And it's no surprise that agriculture first came about around river valleys.

農業首先出現在河谷附近其實不令人意外。

Because the rivers would flood, making the soil around them fertile.

因為水會氾濫，使周遭土壤變得肥沃。

They would provide fresh water for crops and for the people who would live near them.

河水能為莊稼、為住在附近的人提供新鮮的水。

Later on, the rivers could be useful for transporting things like crops.

一段時間後，河流也能用來運送穀物等物資。

And so it's not surprising that our first significant civilizations also emerged where the first agriculture emerged.

不出所料，我們人類第一個主要文明和農業的起源地相同。

And our first civilizations we'll see in ancient Egypt along the Nile.

幾個古文明像是尼羅河畔的古埃及文明。

We will see it in the Indus Valley along the Indus River.

我們有印度河流域文明。

We'll see it in China along the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers.

也會看到黃河、長江流域的中國古文明。

And we'll also see it in Mesopotamia along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

我們也在底格里斯河、幼發拉底河流域看到美索不達米亞文明。

And what we're gonna focus on in this video in particular is Mesopotamia.

而今天這部影片會專門探討美索不達米亞文明。

Now, the word Mesopotamia literally come from mesos—between and potamos.

美索不達米亞這個字事實上源自於 "mesos"—之間的意思，還有 "potamos"。

I'm probably not pronouncing it right, rivers.

我的發音可能不正確；petamos 的意思是河流。

So it's the area between rivers is literally what Mesopotamia is referring to.

所以美索不達米亞字面上的意思就是「兩河流域」。

And it's primarily modern day Iraq.

主要涵蓋範圍是今天的伊拉克。

Now the reason why this is particularly interesting and it's called the cradle of civilization, is not only is it one of or perhaps the first place that agriculture developed.

尤其有趣的是，美索不達米亞文明被稱為「文明的搖籃」，不只是因為它同為農業起源地。

It was at the crossroads of many other early civilizations.

也是因為它位於其他許多古文明的交會處。

Notice it's right in between the Indus Valley civilization here, and then the ancient Egyptians.

我們可以看到它正好處於這邊的印度河文明，還有這邊的古埃及文明。

And other civilizations that were emerging in the area.

還有其他在這個地區發展中的古文明。

And so it's not surprising that this was a geography that had significant developments in terms of technology, in terms of architecture, in terms of religion, in terms of writing.

所以很自然地這個地理位置孕育出科技、建築、信仰、寫作方面的重大發展。

And the first civilization we believe that emerged in Mesopotamia are the Sumerians.

我們認為第一個誕生於兩河流域的古文明是蘇美文明。

And Sumeria and Sumerians, it's most associated with this region right over here of, let me circle it.

蘇美地區和蘇美文明，與這個地區最為相關，我把它圈起來。

This region right over here of southern Mesopotamia.

這個地區正位在兩河流域的南端。

And we currently think that this civilization started to emerge around 4000 BCE.

目前我們判定此文明大約起源於西元前四千年。

You can see it on this timeline here in orange.

你可以看看這條時間線上的橘色部分。

And they developed things as basic as the wheel.

蘇美人發明許多基礎的東西，例如車輪。

The first wheel that was ever discovered was 3500 BCE in Sumeria.

史上第一個車輪是於西元前 3500 年在蘇美地區被發現的。

They're famous for their architectural structures.

蘇美人的建築架構很有名。

This is a picture here of a ziggurat, which was at the center of many of these Sumerian and as we'll see Mesopotamian cities.

這邊這張照片是金字形神塔，它位於許多蘇美城市，還有我們待會看到的兩河流域文明之城市中心。

This would require an incredible amount of labor to produce.

建造這個得耗費非常大量的勞動力。

And at the top of these, they had temples to their Gods.

除此之外他們也有供奉神祇的廟宇。

And their Gods, they had a polytheistic religion, and their Gods took human form.

他們信仰的是多神教，且他們的神祇擁有人的型態。

Also amongst the Sumerians is where we think one of the first written languages developed.

同樣是在蘇美地區，我們認定這裡是發明其中一個歷史最早之書面語言的地方。

It wasn't the first.

但它不是最早的一個。

You also have the Egyptian hieroglyphics.

我們也有埃及人的象形文字。

And written language emerged amongst the Harappans and the Indus Valley civilization and amongst the Chinese.

在哈拉帕地區還有印度河流域文明、在中國也都出現了書面語言。

But it was one of the first languages.

但這些只是最早出現的語言的一部份。

This right over here is an example of a cuneiform tablet.

這邊是楔形文字泥板的一個範例。

This is a cuneiform tablet written in the script.

這是楔形文字的字母板。

Cuneiform developed by these ancient Sumerians.

楔形文字是這些古蘇美人發明的。

Now, when you talk about Mesopotamia, you'll talk about Sumerians.

一講到美索不達米亞，我們就會談到蘇美文明。

But we'll also talk about other civilizations that emerge.

但我們也會談談其他興起的文明。

In particular, let me write them all down.

尤其是，讓我把它們全部寫下來。

You have the Sumerians.

我們有蘇美文明。

You'll also hear something called Akkadian.

還有阿卡德文明。

And as we'll see, Akkadian is both a language and an empire that will emerge.

我們之後也會學到，他們有阿卡德語，還有之後崛起的帝國。

In Mesopotamia over the roughly 3,000 years BCE, the two primary languages are Akkadian, which is considered a Semitic language.

在美索不達米亞地區，大概是西元前三千年左右，主要的兩種語言中其中一項就是阿卡德語，被認定為閃族語言。

It's related to modern Semitic languages, like Arabic and Hebrew.

它與現代的閃米語相關，例如阿拉伯文、希伯來文。

And the reason why they're called Semitic is because they're spoken or they're reported to be spoken by the descendants of Shem, who was Noah's son, in the Hebrew bible.

之所以被稱作是閃米語是因為根據希伯來聖經，這些語言據說是由 Shem 的後代所使用；Shem 是亞當的兒子。

So, you have the language Akkadian, which is Semitic, and then you have the other language, which is Sumerian.

除了閃米語系的阿卡德語，還有另一個主要語言：蘇美語。

And as we get into the third millennium BCE, the Sumerians start to have a lot of interaction with Akkadian speaking people.

我們進到西元前 3000 至 2500 年間，蘇美人開始與使用阿卡德語的人產生大量互動。

And Akkadian speaking people are initially associated primarily with northern Mesopotamia.

一開始主要是北美索不達米亞地區的人使用阿卡德語。

And we believe the first empire, true empire, perhaps the first empire in the world emerged from Acadia.

我們認定第一個真正的帝國，或許是全球第一座帝國，即起源於阿卡德地區。

And it was called the Akkadian Empire.

它被稱作是阿卡德帝國。

And if we scroll down over here, we can see how the Akkadian Empire spread.

我們滑到下面來，可以看到阿卡德帝國的擴張情形。

We believe that the town of Akkad, which the Akkadian Empire is named for, some place in this region right over here.

我們認為阿卡德這個城鎮—阿卡德帝國即以此命名，大概位在這個區塊。

And the first significant ruler who really spread that empire was Sargon, often referred to as Sargon the Great.

第一位擴張帝國的偉大統治者是薩爾貢，常被稱為薩爾貢大帝。

And you can see, you can see that that would have been established around the middle of the 23rd, or actually the 24th century BCE.

可以看到帝國成立的時間點大概是在西元前 2400 至 2300 年。

So around 2350, you have Sargon establishing what might be the first dynastic empire in the world, the Akkadian Empire.

大約在西元前 2350 年，薩爾貢建立了可能是全球第一個朝代式的帝國：阿卡德帝國。

And he was able to take control of both northern and southern Mesopotamia.

他那時掌控了美索不達米亞的北部和南部。

So even the Sumerians were under the control of the Akkadians.

所以即使是蘇美人也在阿卡德文明的掌控之下。

As we'll see over time, you have a lot of mixing between the Akkadian language, the Sumerian language.

我們會看到，隨著時間過去，阿卡德語、蘇美語之間會出現大量的融合。

Akkadian gets written in the Cuneiform script.

阿卡德語以楔形文字記載下來。

And starting at around this period, Sumerian starts to die as a spoken language.

大概是從這時期開始，作為口頭語言的蘇美語日漸消失。

And Akkadian really becomes dominant.

阿卡德語確實成為主流。

Now, the Akkadians rule for a little over 100 years, and then you have several other empires.

阿卡德統治了一百年多一點，接下來會有其他幾個帝國。

It can get confusing.

可能會有點令人困惑。

The way I have structured this timeline is this top line right over here is southern Mesopotamia.

我架構這條時間軸的方式是，這邊頂端這條線是南美索不達米亞。

And this bottom line right over here is northern Mesopotamia.

底部這條線則是北美索不達米亞。

So this orange shows you where the Sumerians were reigning.

所以橘色區塊告訴你蘇美人的統治範圍。

Some people think that they might have been the first empire.

有些人認為這可能是全世界第一座帝國。

This bottom line here, you can see the Akkadian speakers.

底部這條線顯示阿卡德語的使用者。

But they were fragmented until you have Sargon the great establishing the Akkadian Empire.

不過要等到薩爾貢大帝建立阿卡德帝國之後，他們才會聚集起來。

Now, you briefly then have a short-term neo-Sumerian empire.

接下來有個短暫的新蘇美帝國時期。

But the next significant empire that's often talked about when associated with Mesopotamia is the Babylonian Empire.

但下一個常見的美索不達米亞帝國是巴比倫帝國。

So Babylon, the Babylonian Empire was centered at Babylon, right over here.

巴比倫帝國以巴比倫為中心，就在這裡。

And it really became a significant empire under the ruler Hammurabi.

在漢摩拉比的統治下，巴比倫變成貨真價實的大帝國。

And Hammurabi is perhaps most known, you can see how he was able to spread the empire.

漢摩拉比最廣為人知的或許是，你可以看到他是怎麼擴張整個帝國。

The dark brown is what he had with this empire when he took rule.

深咖啡色的地方是他剛開始統治的區域。

And the light brown is what he was able to spread it to.

淺咖啡色的地方則是他的擴張區塊。

So once again, both north and south.

所以同樣也是北邊、南邊一起。

And he's perhaps most famous for his famous code of Hammurabi, which is depicted here.

他最有名的大概是漢摩拉比法典，圖片在這裡。

And it wasn't the first written code, but it was one of the earliest.

雖稱不上史無前例，但它是其中一部最早的書面法典。

And you could view it as almost a proto-constitution.

你幾乎可以把它看作是憲法的原型。

And it was based on things that the Sumerians had before.

基礎是蘇美文化的內容。

But they've even influenced things like biblical laws, things that come down to modern codes of law today.

之後甚至影響了聖經戒律，以及現代使用的法典。

Now, after the Babylonians, the other significant empire that would have control over significant portions of Mesopotamia is the Assyrian Empire.

在巴比倫之後，另一個掌控大半美索不達米亞地區的大帝國是亞述帝國。

And the Assyrian Empire is named for their, I guess you could say their home base, the town of Assur.

亞述帝國是以亞述這個城鎮命名，那可說是他們的發展基地。

You can see it in this map here, where we showed the Akkadian Empire.

你可以在這張地圖上看見亞述帝國，跟剛剛阿卡德帝國同一張。

And both the Babylonians and the Assyrians were Akkadian speaking, so at this point now, and as we get into the later Assyrian period, we'll start to have Aramaic be a more significant language.

巴比倫還有亞述文明講的都是阿卡德語，所以從此刻開始，還有在之後亞述帝國的後期，亞拉姆語會變得更重要。

Another Semitic language, but as you can see here, the Assyrian Empire at its peak controlled much of the modern day Middle East.

它是另一個閃米語言；不過你可以看到亞述帝國在鼎盛時期幾乎控制了今日整個中東地區。

Now, the Assyrian Empire would eventually collapse in the seventh century BCE.

亞述帝國終究會在西元前七世紀瓦解。

And it would be taken over by the Neobabylonian Empire.

它會被新巴比倫帝國給取代。

I have a map of that right over here, which also controlled much of the modern middle east.

我這邊有一張地圖，新巴比倫帝國也幾乎掌控了整個中東地區。

Probably the most famous ruler of the Neobabylonian Empire was Nebuchadnezzar II from the Hebrew bible famous for taking the early Jewish people captive.

新巴比倫帝國最著名的統治者大概是尼布甲尼撒二世，他的著名事蹟，根據希伯來聖經記載，是俘虜了早期的猶太人。

The famous Babylonian captivity.

著名的巴比倫俘虜事件。

But eventually they would be overthrown.

但最後新巴比倫會被推翻。

And they would be overthrown in the sixth century BCE by the Persians and Cyrus the Great.

在西元前六世紀被波斯人還有居魯士二世推翻。

And that'll actually be the end of the Babylonian captivity according to biblical accounts.

根據聖經記載，那就是巴比倫俘虜事件的終結。

But the big picture is that Mesopotamia is called the cradle of civilization for a good reason.

整體來看，美索不達米亞之所以被稱為文明的搖籃其來有自。

Not only do we have these technological and architectural advancements, their religion, their writing has influenced civilization since, for the last five, six, seven thousand years.

我們不只有了這些科技、建築進展，他們的宗教信仰、寫作也影響了之後五、六、七千年的文明。

Well, I'd say definitely the last 5,000 years.

我很肯定影響延續到之後的五千年。

And a lot of these ideas that came out of Mesopotamia.

有許許多多的點子也來自美索不達米亞。

Like written codes of law and the technologies and all the rest follow with us today.

像是書面的法典、科技發展，直至今日這些都是我們的資產。