5000 years ago four civilizations appeared on our planet. These are the Indus Civilization, the Egyptian Civilization, the Sumerian Civilization, and the Chinese Civilization. All other people living on Earth at that time were primitive hunters and gatherers. Against their background, four centers of civilization stood out sharply – the development of agriculture, science, culture, construction.
Historians and ethnographers still argue – why did the centers of civilization appear in these regions? What caused such a sharp jump in development and culture? The climate? Geographical location?
The ruins of the city of Mohenjo-Daro are all that remain of the great Indus Civilization. The Indus civilization, also called the Harappan civilization after its main center Harappa, is one of the most ancient civilizations in the history of mankind. Of the most ancient civilizations, it occupies the most extensive. It developed in the valley of the Indus River, from where it takes its name, in the 23rd – 19th centuries BC. It is generally accepted, but unproven, that he died as a result of a natural cataclysm, most likely an earthquake. It was followed by a northern invasion of the Aryans into the Indian subcontinent.
The most important urban centers of the Indus civilization are Harappa, Mergara, Lothal and Mohenjo-Daro. The population in the heyday of the Indus Civilization reached 5 million people, a significant achievement four millennia before the present day.
The second civilization to die was Sumer.
In some ways the Sumerians were more fortunate than the bearers of the Indus Civilization
– their culture is partially preserved, modern scientists can even read texts in the Sumerian language. Sumer was first conquered, and then “dissolved” by the wild tribes of nomadic Semites (Akkadians, Assyrians, etc.), distant relatives of modern Arabs and Jews. The Semitic barbarians adopted many of the Sumerians and to some extent became the heirs of the Sumerian civilization – so that it did not disappear without a trace.
The third “victim of history” was the civilization of Egypt. It has been dead longer than the others – its decline has lasted almost two thousand years! – and finally disappeared only with the arrival of the Arabs in Egypt in the 7th century. Most of the modern inhabitants of Egypt have no connection with the ancient Egyptians – they speak a completely different language, have a completely different religion and culture; a small “strap” of the ancient Egyptian civilization are the Copts – a people that make up about 6% of the population of modern Egypt.
What about modern civilization? The one commonly referred to as “European”? To some extent we are heirs of the ancient Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations, but not directly. The knowledge that has come down to us (for example, we still divide the circle into 360 degrees, like the Sumerians), we inherited from the ancient Greeks and Romans. They, in turn, adopted this knowledge from the ancient Babylonians (descendants of the Semites themselves, who destroyed Sumer) and representatives of the Egyptian civilization (already dying at that time).
As you can see, of the four ancient civilizations, only one has survived to this day – the Chinese.
Scientists still present versions – why cultured, organized, educated civilizations disappeared, could not withstand the onslaught of “uncultured savages”?
Someone writes about the lack of “vitality”, someone – about being spoiled by a luxurious life, someone – about the fact that a cultured person, with his ideas of decency, honor, kindness and mercy in a direct battle with an uncivilized unscrupulous barbarian, always doomed to defeat…
But then the question arises – why did Chinese civilization successfully repel (or dissolve) all barbarian attacks and survive them all? Yes, China has had periods of prosperity and decline, even being conquered by Mongols (or Manchus). But civilization has withstood it and has survived to this day! Why did this happen? Nobody knows for sure.
#Chinese #among #oldest #surviving #civilizations
