Mesopotamia Plain is the second center of human civilization after Egypt, and there have been many famous civilization periods in human history. Mesopotamia is located in two river basins, namely Tigris River and Euphrates River. They originate in Turkey, then flow almost parallel to the southeast, pass through Syria and Iraq, and finally meet downstream and flow into the Persian Gulf. In ancient times, these two rivers were flooded every year, and the land after the flood receded was rich in minerals and organic matter, which was very suitable for planting crops, thus bringing about the high yield of local agriculture and the development of civilization. One of the earliest civilizations is the Sumerian civilization that we are most familiar with.
According to the unified view of archaeologists, the symbol of civilization is the appearance of country and writing, both of which appeared in the last thousand years of Ubaide period (6500- 3800 BC) ruled by Sumerians. Because archaeologists discovered uruk, which was founded by Sumerians in the lower reaches of the two river basins at that time. Although the scale of uruk is very small, only about one square kilometer (about 1.5 kilometers long and 700 meters wide), we can call it a real city. Because archaeologists have found that the Uluks have a high degree of civilization, the houses they live in are mud bricks made of clay, and these relics are preserved because clay can withstand high temperatures. In addition, archaeologists also found that uruk has a clear hierarchy: the elite and clergy constitute the upper rulers. The embryonic form of government has been formed, taxing civilians. A very important feature of the city in the Uruk period was the emergence of a large number of temples (we students who love to play temple escape games must be familiar with this word), forming a temple complex.
In addition to the city-states, archaeologists also found that around 3300 BC, a large number of clay tablets were excavated in the cities of uruk. There are a lot of writing patterns on the board, which are composed of simple shapes, mostly cuneiform characters or lines, so archaeologists named them cuneiform characters, that is, the embryonic form of human characters. The cuneiform characters on these clay tablets record the specific quantities of grain, beer and livestock. By studying these records, we know more about Sumerian civilization 5000 years ago than about Indian life 500 years ago. There were about 2,300 icons in the early cuneiform, which gradually decreased to more than 600 in the later period. After research, scientists found that the reduced icons no longer represent a single letter, but some syllables. This word formation method is similar to Pinyin, which is more efficient and has become the embryonic form of all Pinyin characters today.
In addition to the emergence of polis and writing, Sumerians also invented the earliest metallurgy and wheels that greatly improved transportation efficiency.