幼发拉底河和底格里斯河两河流域中下游地区古称美索不达米亚,基本上相当于现代伊拉克的版图。这一地区以摩苏尔为中心的北部丘陵地带古代又称为亚述;南部从巴格达到波斯湾为平原,多低洼沼泽地带,古称巴比伦尼亚。巴比伦尼亚北部又称阿卡德,南部又称苏美尔。人类文明史的前几章,基本上描述的是美索不达米亚地区。从上世纪中叶开始的大规模系统的考古工作,更揭示了苏美尔等地区在人类利用金属方面的重要地位。 公元前第5千年后期,苏美尔进入金石并用时期,考古学上将这一时期分成3个文化期,即欧贝德文化 The Middle and Lower Reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, known as Mesopotamia, are roughly equivalent to modern Iraqi territory. The northern hilly region centered on Mosul in this region is also known as the ancient Assyria. The southern part is a plains-rich low-lying marshland from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, anciently called Babylonian. The northern part of Babylonia is also called Akkad and the southern part is also called Sumer. The first few chapters of the history of human civilization basically describe the Mesopotamian region. The large-scale systematic archaeological work that began in the middle of the last century also revealed the important position of Sumer and other regions in the use of metals by mankind. In the late 5th millennium BC, Sumerian entered the epoch and used archeology to divide this period into 3 cultural periods, namely, the Oubeid culture