Unlike Egypt, Mesopotamia was rarely ruled by just one king.

美索不达米亚(两河流域)不像埃及，它很少由一位国王统治，Nor did any single empire survive long within firm frontiers.

也没有一个王朝的统治延续长久、有固定国界。

Many tribes and many kings held power at different times.

好几个部落和好几个国王曾在那里居住并曾交替掌权。

The most important of these were the Sumerians, the Babylonians and the Assyrians.

最重要的部族是苏美尔人、巴比伦尼亚人和亚述人。

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:

很长时间人们都以为埃及人是最古老的民族，埃及拥有人们称之为一种文化的一切：

towns and tradesmen, noblemen and kings, temples and priests, administrators and artists, writing and technical skills.

有城镇和商人，王侯和国王，庙宇和教士，官员和艺术家，文字和技术。

Yet now we know that, in some respects, the Sumerians were ahead of the Egyptians.

可是现在我们知道了苏美尔人在某些方面已超过埃及人。

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.

从耸立于波斯湾附近的废墟中挖掘出来的文物向我们证明，那里的居民在公元前3100年就已经想到用黏土烧砖并用砖盖房子和庙宇。

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.

在这样的一个最大的废墟中人们找到了乌尔城的遗址，据《圣经》记载，乌尔城是亚伯拉罕出生的地方。