ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONSgreenlantern
The term civilization basically means the level of development at which people live together peacefully in communities. Ancient civilization refers specifically to the first ttled and stable communities that became the basis for later states, nations, and empires.
改变自己英文The study of ancient civilization is concerned with the earliest gments of the much broader subject called ancient history. The span of ancient history began with the invention of writing in about 3100 BC and lasted for more than 35 centuries. Mankind existed long before the written word, but writing made the keeping of a historical record possible.
The first ancient societies aro in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the Middle East, in the Indus Valley region of modern Pakistan, in the Huang He (Yellow River) valley of China, on the island of Crete in the Aegean Sea, and in Central America. All of the civilizations had certain features in common. They built cities, invented forms of writing, learned to make pottery and u metals, domesticated animals, and created fairly complex social structures with class systems.
Apart from written records and carved inscriptions, the knowledge about ancient peoples is derived from the work of archaeologists. Most of the significant archaeological findings have been made in the past 200 years. The Sumerian culture of Mesopotamia was discovered in the 1890s, and some of the most important archaeological digs in China were made after the late 1970s.
Agriculture--The Basis of Civilizationsolunar
The single, decisive factor that made it possible for mankind to ttle in permanent communities was agriculture. After farming was developed in the Middle East in about 6500 BC, people living in tribes or family units did not have to be on the move continually arching for food or herding their animals. Once people could control the production of food and be assured of a reliable annual supply of it, their lives changed completely.
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好莱坞制造People began to found permanent communities in fertile river valleys. Settlers learned to u the water supply to irrigate the land. Being ttled in one place made it possible to domesticate animals in order to provide other sources of food and clothing.
Farming was a revolutionary discovery. It not only made ttlements possible--and ultimately the building of cities--but it also made available a reliable food supply. With more food available, more people could be fed. Populations therefore incread. The growing number of people available for more kinds of work led to the development of more complex social structures. With a food surplus, a community could support a variety of workers who were not farmers.
Farming the world over has always relied upon a dependable water supply. For the earliest societies this meant rivers and streams or regular rainfall. The first great civilizations grew up along rivers. Later communities were able to develop by taking advantage of the rainy asons.
All of the ancient civilizations probably developed in much the same way, in spite of regional and climatic differences. As villages grew, the accumulation of more numerous and substantial goods became possible. Heavier pottery replaced animal-skin gourds as containers for food and liquids. Cloth could be woven from wool and flax. Permanent structures made of wood, brick, and stone could be erected.
The science of mathematics was an early outgrowth of agriculture. People studied the movements of the moon, sun, and planets to calculate asons. In so doing they created the first calendars. With a calendar it was possible to calculate the arrival of each growing ason. Measurement of land areas was necessary if property was to be divided accurately. Measurements of amounts--for example, of eds or grains--was also a factor in farming and houkeeping. Later came measures of value as commodity and money exchange became common.
whereverThe u of various ways of measuring led naturally to record keeping, and for this some form of writing was necessary. The earliest civilizations all em to have ud picture-writing--pictures reprenting both sounds and objects to the reader. The best known of the ancient writing systems is probably Egyptian hieroglyphics, a term meaning "sacred carvings," since many of the earliest writings were inscribed on stone.
北京街舞培训All of the major ancient civilizations--in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, and China-- emerged in the 4th millennium BC. Historians still debate over which one emerged first.
It may well have been the Middle East, in an area called the Fertile Crescent. This region stretches from the Nile River in Egypt northward along the coast of former Palestine, then eastward into Asia to include Mesopotamia. In this area people ttled along the riverbanks and practiced field agriculture. This kind of farming depended on the reproduction of ed, normally from grain crops.ships
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