Geography played a huge role in the lives of both the ancient Egyptians and the Mesopotamians. It affected much more than crop cycles or the weather; it affected everything about the way each group lived, including the way each viewed their own separate gods.
Egypt and Mesopotamia aren’t very far apart by our standards today, but those 900 miles back then made a lot of difference. The main things both civilizations had in common were things like being dry deserts that lay close to rivers with fertile soil for crops to grow. These similarities are what allowed both groups to flourish and expand into a long-staying civilization of people.
That’s about where the similarities end, and the differences start making a huge impact on both societies. In
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Because of their regular weather patterns, good harvests, and relative isolation, ancient Egyptians believed that their gods were benevolent and understanding. For example, their goddess, Isis was seen as the mother of all pharaohs and she cared for all creatures as a mother would. This, again, was not the case in Mesopotamia. They had poor harvests due to the unpredictable weather and flooding, in addition to countless attacks from foreign societies. All of these factors contributed to how they felt about their gods; they viewed them as angry and were often scared of them. Anu, for example, is the sky god. He is also in control of the Bull of Heaven, which can be sent to earth to punish wrongdoers. Clearly, the religions are very different in both practice and the methodology behind them.
While both Egypt and Mesopotamia were both ancient desert societies, their differences were great, and expanded far past their location on a map. Agriculture, relationships with outsiders, and especially their religious customs, were all deeply affected by the land that these civilizations were founded
All of these ancient civilizations worshipped many gods and goddesses. The Mesopotamians worshiped An, the sky god, Ninhursag, the mother of all living things, Inanna, the goddess of love and war, and many others. The Egyptians worshipped Re, the god of the sun, Horus, the god of the sky and of pharaoh`s, and Osiris, the god of the underworld, ruler of the dead, and many others. The Chinese believed that the rivers, forests, and mountains were alive with spirits. They also worshiped the dragon and their ancestors.
After the Bronze Age, the cultural breakdown that occurred diversified the world’s population. In similarity, religion diversified as well. In research, one finds many different religions and many religions that were more to society than just something they practiced. The Egyptians served many gods. This servitude influenced many of their decisions.
For centuries civilization has evolved and spread across the globe, causing for many cultures, traditions, and especially religions to develop. Even in ancient societies such as Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, religion was one of, if not, the most important aspect of an individual 's life. The religions found in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt would shape how relationships within society functioned, including how communities related themselves to the divine and the role of leaders and priests. Furthermore, these religions would also affect how each of these societies thought about justice and even influenced attitudes toward the afterlife.
Not far from Mesopotamia is Egypt and although Egypt maintained a certain
Mesopotamia and the Shang and Zhou were two very successful early civilizations. Mesopotamia was a civilization that emerged from the fertile lands between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers in the Middle East. Chinese people called the Shang took over a portion of northern China located near the Huang He, and began to develop their dynasty. The Zhou dynasty took over the Shang, but both dynasties succeed in bringing China new achievements.
In the time before 600 B.C.E, both Egypt and Mesopotamia had built strong political systems. It was only natural that they would have many similarities and differences in their society. Ancient Egypt’s government depended on two important factors: the pharaoh and agriculture. Early Mesopotamia did not have a centralized government and religion influenced a lot of their politics. Ancient Egyptians were governed by a pharaoh for most of their early known history.
In early mesopotamia, their culture had many characteristics that made the early societies really “work.” Their codes and rules were based off certain things that can tell you a lot about their culture and how they governed the place. Mesopotamia was the first place to house civilization in around 1800 BCE. There were two civilizations that had stayed in mesopotamia, the Akkadians from 1800 BCE, and the sumerians from around 2200 BCE. Both civilizations lived at different times but had very similar cultures.
Religion played an important role in civilization as government laws and divine kingship derived from it. Both civilizations were quite similar, but acquired some differences unique to each civilization. These differences include the environment, divine kingship, and sense of security from either nature or law. The idea and practices of ancient Mesopotamia originated from the Sumerians. Moreover, both Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization diffused their practices and ideas to other ancient civilizations like the Hebrews and the Greeks.
They both had organized and centralized religion. The Ancient Israelites and the Mesopotamians were also different in many ways. One way was that the Israelites practiced monotheism, while the Mesopotamian s practiced polytheism. Also, Mesopotamians laws was based on the Hammurabi's Code.
The most significant factor that influenced the development of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia was their geography, because their locations by large rivers led the civilizations to produce an abundance of food, leading to a population increase and for several cities to form which influenced the cultural, economic, and political influence of both civilizations. The flooding within both ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia allowed their agriculture to thrive Mapping sentence for culture. Mapping sentence for economic. Mapping sentence for Political. Transition.
Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt were two early human civilizations that lived during the bronze age in harsh desert environments located not far from each other. Both civilizations were built around rivers that they depended on for survival. There is evidence that these rivers had great influence on both the societies politics and culture. Egypt was built around the very strong and reliable Nile River. Ancient Mesopotamia was established in the fertile crescent between the less reliable Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
The people of Mesopotamia ( Tigris and Euphrates River Valley), and the Nile River Valley had a very strong belief in polytheism. The belief in a religion called polytheism, or the belief of many gods not just one in particular. The Egyptians worshipped as many as 2,000 gods, but the chief god was known as Ra the sun god,
The three early civilizations; the Mesopotamians, the Hebrews, and the Greeks, believed in different deities. All of their gods were all similar yet very different from one another. The Mesopotamian and Greek civilizations were polytheistic, believing in many gods. The Hebrew civilizations were monotheistic, believing in only one god. Mesopotamians relationship with their gods, was all about serving their gods.
The Egyptian Middle Kingdom and Babylonia had many similarities related in geography. Despite this they also had numerous distinct differences. Fundamental similarities manifested as care for the people by the rulers which had recently developed in both societies. As the rulers were no longer concerned with only themselves, but the citizens as well. Both societies had military protection although Babylon organized and conquered the Fertile Crescent and later Egypt.
Even in death, Egyptians believed that their gods influenced them. Along with many other gods, the Egyptians remained polytheistic for almost a thousand years and were prosperous during this time. Around the 18 the dynasty, during the New Kingdom, the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV tried to change Egypt's religion to being monotheistic. He began sole worship of Aten or the Sun Disk.109 Amenhotep attempted further change by changing his own name to Akhenaten, or the Servant of Aten.1110 Through all of these cultures, we can see some differences and some similarities.