There are a variety of differences and similarities between Mesopotamia and Egypt River Valleys. Egypt has a very complex political organization, whereas Mesopotamia was more organized and had self-governing. Compared to women who lived in Mesopotamia, women in Egypt were more respected and had more rights. They received equal pay for doing the same jobs as men and didn 't have to work at home unlike Mesopotamia, where they had to be a housewife and take care of their children while the men worked outside. Women in Mesopotamia and Egypt were able to buy and own properties. Mesopotamia created cuneiform which is a math system to keep track of how many bushels of wheat were exchanged for how many goats oppose to Egypt, they made a writing system
Cuneiform was a system of writing created in Mesopotamia around 3,000 BCE. Scribes used a reed to make “wedge shaped” indentations on a clay tablet. Cuneiform started as way of keeping track of business transactions but was later used to create alphabets for the languages spoken in Ancient Mesopotamia. The Code of Hammurabi (discussed later) was written in cuneiform.
The Sumerians most famous invention was the cuneiform writing system. A writing system created entirely by the Sumerians of Mesopotamia. Furthermore, the cuneiform also known as “wedge shaped”, was a writing system that used pictographs. There were symbols made by a sharp stylus that is then pressed on soft clay. In addition, the Sumerian writing system had similarities to the Japanese no da construction as stated by Fumi Karahashi in the book Studies In Sumerian Language And Literature: Festschrift Joachim Krecher.
The River Valley Civilizations of ancient China, Egypt and Mesopotamia were crucial contributions to future civilizations. They invented new ways of writing, laws to help keep civilization and society just and controlled and developed trade routes to help spread cultural diffusion. In documents 1 & 4, they talk about the two different types of writing, cuneiform and hieroglyphics. Cuneiform was the world’s first written language, created over 5,000 years ago by Sumerians.
Government Our government is based on a theocracy. A theocracy is a government in which the religious authority rules. This person who rules Egypt is the pharaoh. The pharaoh is considered to be godlike and have ka, or an eternal life force. Besides being religiously involved, he is also responsible for the government, army, and justice of the kingdom.
Mesopotamia and Egypt were early river valley civilizations. Archaeologists have discovered an incredible amount of information about them, and in that research many similarities and differences about the civilization’s religions stood out. Both Mesopotamian and Egyptian religions were polytheistic and believed in an afterlife, however Mesopotamians viewed gods as human-like and had grim views of life after death, while Egyptians viewed gods as a cross between humans and animals and had brighter views concerning their afterlife. Both Mesopotamia and Egypt were polytheistic civilizations. Mesopotamians believed in gods such as Utu, the sun god, and Ereshkigal, the god of the afterlife (Mesopotamia ppt).
Civilization is the cooperation between individuals within a region. The first civilizations were Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. Both civilizations acquired a different environment. However, their environment promoted religion, specifically polytheism. Although their environments were different, both civilizations were in harmony about the existence of many gods.
3000 BCE: Cuneiform (History) In Ancient Mesopotamia, the Sumerians developed the earliest standardized writing system: Cuneiform. Small marks were made with a pointed, wedge-shaped stylus on clay tablets, and were used to recorded business transactions. (Style) In its early forms, Cuneiform was written in columns from top to bottom. As many of the symbols were reoriented on their sides, the writing direction also turned to rows from left to right.
Another similarity between the two was the fact that each year had a seasonal natural occurrence that impacted the civilizations settlement and economy for the best. For Egypt it was the seasonal flooding and for Mesopotamia was the seasonal
In this paper, the research will compare and contrast some of the river valley civilizations’ religion, government and how they controlled nature which allowed them to thrive. River valley civilizations are the first recorded civilizations and they get their name because each of them depended on a river to survive and to thrive. The two civilizations being focused on in this paper will be Egypt and Sumer, both of which achieved great things during their existence. Ancient religion developed for several reasons. Most times, ancient people developed religion as a source of hope.
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.
Looking at the cultures, Mesopotamian and Egyptian, you can see the similarities and differences in terms of arts and crafts. Ancient Mesopotamian began to form its culture by crafting pottery, forming economies, and mastering metal making. This culture set the basic foundation of government, agriculture, language, religion, and city structure. Ancient Egypt culture is one of the youngest, long-lasting and dominant cultures of its time. This culture is known for its amazing practices in a variety of different fields including art, architecture, and other practices.
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.
The plow was another invention, it was pulled by oxen. The plows broke through soil to prepare it for farming. They sumerians created a system of metrology, which resulted to creation of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. The Sumerians practiced by writing the multiplication table on a tablet and dealt with geometrical and division problems and exercises. They used these math skills to keep track of building projects.
Egyptians and Babylonians used similar geometry, but Babylonians used geometry to trace Jupiter. Babylonians were extremely interested in Jupiter, but then scientist figured out that they were also trying to figure out the distance it moved, in 350 and 50 BC. The Babylonians used a cuneiform tablet, which is a writing system that was made in about 3500-3000 BCE. "All of the great Mesopotamian civilizations used cuneiform (the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Elamites, Hatti, Hittites, Assyrians, Hurrians and others) until it was abandoned in favor of the alphabetic script at some point after 100 BCE"(Mark, 1). A handful of other cultures used cuneiform
Both civilizations had the same social structure and divided people by wealth, power and gender. Egypt and Mesopotamia were patriarchal; men were the dominant gender, giving them more power in the political system. In both civilizations, religion played a big role, those with powers were believed to be connected to the gods and were chosen by the gods to lead. Those with wealth had power and with it the rulers of these civilizations used religion as a tool to control the people and created laws that following the gods might grant you eternal life in the afterlife. Laws mainly focused on obeying the King or Pharaoh, to never anger the gods, to pay tribute and appease them, performing negative confession appeased the gods.