First, the text
One of the greatest cultural achievements in ancient West Asia was the invention of cuneiform. As early as the Uruk culture period (3500 BC-3 BC100 BC), Sumerians created hieroglyphics. This writing is based on the pictographic principle, with one symbol and one meaning. Such as (head), (sun) and (water).
Sumerians used semi-dry clay tablets made of clay as writing materials, and mainly used reed sticks, bone sticks or wooden sticks cut into triangular tips as pens. Dry naturally after writing, and some dry with fire. Because the place where the pen is put is deep and wide, and the place where the pen is lifted is narrow and shaped like a wedge, it is called a wedge. Cuneiform hieroglyphs may have been formed in 3000 BC.
There are many homonyms in Sumerian language, and the reflection of this linguistic phenomenon in the text is the existence of a large number of homonyms (or homonyms), which can be described as a major feature of cuneiform writing. Another feature is polysemy, polysemy. For example, besides plow, the word "plow" also means "plow" and "tiller", which is obviously an extension of the former. In order to eliminate the confusion caused by polysemy in the use of words, people invented the "finite symbol". This symbol itself is silent, and its function is only to remind readers (not listeners) of the meaning of the words it defines.
The early Sumerian script was ideographic, or as westerners say, ideographic. By the Akkadian people who spoke Sem, Sumerian ideographs had undergone a qualitative change: except for some of them, all the words became syllabic symbols. Akkadians also added new sound values to many syllable symbols. Since then, cuneiform has the function of expressing language accurately or more accurately.
Cuneiform characters were later accepted by Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians, and some supplements were made to make it possible to record all complex languages. Later, Elam, Hittites, Hulites, Maydani and urartu all had slightly different views on this kind of writing according to the needs of their respective languages?
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 grammatical rules of sememe are complicated and it is very difficult to learn. In 75 BC, cuneiform finally withdrew from the historical stage and was gradually forgotten. /kloc-At the beginning of the 9th century, German scholar Grotthus Fen began to interpret cuneiform characters and achieved some results. /kloc-In the middle of 0/9th century, cuneiform characters were 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, West Asian literature, 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, there were myths, legends, epics, fables and other works, which had a great influence on the literary and artistic development of the whole West Asia.
The epic of Gilgamesh * * includes 12 epics, each of which is about 300 lines, and is carved on 12 clay tablets respectively. The epic mainly describes the deification of one of the forgotten people, King 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 can't stand the heavy labor, and pray for Anu God to control him. Anu saw all this and created a savage Jean to compete with the forgotten. The two heroes fought fiercely, regardless of the outcome, and finally made up, became close friends, and began to eliminate the scourge for the people of uruk, making great contributions.
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.
In the ancient literary works of the two river basins, there are also some excellent works reflecting the social contradictions at that time, such as poems describing the sufferings of honest people in Babylon, describing an upright man who is very pious and awe-inspiring to the king, and still endures suffering after doing as many things as God and the king like.
Another prose work in the Babylonian period, Dialogue between Master and Slave, describes a brief dialogue between master and slave on the topic 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, when the master said not to do something, the slave agreed and gave the reasons for not doing it.
Three. Astronomy and mathematics
In order to meet the needs of agricultural production, the ancient working people observed the astronomical phenomena very early. 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, so each month includes 29 or 30 days. They take 12 months as 1 year (6 months and 29 days, 6 months and 30 days), including 354 days per year. In this way, each year is shorter than the solar year 1 1 day (5: 48: 46 on 365), and a leap month must be adjusted. At first, leap was based on experience, one in some years, two in some years, and three leap months in the third dynasty of Ur.
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. The Babylonians used the decimal system and sexagesimal's double notation. They use hexadecimal method to calculate time and circumference, such as dividing the circumference into 360 degrees. This method is still used all over the world. They also began to implement the digital principle. 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 square roots and cubic roots, and they can solve three unknown equations. Babylonian stone tablets have developed multiplication tables, square tables and cubic tables. In geometry, they have been able to apply the quotient height theorem (hook 2+ rope 2 = chord 2). In order to calculate the irregular site area, they divided it into many blocks such as rectangle, triangle and trapezoid, calculated them separately, and then got the sum. 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, buildings of cities and temples appeared in Sumer area. 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 the terrace of hierarchy. By the time of the third dynasty of Ur, the temple of Urta, which represented the achievements of architectural technology at that time, was completed in the 22nd century BC, and the site still exists on the ground. Urda Baota Temple consists of four upper pagodas, with a base of 62.5 meters and a width of 43 meters. The surface of each floor is made of sintered bricks, the inner layer is made of adobe made of blue bricks, and the tower doors at all levels are built into arched roofs. This architectural technique will become a major feature of buildings in the two river basins in the future and will be widely used in temples and palaces. The front of the Urda Tower provides a magnificent staircase leading directly to the temple on the top floor. There are different brick colors on the surface of the four-level earth tower. The bottom layer is black, representing the underworld, the second layer is red, representing the world, the third layer is cyan, representing heaven, and the top layer is white, representing the sun. Strange flowers and grasses are planted on all floors. In addition to the pagoda temple, there are buildings such as Wang Guan and Mausoleum, and the palace is also built on a high pedestal.
In terms of sculpture art, the sculpture works of Sumerian Akkad period formed a unique simple style. For example, the famous vulture monument (pictured above) is the monument of King lagache's victory over Ma Wencheng. This monument shows the infantry led by King lagache in the form of relief, depicts the neat queue and high morale of lagache soldiers, and is also full of vitality in primitive simplicity.
The relief on the head of the code of hammurabi in the kingdom of Babylon shows that Hammurabi stood devoutly in front of Chamach, the sitting sun god, and accepted the throne (see above). Skillful carving techniques, strong and concise lines, and finely carved inscriptions have become the most important artistic relics in Babylon.
The Assyrian Palace belonging to Cole Szabad in the 8th century BC was built by Sargon II. This is one of the Assyrian palaces that have been completely excavated. The palace is built on a high brick platform in the city center, 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, mainly made of bricks.
In the new Babylonian era, architectural art developed to the highest level. Represented by the city of Babylon, temples and palaces, it marks the outstanding achievements of architecture in this period. The city and palaces of Babylon were built more magnificently. The most famous building in this period is the "Hanging Garden" in the palace.
In addition, the relief art in the new Babylonian period is the most striking, which is inlaid with patterns of colored glazed tiles. For example, there are 575 glazed tiles inlaid with white bison and golden hydralisks on the gate of Hista and the tower wall in Babylon. The cow is the image of God Atta in Babylonian religion: the image of the snake-headed dragon is completely different from that of the dragon. It is a snake-headed animal, with lion's feet on its forelimbs and eagle's claws on its hind limbs. It is the symbol of Marduk, the main god of Babylon. The whole relief picture is mainly yellow and white, which fully shows the majestic atmosphere of the palace.
The architecture of the Persian Empire has made new development on the basis of absorbing the consequences of the two river basins and Egypt. 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) is also built on a tall stone platform. The pedestal and walls of the palace are often decorated with stone reliefs, and some are decorated with patterns inlaid with glass bricks. There are often many tall stone pillars in the halls of Persian palaces. From the ruins of these palaces, we can also see the grandeur of architecture and the wisdom of working people at that time.