without rainfall to nourish crops, without trees or stones for building.

沒有雨水滋潤莊稼，沒有樹木和石頭來建造。

In spite of all this, its inhabitants built the world's first cities,

儘管如此，這裡的居民還是建立了世界上最早的城市。

with monumental architecture and large populations—

紀念碑式的建築和大量的人口--。

and they built them entirely out of mud.

他們完全是用泥巴建造的。

Sumer occupied the southern part of modern Iraq

蘇美爾

in the region called Mesopotamia.

在被稱為美索不達米亞的地區。

Mesopotamia means “between two rivers”—

美索不達米亞的意思是 "在兩條河流之間"。

the Tigris and the Euphrates.

底格里斯河和幼發拉底河。

Around 5000 BCE, early Sumerians used irrigation channels, dams, and reservoirs

公元前5000年左右，早期的蘇美爾人就使用了灌溉渠道、水壩和水庫。

to redirect river water and farm large areas of previously bone-dry land.

來改用河水，並在以前骨幹的土地上大面積耕種。

Agricultural communities like this were slowly springing up around the world.

像這樣的農業社區在世界各地慢慢興起。

But Sumerians were the first to take the next step.

但蘇美爾人是第一個邁出下一步的人。

Using clay bricks made from river mud,

用河泥製作的粘土磚。

they began to build multi-storied homes and temples.

他們開始建造多層住宅和寺廟。

They invented the wheel—

他們發明了輪子

a potter's wheel, for turning mud into household goods and tools.

一個陶輪，用於將泥巴變成生活用品和工具。

Those clay bricks gave rise to the world's first cities,

這些粘土磚造就了世界上第一座城市。

probably around 4500 BCE.

大概在公元前4500年左右。

At the top of the city's social ladder were priests and priestesses,

在城市社會階梯的頂端是牧師和女祭司。

who were considered nobility,

被視為貴族的人。

then merchants, craftspeople, farmers, and enslaved people.

然後是商人、手工業者、農民和被奴役的人。

The Sumerian empire consisted of distinct city-states

蘇美爾帝國由不同的城邦組成。

that operated like small nations.

像小國一樣運作的。

They were loosely linked by language and spiritual belief

他們通過語言和精神信仰鬆散地聯繫在一起。

but lacked centralized control.

但缺乏集中控制。

The earliest cities were Uruk, Ur, and Eridu,

最早的城市是烏魯克、烏爾和埃裡杜。

and eventually there were a dozen cities.

並最終有十幾個城市。

Each had a king who served a role somewhere between a priest and a ruler.

每個人都有一個國王，他的角色介於祭司和統治者之間。

Sometimes they fought against each other to conquer new territories.

有時他們為了征服新的領地而互相爭鬥。

Each city was dedicated to a patron deity, considered the city's founder.

每座城市都供奉著一位守護神，被認為是城市的創始人。

The largest and most important building in the city was this patron god's home:

城中最大最重要的建築就是這位守護神的家。

the ziggurat, a temple designed as a stepped pyramid.

齊古拉特，一座設計成階梯式金字塔的神廟。

Around 3200 BCE, Sumerians began to expand their reach.

公元前3200年左右，蘇美爾人開始擴大自己的影響力。

The potter's wheel found a new home on chariots and wagons.

陶器的輪子在戰車和馬車上找到了新家。

They built boats out of reeds and date palm leaves,

他們用蘆葦和棗樹葉子造船。

with linen sails that carried them vast distances by river and sea.

用亞麻布帆帶著他們在河上和海上遠行。

To supplement scarce resources, they built a trade network

為了補充稀缺的資源，他們建立了一個貿易網絡。

with the rising kingdoms in Egypt, Anatolia, and Ethiopia,

隨著埃及、安納托利亞、衣索匹亞等國的崛起。

importing gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and cedar wood.

進口黃金、白銀、青金石、杉木。

Trade was the unlikely impetus

貿易是不可能的推動力

for the invention of the world's first writing system.

為發明世界上第一個書寫系統。

It started as a system of accounting for Sumerian merchants

它最初是蘇美爾商人的會計制度。

conducting business with traders abroad.

與國外貿易商開展業務；

After a few hundred years, the early pictogram system

經過幾百年的發展，早期的象形文字系統。

called cuneiform turned into a script.

叫楔形文字變成了文字。

The Sumerians drafted up the first written laws

蘇美爾人起草了第一部成文法。

and created the first school system, designed to teach the craft of writing—

並創建了第一個學校系統，旨在教授寫作的工藝--。

and pioneered some less exciting innovations, like bureaucracy and taxes.

並開創了一些不那麼令人興奮的創新，比如官僚主義和稅收。

In the schools, scribes studying from dawn to dusk,

在學校裡，文士們從黎明到黃昏的學習。

from childhood well into adulthood.

從童年一直到成年。

They learned accounting, mathematics, and copied works of literature—

他們學會了會計、數學，還抄寫了文學作品--。

hymns, myths, proverbs, animal fables, magic spells,

讚美詩、神話、諺語、動物寓言、魔法咒語。

and the first epics on clay tablets.

和泥板上的第一部史詩。

Some of those tablets told the story of Gilgamesh,

其中一些石板講述了吉爾伽美什的故事。

a king of the city of Uruk who was also the subject of mythical tales.

烏魯克城的國王，他也是神話故事的主題。

But by the third millennium BCE, Sumer was no longer the only empire around,

但到了公元前三千年，蘇美爾不再是唯一的帝國了。

or even in Mesopotamia.

甚至在美索不達米亞。

Waves of nomadic tribes poured into the region from the north and east.

遊牧部落的浪潮從北部和東部湧入該地區。

Some newcomers looked up to the Sumerians, adopting their way of life

一些新來的人向蘇美爾人看齊，採用他們的生活方式。

and using the cuneiform script to express their own languages.

並用楔形文字來表達自己的語言。

In 2300 BCE, the Akkadian king Sargon conquered the Sumerian city-states.

公元前2300年，阿卡德王薩爾貢征服了蘇美爾城邦。

But Sargon respected Sumerian culture,

但薩爾貢尊重蘇美爾文化。

and Akkadians and Sumerians existed side-by-side for centuries.

和阿卡德人與蘇美爾人並存了幾個世紀。

Other invading groups focused only on looting and destruction.

其他入侵集團只注重掠奪和破壞。

Even as Sumerian culture spread,

即使隨著蘇美爾文化的傳播。

a steady onslaught of invasions killed off the Sumerian people by 1750 BCE.

公元前1750年，蘇美爾人被不斷的入侵所殺。

Afterward, Sumer disappeared back into the desert dirt,

之後，蘇默又消失在沙漠的泥土中。

not to be rediscovered until the 19th century.

直到19世紀才被重新發現。

But Sumerian culture lived on for thousands of years—

但蘇美爾文化卻延續了幾千年----------------------------。

first through the Akkadians, then the Assyrians, then the Babylonians.

首先通過阿卡德人，然後是亞述人，然後是巴比倫人。

The Babylonians passed Sumerian inventions and traditions through

巴比倫人將蘇美爾人的發明和傳統通過

along Hebrew, Greek, and Roman cultures.

沿著希伯來、希臘和羅馬文化。

Some persist today.

有些人至今仍在堅持。