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Unlike Egypt, Mesopotamia was rarely ruled by just one king.
美索不達米亞（兩河流域）不像埃及，它很少由一位國王統治，
Nor did any single empire survive long within firm frontiers.
也沒有一個王朝的統治延續長久、有固定國界。
Many tribes and many kings held power at different times.
好幾個部落和好幾個國王曾在那里居住并曾交替掌權。
The most important of these were the Sumerians, the Babylonians and the Assyrians.
最重要的部族是蘇美爾人、巴比倫尼亞人和亞述人。
For a long time it was thought that the Egyptians were the first people to have everything that goes to make up what we call a culture:
很長時間人們都以為埃及人是最古老的民族，埃及擁有人們稱之為一種文化的一切：
towns and tradesmen, noblemen and kings, temples and priests, administrators and artists, writing and technical skills.
有城鎮和商人，王侯和國王，廟宇和教士，官員和藝術家，文字和技術。
Yet now we know that, in some respects, the Sumerians were ahead of the Egyptians.
可是現在我們知道了蘇美爾人在某些方面已超過埃及人。
Excavations of rubble mounds on plains near the Persian Gulf have revealed that the people living there had already learnt how to shape bricks from clay and build houses and temples by 3,100 BC.
從聳立于波斯灣附近的廢墟中挖掘出來的文物向我們證明，那里的居民在公元前3100年就已經想到用黏土燒磚并用磚蓋房子和廟宇。
Deep inside one of the largest of these mounds were found the ruins of the city of Ur where, so the Bible tells us, Abraham was born.
在這樣的一個最大的廢墟中人們找到了烏爾城的遺址，據《圣經》記載，烏爾城是亞伯拉罕出生的地方。
