With the rapid development of commerce and trade, the first written language was produced in uruk about 3,200 years ago. This writing system is called cuneiform, which engraves simple hieroglyphs on clay tablets and is widely used to record business activities. Among them, the earliest sample is the first 3300 years, which recorded the specific quantity of grain, beer and livestock. This era also improved bronze smelting, accompanied by the invention of plows, chariots and sailboats. At the same time, a large number of Mesopotamia-specific roller prints appeared. Uruk established commercial colonies along the river, and its cultural influence spread to Persia, Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt and Palestine. After uruk, other cities appeared in Sumer. Irrigation system has brought successful agricultural development and prosperity to emerging cities. Since 3,000 years ago, Sumer has produced about 3,000 small city-states, and developed city alliances centered on 12 big cities. All Sumerians worship the same god, but each city-state has its own protector and ruling dynasty. In order to compete for water sources and favorable commercial points, conflicts often occur between city-States. Kish, lagache, Marvin and Ur fought a long and bloody war. This period is called the early dynasty period. Due to frequent wars, the human rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens are restricted. The rulers of lagache confiscated land ownership and appropriated temple funds to support the war. In peacetime, rulers also levy exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous fees, from raising sheep to producing spices. At that time, it was stipulated that if a husband divorced his wife, he should pay five shekels to the ruler; If a person dies, officials will attend his funeral and take some sacrifices. Kish city-state once occupied a dominant position in the middle of the early dynasty.
Temples are the core of every city and the most important social organization structure, occupying the most land at the same time. Many transactions related to temple land are recorded in unearthed documents. At that time, usually, the king was the representative of God on earth and the leader of the temple, responsible for building the temple and offering sacrifices to God. This role of the king was reflected in literature and art at that time and later.
About 2,400 years ago, an enlightened monarch, Ulukakina, ascended the throne of lagache, and he vowed "never to leave the weak and widows to the strong for arbitrary disposal". For example, if a rich man wants to buy a poor neighbor's house, but refuses to give a fair price, then "this' big shot' can't take the house from a small civilian." However, before 10, Marvin, who had been at war with lagache for hundreds of years, defeated Ulukakina and drove him out. At that time, Marvin's ruler Lugar Zakshi once ruled the whole Sumer and beyond by force. From 2500 to 2000, Ramsin, who claimed to be a god, wore a horn hat. Horn hat is a symbol of God, and the integration of trees, rocks and figures is the first time in the history of art.
Sargon, an Akkadian, began to conquer in 2334. He quickly defeated and captured Lugar Zaksi and established the Akkadian dynasty. Sargon was in power for 55 years, ending the perennial war between Sumerian city-states, and establishing the first empire of Mesopotamia-Akkad Kingdom, with Agal as its capital. The legendary monarch sargon may be a usurper, because "sargon" means "legal" or "orthodox monarch" in Akkadian, and usually the monarch who inherits the throne will not use such a title. Nevertheless, he became an idol imitated by Assyrian and Babylonian monarchs with his own achievements. After sargon's death, his two sons acceded to the throne one after another, and the empire rebelled and suppressed; Sargon's grandson, Ramsin, is another outstanding monarch of Akkadian Kingdom. He ascended the throne around 2292 and reigned for 36 years. He seldom claimed to be a god, but spent most of his time in quelling internal rebellion and fighting in the surrounding areas. There is even an inscription saying that Nalamsin won nine wars in one year. Akkad Kingdom began in sargon and ended in Sharkali Shari, son of Na Ramsin. In less than 200 years, * * * has experienced five kings. This empire once conquered a part of Elam in the east and extended to Kurdistan and Asia Minor in the north. It conquered Mali in the middle reaches of the Euphrates River and Ebra, an ancient Syrian country in the west, opened up a trade channel to the Mediterranean, and went to war with the Persian Gulf countries in the south to develop maritime trade with the ancient Indian River plain, Oman and Bahrain.
After Ramsin's death, Akkad Kingdom faced internal rebellion, border independence and the invasion of neighboring nationalities. The last monarch, Shakali Shali, ruled in the crisis for 25 years. About 2 193 years ago, the last monarch died, the empire collapsed and anarchy was everywhere. According to the Sumerian king list, "Who is the king?" Who is not the king? "The Guti people in the Iranian plateau entered the country in chaos, the Akkadian kingdom collapsed, and the capital Agal was destroyed. Archaeologists haven't found its location yet. The Sumerian Kings List records that 2 1 "ancient nomadic monarchs" ruled in Mesopotamia for nearly a century, but there are few historical sites, so historians estimate that they did not have much influence on the urban civilization of the two river basins. After the demise of the sargon Dynasty, lagache city-states gained certain autonomy. 2 140 years ago, Gudiya, the ruler of lagache, began to build a temple symbolizing independence and established the second dynasty of lagache.
Before 2 120, King Utusig of the ancient city of uruk was successfully resurrected. With the help of his southern allies, he expelled the ancient people from Sumer and captured the last monarch of the ancient people, Tirrigan. Because the kingship returned to the Sumerians, historians called it the "New Sumerian Period". After the unexplained accidental death in Utusiga, Ullner, the governor of Ur appointed by him, ascended the throne of Sumer around 2 1 12, and was named as "the third dynasty of Ur" in the list of Sumer kings, indicating that the throne belongs to Ur for the third time.
During the reign of Ullner, Ur was expanded to 70 hectares, huge city walls were built, new canals were dug, and temples all over the country were built and restored. Among them, the largest and best-preserved temple is a pyramid-shaped temple dedicated to the moon god Nanna Kikulata. Ullner also formulated the oldest Ullner-Namun code discovered so far. Ullner dynasty, Bersars tribute kingdom organization more closely. Under the centralized rule, everything is reported to the supreme ruler-from the daily salary level of workers to the beer concentration of national breweries.
Ullner died in battle after he was in office for 18 years, and then his son Shuerji succeeded him, and Shuerji was in office for 48 years. Since then, according to the Sumerian king list, "Amasin, the son of Shurji, has been in office for 9 years; Amasin's brother Shu Xin reigned for 9 years; Ibrahim, the son of Shu Xin, has been in office for 24 years. " With the frequent change of kings, it was the enfeoffment of Ur by the enfeoffment nobles in Shuerji era, the diversion of the Euphrates River and the salinization of the land. In the seventh year of Ibisin's rule, there was a famine in the capital, and food prices rose 60 times. At the same time, a large number of Amorites moved in from Syria and Arabia, which had a serious impact on their rule. Elam, which threatened Ur from the last years of Shu Xin's rule, finally seized the capital in 2004 and took away the last monarch Ibsen. After the fall of city of ur, it never became a political center. Babylon in southern Mesopotamia and Assyria in the north will rise and take their place. After the end of the new Sumerian period, Mesopotamia once again fell into city-state disputes. The main city-states in the south are Ising and Larsa (hence the name "Ising-Larsa period"), while the main city-states in the north are Assyria and Mali. Semites flooded into this area from Syria 3000 years ago. They crossed the protective wall built by Sumerians called "Defender of Amorites", settled here, used Akkadian and absorbed local culture. Before 1932, the Amorites established the first dynasty in Larsa, and since then, the Amorites have become the rulers of this region. /kloc-At the beginning of the 8th century, Shamshi Adad I, an Amorite, took advantage of Mali's court plot to control Mali, then conquered the ancient Assyrian cities of Nineveh and Erbil, and incorporated northern Mesopotamia into his own kingdom. The capital of the Kingdom is located in Shubat-Enlil in the northeast of Syria. He rebuilt the temple in the ancient city of Assyria, and changed it from being dedicated to the God of Ilir to the God of Assyria.
After Shamshi Adad I's death, the legitimate heir of Mali regained the throne. There are few archaeological discoveries about the history of ancient Assyria, but the settlement of Assyrian merchants was discovered in Courtepee in central Turkey. According to the unearthed clay tablets, we can understand the business situation at that time. Assyrian merchants used donkeys to transport tin and cloth to Anatolia, and then changed them into silver. Sometimes they smuggle iron that is eight times the price of gold, because at that time iron could not be made from ore, but only from meteorites. After the Hittites captured and looted ancient Babylon, they immediately left and went back to quell a palace rebellion. At this time, the political vacuum was filled by the dynasty established by the Casters here. Nine years after Hammurabi's death, the Castians began to migrate to Mesopotamia in large numbers. They come from the Indo-European language family in the eastern Zagros mountain area and adopt the local religion, culture and language, but they have always been regarded as foreigners. They ruled Babylon for 400 years with respect for local religion and culture, during which there were few historical sites. However, in the late 4th century BC/Kloc-0, they dug irrigation canals again in cities located in the lower reaches of Babylon, such as Ur. These cities were abandoned for more than 300 years at that time, probably because Samsu Iluna, son of Hammurabi, controlled the water sources of rebel cities from the upstream during his reign, which led to siltation and blocked the waterways.
Julians migrated from Transcaucasia to the south during the third millennium. They established a huge kingdom of Mitanni from Syria and northern Mesopotamia, which reached its peak at the end of 15 BC. In the era of Mitanni's rule, Assyria put away his ambitions.
By the middle of14th century, after the assassination of King Mitanni, the Hittites and Assyrian King ashur Wu Barit I took advantage of the chaos to carve up the kingdom of Mitanni, which became a landmark event in the middle of Assyria, and Assyria moved towards regional hegemony. /kloc-before 0/3rd century, the most successful king of Assyria was Tukut I-Ninurta I, who captured Babylonia ruled by Kasit in 1225. Since then, Babylon and Assyria have become two great powers that have always influenced each other on the Mesopotamian plain. Assyria ruled the north with its powerful military strength, while Babylon influenced the south with its profound culture. Around 1200 BC, the powerful Hittites were wiped out by the Phrygia invaders from the Balkans, making room for the rising Assyria. Before12nd century, Tigray Parashar I consolidated the Assyrian border and further pushed the army to the Mediterranean side of Lebanon today. After his death, the western Assyria was harassed by lamia tribes, and the empire experienced a period of decline, which lasted until the end of 10 century, and Assyria was at its lowest point. Before 9 1 1, King Adade Nilali II began to explore the west. He and his descendants expelled the nomadic people and recovered the territory lost by Assyria 200 years ago. By the early and middle of the 9th century, ashur Nasirpa II made Assyria a powerful country in northern Mesopotamia. Successive ruthless rulers of Assyria constantly shocked and defeated neighboring countries through large-scale conquest, plunder and exile, and brought new land into their own imperial territory, thus moving towards the road of rejuvenation. At the end of Shalmaneser III's reign in 828 BC, a large-scale royal rebellion occurred in Assyria, involving 27 cities including Nineveh and Azores, and the empire declined for 80 years. A series of kings, such as Tigray Parashar III, Sargon II, Sinaharab, Asa Haldon and so on, constantly expanded their territories by relying on the standing army that fought for years. By the time of Subanj Bart, the empire reached its peak, and Babylon, Syria, Lebanon, Kurdistan, Jewish State and even Egypt all belonged to it. The king of Assyria showed his achievements by building huge palaces, so he moved the capital to Nimrud, Khor Schabad and Nineveh, the ancient cities of Assyria.
But Assyria has been over-expanded, and the uprisings in Tabad, Babylon and Egypt have weakened the power of the empire. At present, when Babylon revolted again in 625, Assyria was powerless to stop it, and the Chaldeans from the lower reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers seized the throne of Babylon. Before 6 14, the Medes from western Iran captured Nimrud and Azores. Two years later, the Babylonians and the Medes formed an alliance, besieged Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, for three months and finally conquered it. In 605 BC, Crown Prince Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated the remnants of Assyrian and Egyptian armies at Kakmish. The Assyrian empire was completely destroyed. The Chaldeans, like the Amorites and Kashti before them, moved into and integrated into the civilization of this region. As a descendant of the Chaldeans in southern Mesopotamia, Nebuchadnezzar II ruled Babylon for 43 years and became the main monarch in the new Babylonian period, which only existed for 66 years. During his reign, Babylon experienced a brilliant revival. After the fall of Nineveh, the Medes retreated to the northeast of zagros mountains, and Babylon became the only overlord of Mesopotamia. Nebuchadnezzar II captured Jerusalem twice in 597 and 588, destroyed the David dynasty, and imprisoned more than 10,000 Jews in Babylon, known as Babylonian prisoners. He also rebuilt the canal and the city of Babylon on a large scale, making this city with a population of 200,000 a center of architecture and science. In order to dispel his wife's homesickness from Medea, Nebuchadnezzar II built a hanging garden known as the "Seven Wonders of the World". Since the Babylonian period, temples have been independent of alternate dynasties and have experienced continuous development. By Nebuchadnezzar II, there were 1 179 temples in Babylon, half of which were owned by temples, and the Chaldeans collected 20% tax from religious income every year.
After the sudden death of Nebuchadnezzar II in 562 BC, Babylon entered a period of decline. Every monarch has a short life. In 555 years ago, Napoleonic was pushed to the throne in the rebellion of court officials. 552 to 550 years ago, Prince Cyrus II of Persia overthrew his grandfather's rule in the kingdom of Medea. In the next ten years, Cyrus II conquered the territory from Lydia Kingdom in the Aegean Sea to Kidd Rosia in the Indian Ocean, stretching for nearly 5,000 kilometers. In the face of such an opponent, Naponido has no luck at all. In 539 BC, after a short battle, Cyrus II entered Babylon. Babylon never became an independent kingdom again. 334-330 years ago, Alexander III of Macedonian Empire defeated King Darius Iii of Persia and returned to Babylon after seven years' expedition to the Indus Valley. He intended to use Babylon as the capital of his empire, and Babylon once again had the hope of prosperity. However, Alexander died young and the hope of Babylon was with him. His general Seleucu acquired Mesopotamia after the commercial war, and the Seleucu Empire established on this basis ruled this area. Seleucus and his successors devoted themselves to Hellenism, among which Seleucia, a Hellenistic city, was established in the first 305 years, and all the residents of Babylon were moved to Seleucia in the first 275 years, which replaced the political, cultural and economic status of Babylon and led to its gradual desolation. The colonial policy of Seleucid Empire did not deepen Hellenistic civilization, and Mesopotamian culture still existed in the middle and lower classes, and the two cultures influenced each other in many ways.
14 1 years ago/129 years ago, Mitridati I of the Sabbath Dynasty occupied this area, and Ardashir I of Elam Zaher defeated the Sabbath in 224 -226. During the Sassanian period in 224-65 1 year, Mesopotamia became a dry land and swamp, and its once brilliant civilization was buried by dust. With the rise of the Islamic caliph, people have forgotten the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia.