The demise of ancient Egyptian civilization was directly caused by foreign invasion. In 332 BC, Egypt was ruled by Greeks and Romans, and then the Arabs invaded in 64 1 year, and the ancient Egyptian civilization finally died out. In 33 1 BC, New Babylon was conquered by Persian Empire, Persian civilization replaced most of the primitive civilizations in this area, and ancient Mesopotamian civilization gradually died out.
Although they all died because of foreign invasion, the essential reasons and processes are different.
Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea in the north, Libya in the west, ancient Nubia in the south and the Red Sea in the east. It is only connected to Syria and Palestine in the northeast corner through Sinai Peninsula. So geographically, it is quite isolated and closed. In addition, the regular flooding of the Nile brought wealth and stability to the ancient Egyptians. All these factors produced a conservative and stable mentality in the minds of ancient Egyptians, or to some extent, they were not enterprising. Throughout the history of ancient Egypt, although there was some contact with the outside world, it was less than that of ancient Hittite and Mesopotamia. The rulers of ancient Egypt were aristocratic groups, including temple sacrifice groups. They stick to the rules in economy, culture and politics, do not think about reform, and stifle any innovation, which makes Egypt's progress and changes in 4,000 years of ancient culture very slow. However, some originally backward nationalities, countries and regions came from behind, making Egypt, which once expanded outward, the target and prey of others' aggression and plunder. Of course, there are other important reasons for the demise of Egyptian civilization, such as the extravagance of the ruling class, the plight of the broad masses of people, and the control of culture by a few people, which have affected its spread and development. )
Compared with ancient Egypt, the two river basins and Egypt are the cradles of human civilization at the same time, but Mesopotamia civilization is different from ancient Egyptian civilization in many aspects. First of all, it never lacks communication with other countries. Mesopotamia, located in the center of the Near East, was closely related to all civilizations in the ancient Near East. The history of Mesopotamia is not as self-contained as that of Egypt. It was conquered by a series of nomads and became permanent residents, and then conquered by new nomads. Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and other nationalities took turns to play leading roles in the history of Mesopotamia. On the one hand, this feature makes Mesopotamian civilization colorful, but at the same time, due to foreign conquest, political history is often suddenly interrupted, which is also easy to cause a fault in civilization. The two river basins are flat and there is no danger to defend, and nomadic people living in the surrounding mountainous areas and desert grasslands take turns to seize them. Conquest by force often destroys the achievements of civilization for thousands of years. The once glorious cities in the two river basins have been plundered and destroyed countless times, and finally they are doomed and reduced to ruins.
Generally speaking, the important difference between ancient Egyptian civilization and ancient two-river-basin civilization is that different geographical environments have produced different cultures. One is conservative, leading to backwardness and eventually being replaced by another race; The other is that the terrain leads to constant wars, and in the turbulent situation, the result is replaced by a stronger nation.
Second, the comparison of mathematical achievements between ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt.
1. Count: The ancient Egyptians used decimal system, while the ancient Mesopotamians used decimal system and sexagesimal. But they don't know the positioning system. They all used fractional notation, but they didn't realize the existence of irrational numbers.
2. Algebra: Both linear equations with one variable and simple quadratic equations with one variable can be solved. In this respect, the ancient Mesopotamians were smarter. They could solve some cubic equations with one yuan. In addition, Babylonians were also very good at compiling mathematical tables (such as multiplication table, division table, countdown table, etc.). ) and use them in practice.
3. Geometry: Geometry originated from the measurement and division of land in ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians' pi was 3. 16, and they also had algorithms to calculate the areas of rectangles, triangles and trapezoid. The highest achievement is the formula for calculating the volume of quadrangular prisms, but it seems doubtful whether they know Pythagorean theorem. The outstanding contribution of ancient Babylonians in geometry was to divide the circumference into 360 equal parts, and the pi they used was 3 or 3. 125. And there is complete evidence to prove that they understand Pythagorean theorem, because they get the general parameter expression of Pythagorean number. In addition, Babylonians seem to understand the principle of triangle similarity.
In short, mathematics in ancient Egypt and the two river basins is based on practicality, such as in legislation and commerce, and of course in architecture; Their research methods of mathematics are mostly experiments and corrections, and their formulas are mostly obtained from experiments without any proof and deduction, so they can't be called real mathematics. The level of mathematics in ancient Mesopotamia was slightly higher than that in ancient Egypt (the reason may be that ancient Mesopotamia was more open, which promoted cultural exchanges on the one hand, and frequent business activities required more mathematics on the other hand, thus promoting the development of mathematics. Some of its mathematical achievements are not for practical application, but for cultivating students in school teaching. So beyond the practical scope, Mesopotamia developed some mathematics. In a sense, it has been divorced from production and life, and seems to have the possibility of becoming a discipline. But on the whole, the mathematics of this period can't be compared with the mathematics of Greek and Roman times.