Comparison Between Egypt and Mesopotamia free essay sample

Comparison Essay Leith Kusmider Before the modern civilizations we all live in came to be as they are today, countless others have risen and fallen before our time. No two civilizations are exactly the same, but they all do what is necessary to survive and thrive. Many find survival through military power while others find it through trade or an agriculturally based economy. It has been like this since the birth of civilization. Two of the civilizations that marked the birth of all others that rose after them, were Mesopotamia and Egypt. Although they are similar in their geographic stand points and their agriculturally based economy, they have distinct differences in their government structures and their social stratification. The placement of a civilization on a globe often defines how that civilization survives; Mesopotamia and Egypt are no exception. Each civilization was heavily affected by their geographic standing, Egypt was found in a desert that would be nearly uninhabitable if not for the large river that the Egyptian civilization was able to build its massive empire surrounding, the Nile river. The Nile is the reason Egypt was able to thrive in such a harsh climate. With no other constant source of water found for hundreds of miles, Egypt learned to use their only source of water efficiently. They were dependent upon the Nile for food, water, transportation, irrigation and to use as a natural barrier from possible enemies. The ancient Egyptian civilization was dependent upon the Nile while Mesopotamia was dependent upon the Fertile Crescent; the obviously fertile land was between the Euphrates and Tigris River. Similar to the Egyptians, Mesopotamia was dependent upon the rivers surrounding them to survive. They used these rivers as Egypt used the Nile, it provided fertile land for growing crops, water, irrigation and it provided a faster source of transportation. But in many ways the Fertile Crescent lead to the fall Mesopotamia, it is placed in such a spot that it was often visited by invaders. Many different civilizations, such as the Hittites, Assyrians and Babylonians; visited this land, conquered this land and fell in this land. These two lands were similar in uses, although the Nile differed from the Fertile Crescent in many ways. One difference was the predictability of the Niles flooding. This flooding carried silt from the river onto the land making it easy to grow the crops necessary to survive, it provided excellent irrigation and ancient Egypt used it for multiple religious rituals. The Tigris and Euphrates River lacked this predictability in flooding which lead to droughts and bad harvests. Egypt and Mesopotamia were not the practical scientist we are today, rather than having a scientifically explanation for most things such as we do now, they explained much of the unexplained through mythology and religion. Religion gives purpose to the lives of many, it gives explanation to the mysterious of the universe. The largest difference between the majority of modern day religions and many ancient religions is the fact that most regions in this era were polytheistic. Both Mesopotamia and Egypt shared this religious quality. Although neither civilization worshiped the same god they did have many of the same basic principles in their religions. For example both civilizations believed in the principle of an afterlife, this is one of the reasons for building the massive pyramids in Egypt, they believed it aided pharaohs in the afterlife. They placed gold weapons, coins, and statues in the tombs of the dead and even mummified their dead with the belief that it would aid them in the afterlife. The religious complexes both Egypt and Mesopotamia built were similar, Mesopotamia built large complexes called Ziggurats. They were thick pyramids with multiple terraces and stories, they were constantly used by priest for religious ceremonies. Lastly on religion, both Mesopotamia and Egypt placed their priest extremely high in the social classes, the only person above them being the ruler of either civilization. This shows how important religion was to each ancient civilization Mesopotamia may have similar geographic stand points and similar religious beliefs, but they also have the distinct difference in their government structure. Egypt is known for their great monuments and tombs to their rulers, of which are called pharaohs. Egypt believes these Pharaohs are gods on earth, only here to maintain the ma’at, meaning peace, order and balance. Whether or not these pharaohs are successful in maintaining this order, all of Egypt is still required to obey their every whim. This title of Pharaoh is passed down through blood and usually to the oldest male. Every so often, the oldest male is not present or is not eligible due to age, in such a case the wife of the pharaoh would become ruler. Similar to Egypt, Mesopotamia does have an absolute Monarchy, but such a ruler would never be women in Mesopotamian culture and the people of Mesopotamia do not believe this ruler is a god. Usually the ruler of a city state or empire is a wealthy aristocrat whom rises to power through military force. Despite the differences in rulers, the other major difference between the two government structures is the unification of Egypt and the lack of from Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is made up of cities that often have their own government, farms, markets etc. These massive cities are called city-states. The city-states of ancient Mesopotamia often go to war with their neighboring city-states. whether it’s over water, land or food, these city-states are fighting constantly. Every so often these city-states are conquered and united by outside invaders such as the Sumerians, who unified Mesopotamia under the rule of king Sargon. But early Mesopotamia was simply a group of fighting city-states, each having their own smaller differences in their government. Egypt was not unified until 3150 BCE, the upper and lower half of the Nile were brought together under one government by King Menes, although there is debate that king Narmer unified the civilizations, historians usually recognize Menes for conquering the north and unifying Egypt. This unification made transportation and trade along the Nile much more effective and the taxing of the 42 Egyptian nomes (districts) helped strengthen the central government and build the massive monuments we all know today. Taxing in Egypt was split up between 42 nomes, 22 in Upper Egypt and 20 in Lower Egypt. These taxes were paid for by Egyptian currency and labor. This taxation labor lead to the making of the massive monuments in Egypt such as the great Sphinx of Giza and the ancient pyramids. Both ancient civilizations had their own distinct differences in social structure as well. Much of what we know about the social structure of Mesopotamia was due to the code of laws in the time, The Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi was the ruler who came up with this 270+ list of strict laws. One thing we learned from this list is the behavior towards women and slaves in this era were horrible. Women could not testify, own property and they were constantly bounded by rules and judgments such as not being able to divorce, borrow money or sign contracts. Slaves were not even so lucky, they were beat often with no punishment and crimes against them could be paid off with ease. In Egypt, women could own land, testify, borrow money and in some cases become pharaoh over the great civilization. Women were treated as equals to men. Egypt did have slaves and treated them like such. But slaves were allowed to marry, be freed or even win their freedom. The Egyptian social pyramid was similar to many other ancient civilizations, the ancient Egyptian social pyramid consisted of a pharaoh on top, followed by the pharaohs advisors, then priest and high noble men, after that came scribes and government officials, soon after that were craftsmen and merchants and lastly at the bottom were slaves, peasants and farmers. The Mesopotamian social structure consisted of the same order. One slight difference between the two ancient civilizations were their different styles of writing, Egypt used a system called hieroglyphics, a series of pictograms. each symbol was an idea or concept, similar to Mesopotamia, although they used a system called cuneiform. Since the beginning of civilizations, no two have had the same culture, beliefs and values. Each does what they can to survive and thrive, as you can see ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia are no exception. They have their similarities in their geographic stand points, which helped form the culture and society they abided by, and they have key similarities in religion. But they also have key differences in their government structure and social stratification, each civilization developed differently and did what they had to do to survive and thrive. No two civilizations are exactly the same, but as you can see ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia shared many similarities and had many differences