterns made of glazed tiles. There are often many tall stone pillars in the halls of Persian palaces.
Like other ancient civilizations in the world, the culture of ancient West Asia has had many influences on later generations. The people of West Asia with a long history and cultural tradition will certainly make new and greater contributions in the contemporary world.