How not to perish, if two rivers, from which your life depends, violent and unpredictable, and from all earthly wealth, there is only clay? The peoples of ancient two-frequencies did not die, moreover, managed to create one of the most developed civilization for their time.

Prehistory.

Double-frequency (intercourse) is another name of Mesopotamia (from Dr. Greek. Mesopotamia - "Twi-Tim"). So ancient geographers called the territory located between the rivers Tiger and Euphrates. In III thousand BC. Summer cities-states were formed on this territory, such as the UR, Uruk, Lagash, and others. The emergence of agricultural civilization was possible due to the spills of the Tiger and the Euphrate, after which the fertile IL was somewiced.

Events

III thousand BC. - The emergence of the first cities-states in two-range (5 thousand years ago). The largest cities - ur and uruk. Houses in them were built from clay.

About III thousand BC. - The emergence of the clinopy (more about the clinopy). Floine originally arose in Mesopotamia initially as an ideographically-Best, and subsequently a verbal syllable letter. They wrote on clay signs with a pointed stick.

The gods of Sumero-Akkadian mythology:

• Shamash - the God of the Sun,
• EA - God of water,
• Sin - God of the Moon,
• Ishtar is the goddess of love and fertility.

Zigarat - the temple in the form of a pyramid.

Myths and legends:

• The myth of the Flood (about how Wtnapishti built a ship and could be saved during the World Flood).
• Tale of Gilgamesh.

Participants

Northeast of Egypt between two large rivers - Euphrates and Tigr - there is a two-range, or interfluid, also known as Mesopotamia (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Ancient two-range

The soil in the southern two-range is amazingly fertile. Just like Nile in Egypt, the river was given life and prosperity of this warm country. But river spills passed violently: sometimes the streams of water fell on the villages and pastures, demolishing the dwellings and cattle pens. It was necessary to build embankments on the shores, so that the crops did not wash the crops on the fields. For irrigation of fields and gardens, the canals were cut.

The state here arose approximately at the same time as in the Nile Valley, more than 5,000 years ago.

Many settlements of farmers, growing, turned into centers of small cities - states whose population was no more than 30-40 thousand people. The largest Ur and the Urupet were located in the south of the twoness. Scientists have found ancient burial found in them the subjects indicate a high development of the craft.

There were no mountains nor forests in the southern two-range, the only building material was clay. The houses were built from clay bricks dried due to lack of fuel in the sun. To protect the construction of the destruction, the walls were made very thick, for example, the urban wall was so width that the wagon could drive it.

In the center of the city rose zikkurat - High stepped tower, at the top of which was located the temple of God - the patron of the city (Fig. 2). In one city it was, for example, the God of Sun Shamash, in the other - the God of the Moon Sin. Everyone revered the god of the water of Ea, to the goddess of fertility Ishtar people treated with the requests of rich grain harvesters and the birth of children. Only the priests were allowed to climb the top of the tower - in the sanctuary. The priests led the movement of the heavenly gods - the Sun and the Moon. They constituted the calendar, the fate of people predicted on the stars. Scientists of the priests were engaged in mathematics. The number 60 they considered the sacred. Under the influence of residents of the ancient two-frequencies, we divide an hour for 60 minutes, and the circle is 360 degrees.

Fig. 2. Zigarat in ure ()

During the excavations of the ancient cities in the two-range archaeologists, clay plates were found covered with icons in the form of a clinch. Icons squeezed out on raw clay pointed wand. To give hardness, the plate was burned in the furnace. Clean illuminated icons - this is a special letter of two-frets - cuneiform. Icons denoted words, syllables, combinations of letters. Scientists counted several hundred characters used in the clinopy (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Fleece ()

Learn to read and write in ancient two-range it was no less difficult than in Egypt. Schools, or "Houses of Tablets", which appeared in the III Millennium BC. e., only children from rich families could visit, since training was paid. For many years it was necessary to visit the school of scribes to master the complex writing system.

Bibliography

1. Vigasin A. A., Goder G. I., Svenzitskaya I. S. History of the ancient world. Grade 5. - M.: Education, 2006.
2. Nemirovsky A. I. Book for reading on the history of the ancient world. - M.: Enlightenment, 1991.

Additional R.recommended Links to Internet Resources

1. STOP SYSTEM () project.
2. Cultureologist.ru ().

Homework

1. Where is the ancient two-range?
2. What is common in natural conditions of ancient two-frequencies and ancient Egypt?
3. Describe the city of ancient two-frequencies.
4. Why in the clinopy in tens of times more signs than in the modern alphabet?

The oldest slave-owner society and the states are in the southern part of the valley of the Tiger River and Euphrates at about the same time as in Egypt. Here there is a second most important center of civilization, which has had a great influence on the political, economic and cultural history of the whole ancient world.

Decomposition of the primitive-communal system in two-range.

Natural conditions and population of two-frequencies.

The plain part of the country located between the tiger and the Euphrates in their lower and middle flow is usually called the Greek word Mesopotamia (interfluid). The natural conditions and historical destinies of the northern and southern part of Mesopotamia are different. Therefore, it is the southern part, where the course of both rivers climbed (mainly to the south of the capital of the capital of modern Iraq - Baghdad), we allocate called "Twire".

This part of the Mesopotamian Plain is filled with deposits of rivers, periodically populating in the spring-chin period due to the melting of snow in the mountainous regions of the Verkhovyev. The most ancient settlements, which were centers for the formation of the first states, were located on both shores along the lower course of both rivers, mainly Euphrates, which is easier to use water for agriculture without special water supply devices. For use in the autumn processing of Earth, water water should have been gathered into special reservoirs. Euphrates and Tiger, in addition to their enormous role as sources of irrigation, are the main transport arteries of the country.

The climate in the double-range is hot and dry. The amounts of atmospheric precipitation is small, and they fall mainly in winter. As a result, agriculture is possible mainly on soils naturally irrigated by rivers or irrigated artificially. On such soils, you can grow a wide variety of cultures and get high and sustainable yields.

Mesopotamskaya plain bordered from the north and east by the incense mountains of Armenian and Iranian Nagrai, in the West she borders with the Syrian steppe and deserts of Arabia. From the south of the plain is limited to the Persian Bay, where they fall, Tiger and Euphrates. Currently, both of these rivers are 110 km to the fall in the sea merge into a single river stream - the el-arab shuttle, but in antiquity the sea wedged significantly deeper into the north-west and both rivers fell into it separately. The center of the emergence of ancient civilization was located here, in the southern part of the two-range.

Natural wealth, from those that could be used by the ancient population of plains, are small - reed,. Glin, and in rivers and swampy lakes - fish. From woody rocks, you can note the chipping palm tree, giving nutritious and delicious fruits, but low wood quality. There were no stone and metal ores necessary for the development of farm.

The oldest population of the country, which laid the foundations of civilization in the two-range, were Sumerians; It can be argued that already in the IV millennium BC. e. Sumerians were the main population of two frequencies. Sumerians spoke in the language, whose relationship with other languages \u200b\u200bhas not yet been established. For the physical type of Sumerians, if you trust the preserved, usually quite roughly transmitting a person's appearance statues and reliefs, a round face with a large straight nose was characterized.

From the III millennium BC. e. In a two-range from the Syrian steppe, a cattle-breeding semitic tribes begin to penetrate. The language of this group of semitic tribes is called Akkada or Babylon-Assyrian, according to the later names that this group of seven has already acquired in two-range. At first they settled in the northern part of the country, passing to farming. Then their language spread in the southern part of the two-range; By the end of the III Millennium, the final mixing of the Semitic and Sumerian population took place.

Various semitic tribes at this time constituted the bulk of the cattle population of Front Asia; The territory of their settlement covered the Syrian steppe, Palestine and Arabia.

Northern Mesopotamia and the outbounded Highlands of Iran, bordering from the east of the Tiger Valley and Euphrates, inhabited numerous tribes that spoke in languages \u200b\u200bwhose relationships are not yet established; Some of them may have been close to individual contemporary Caucasian languages. In the northern part of Mesopotamia and on the tributaries of the Tiger monuments, the settlements of the tribes of the Hurrites are early witnessed; Next to the east, in the mountains, Lullyuby and Gutea (Kuti) lived. Neighboring the Twire Valleys of the South-West Iran rivers occupied Elamites.

In its most, these and close to them tribes in the IV-III millennia BC. e. We were settled mountain farmers and semi-seeded cattlemen, who lived in the conditions of primitive-communal system. It was they who were created in the anterior Asia an anolytic "culture of painted ceramics"; their settlements. - Tella Halaf, Tella Marriage, Arnachia, Tepo-Gaura, Samarra, and deeper in the Highlands of Iran Tepe-Guyan, Tepo-Sialyk, Tepe-Gissar, Tpeeng Tepe - allow you to judge the nature of the development of tribes engaged in mining -The farming agriculture during the neolithic and eneolyt period. Most of them were at first ahead of themselves in their money. The tribes who inhabited two-range, and only from the second half of the IV millennium, the population of two frequencies quickly overtakes its neighbors.

Only in Elamites in the lower reaches of the Karuna rivers and the Kerhah class society occurs. Only a little later than in the Sumer.

Monuments of the III Millennium show that the sea through the Persian Bay. Sumer was associated with other countries. Klinox texts mention Dilmoon Island and famous gold and black trees of the country Magan and Melukha. Only Dilmun is identified with the current Bahrain Islands from the coast of Eastern Arabia, so we cannot definitely say how far extended sea links of two frequencies. However, epic songs about the journey of Sumerian heroes east, "for seven mountains", and about friendly relations with the local population, as well as printing with images of Indian elephants and Indian writing signs, which are found in the settlements of the two millennium. er, forced to think that there were connections from the Indian valley.

Less defined data on the oldest relations with Egypt; However, some of the features of the earliest Eneolytic culture of Egypt make a number of researchers assume the presence of such connections, and individual historians suggest that in the last third of the 3th millennium BC. e. Military collisions of two-frequencies with Egypt.

Ancient settlements in two-range.

Using the example of the history of the peoples of the two frequencies, it is clearly seen as far as the influence of the conditions of the geographical environment on the course of historical development is relative. The geographical conditions of the two-frequencies have almost changed over the last 6-7 millennium. However, if at present Iraq is the backward, half-colonial state, then in the Middle Ages, to the devastating Mongolian invasion in the XIII century, as well as in antiquity, the two-range was one of the richest and most populated countries of the world. The flowering of the culture of the two-frequency, therefore, it is impossible to explain only the country's favorable natural conditions for agriculture. If you look even further deep into centuries, it turns out that the same country in V and even partly in the IV Millennium BC. e. There was a country of swamps and lakes, overgrown with reeds, where, on the shores and the islands, an rare population, pushed into these wicked places from foothills and steppes, stronger tribes.

Only with the further development of neolithic technology and with the transition to the metal of the metal, the ancient population of the two frequencies turned out to be able to use those features of the geographical environment that were previously unfavorable. With the strengthening of man's technical armament, these geographical conditions turned out to be a factor that accelerated the historical development of the tribes sitting here.

The most ancient settlements found in the two-range belong to the beginning of the IV millennium BC. e., By the period of transition from Neolithic to Eneolyt. One of these settlements was excavated under the Hill El Obeid. Such hills (carts) were formed on the plain of two-frequencies on the site of ancient settlements by the gradual accumulation of construction residues, clay from raw bricks, etc. The population who lived here was already settled, knew the simplest agriculture and cattle breeding, but the hunting and fisheries were still playing big role. The culture was similar to the culture of foothills, but poorer. Weaving was known, pottery. Stone tools of labor prevailed, but copper products have already begun to appear.

Around the middle of the IV millennium BC. e. Below the lower layers of Uruk's excavations. At this time, the residents of the two-frequenses knew the culture of Yachmonia and Emmer, among pets were bulls, sheep, goats, pigs and donkeys. If the Housing of El Obeid was predominantly reed huts, then during the excavations of Uruk, a relatively large buildings were found, isolated from raw bricks. By this period, the second half of the IV Millennium includes the first pictographic (picturesque) inscriptions on clay tiles ("signs") -digious monuments of two-frequencies. The most ancient written monument of two-frequencies is a small stone plate - is stored in the Soviet Union in the State Hermitage (Leningrad).

By the end of the IV and the very beginning of the III of the Millennium to paragraph e. The layers of the excavation of a hill of a jamby-nasre, not far from the other city of two-frequencies - Kish, as well as the later layers of Uruk. Excavations show that potar production has reached significant development. The tools from copper are found in increasing quantities, although weapons and bones are still widely used. It was already known the wheel and the carriage of goods was carried out not only by the bloves, but for swampy soil on the sleigh, but also with wheels. There were already built from raw bricks significant in size and decoration public structures and temples (the first temple buildings appear even at the beginning of the previous period).

Development of agriculture.

Those Sumerian tribes that settled in the two-frequency were already in ancient times to begin in various places of the valley to drain the swampy soil and to the use of Euphrates, and then the lower tiger, creating the basis of irrigation agriculture. Alluvial (apparent) The soil of the valley was soft and loose, and the shores were low; Therefore, it was possible to construct channels and dams-reservoirs, dams and dams to imperfect labor tools, dams and dams. All of these works required a large number of workers' hands, so it was not a separate family or a primitive community, nor even a small association of such communities. It became possible on a different, higher level of publicly developed when many communities were combined.

Work on the creation of the irrigation economy was possible only at a certain level of development of technology, but they in turn could inevitably have to contribute to the further development of agricultural equipment, as well as the improvement of those tools used in land. In the drainage and irrigation work, guns with metal parts are beginning to be applied. In connection with the growth of irrigation economy, more intensive use of the metal should lead to very important social results.

The growth of labor productivity led to the possibility of producing a surplus product, which created not only the necessary prerequisites for the occurrence of operation, but also attracted to the allocation in communities leading the original collective farms, strong families interested in organizing individual independent farms and seeking the seizure of the best lands. These families over time constitute a tribal aristocracy that captured in their hands management of tribal matters. Since the tribal aristocracy possessed the best weapons than ordinary communities, it began to capture most of the military prey, which in turn contributed to the strengthening of property inequality.

The emergence of slavery.

Already during the decomposition of the primitive-communal system, the SHYMER tribes used the slave work (references to slaves, and then slaves are available in the documents from the period of culture of the Gemdet-Nasr), but used it in very limited sizes. The first irrigation channels broke through free members of the communities, but the development of a large-scale irrigation economy demanded a significant amount of labor. Over the creation of an irrigation network and in the future we worked in the order of service and free representatives of the Company, but the work of slaves was increasingly used on earth farms.

The population of the conquered communities was attracted to work on artificial irrigation. This is evidenced by reflecting the conditions of the beginning)