Comparing Ancient Egypt And Mesopotamian Civilizations

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.

Without the Nile Ancient Egypt would have never been created, because the Nile basically created everything for Egypt. Ancient Egypt began under the first pharaoh in 2920 BCE and ended in 30 BCE when the Romans conquered the Kingdom. The two sources of the Nile River is Lake Tana and Lake Victoria. The south which was upper Egypt was where the Nile flowed north out of the mountains. The north was lower Egypt where the river spread into a delta and then emptied into the Mediterranean Sea.

Throughout the entire history of the earth, mankind has advanced from nomadic hunters and gatherers into the civilized people they are today. One region that played a profound impact on this development is Mesopotamia, the birthplace of civilization. Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative, a literary work from the time period, reveals many things about the society that created it. The narrative recounts the tale of the first great hero of ancient Mesopotamia and through his encounters, the culture, religion and the Sumerians way of life is demonstrated. For instance, the relationship between humans and gods that resound throughout the narrative, gender divisions, civilization versus nature and lastly, how the Sumerians lived.

But how did the Nile shape Ancient Egypt? The Nile River running 4,160 miles is used for transportation, water, gathering food, and bathing to keep away disease. If the Nile was not present what would happen? The Nile River formed Ancient Egypt because the Egyptians believed in it and used the water to developed crops. More and more people coming in made it a bigger population.

Prior to Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) reign, Egypt practice polytheism which they worship many god and goddess and pharaoh were contest by the local temple priests. “Throughout the dynastic history of Egypt, the central authority of the pharaoh was repeatedly contested by local temple priests, each of whom held religious and political sway in their own regions along the Nile.” (Fiero pg. 54). When Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) was a pharaoh of Egypt between 1353-1337 B.C.E, he had a different view more like a monotheism belief which belief is one single god. He changed the views of ancient Egypt from polytheism which is the wordship of many gods and goddess, to one god who name was Aten.

Nile river water in Egypt is the focus of attention of many studies due to many reasons. The first reason is because it is water used by over 13 million inhabitants in Cairo, as well as, other cities. The second reason is that, the Nile is the longest river in the world, flowing northward from its source in Tanzania to its outlet in the Mediterranean Sea, a distance of 6695 km. The Nile water source is tainted by pesticides, sewage, nutrients, and heavy metals. One of the most important causes of Nile contamination is discharging of industrial facilities (Mohamed et al., 1998).

At the beginning, Egan used the phrase, “the Great Plowup.” He meant the Era of large success for the people, who settle in the Great Plains, by changing the grasses with crops of wheat and corn. Those people settled in the Great Plains after moving of the Indian, killing a lot of animals, and removing the few trees in the land. They plowed a million acres and replaced the grass which covered the land with the crops. These crops like a lot of water. The years from 1901 to 1930 were rainy years.

Ancient egypt and Mesopotamia both were on river valleys and they relied in it for their everyday lives. They both resided on river valleys Mesopotamia on the Tigris and Euphrates while Egypt on the Nile river.Although, they share the river characteristic the difference lied in the way each civilization views the river.

Mesopotamia and Egypt were two of the first civilizations to emerge along the banks of large rivers. Ancient Egypt civilization was said to be around 3000 BC-2000 BC, while Mesopotamia 's civilization was around 3500 BC-1600 BC. During this time was the Aegean Bronze Age, where trade network, desire to conquer, imperialism and tool and weapon making was important. Egypt and Mesopotamia shared similar social structure, culture, and polytheistic views that were connected to their surrounding geography, although differences in their geography led to varying understanding on the nature of gods and the afterlife. Mesopotamia and Egypt had similar polytheistic views, which means believing in many gods.

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. The laws from the Mesopotamian civilization were diffused into the Hebrew civilization as the Exodus. Both Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization also influenced the Greeks with the idea that the gods were in control of the fate of humans and the environment. In addition, the Greek idea of gods evolved, which was not identical to both Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations.