Ancient China And Ancient Egyptian Civilization

The river valley civilizations, ancient Egypt and China, were major cities with vast power and influence in the ancient world. Along came large and complex social structures, economics, and cultures. All three of those have similarities and differences between the two civilizations that greatly impacted the course of human history.

Although China and Egypt are countries thousands of miles apart, their religions in the period before 600 B.C.E are similar in the ways that they had religious rituals and believed in life after death. They’re different in the fact that Chinese religion was centered around ancestors and Egyptian religion was centered around their leaders.

Thousands years ago, civilizations emerged around the world. Valleys and cities arose in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, and China. These societies organized themselves and formed unique political, religious, and social systems to maintain stability. Later, these valleys and cities growth and expanded, forming territorial states. Among these four ancient civilizations, Egypt and China had similar political systems of territorial states and were relative isolated from the rest of the world, but differed in their rulers’ rationalizations of where their power came from and their government structures.

When people wonder about Ancient Greece the first thing that comes to their minds is Greek mythology; gods and goddesses that have helped shape many historical events. “In ancient Greece, stories about gods and goddesses and heroes and monsters were an important part of everyday life.” (“Greek Mythology.”) The civilization showed that numerous characters and stories helped shape Greeks. The beliefs the Greeks had with mythologies was they understood the meaning behind all the characters that are known today. However, to the Greeks, they were not just characters, these were their gods and goddesses who gave them meaning and understanding of the world around them. Worshiping the gods and goddesses helped them with their religious rituals and the temperament of the weather. A famous wine-jar that was made during this time period was “Achilles killing the Amazon Queen Penthesilea, 540-530 BCE, black-figured amphora”. (Khan Academy) The civilization that they lived in grew around their worship and achievements.

This is because of Egypt’s much more advanced social system and stable government while China had unfair treatment of women and a messy dynastic system that favored the king being overthrown. By using these systems, Ancient Egypt was able to create a more successful civilization than that of Ancient

The civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and China all contributed their own intellectual outlooks and advances to history.

Some ancient civilization depend on rivers for their agriculture like Mesopotamian, Egypt, India, and China. Neolithic Mesopotamian and Chinese civilization learned to adjust to climate by using a systematic agriculture of farming and herding, living sedentary and developing a pottery, allowing the preparation and storing food and water. Over time other civilization such Indus Valley from India learned to predict a flooding of the river and use it to their benefit. Unlike the Canaanites society from Egypt in which believed to sacrifice an infant and child in the name of the earth god(Baalim)and goddess(Baalot) to ensure a prosperous harvest.

During the old kingdom, Ma’at was part of the peoples’ everyday life, was not just a false façade and advocated social justice and equality.

Towering mountains. Bright blue seas. Glittering white temples dedicated to the gods. Though Ancient Greece was made up of many different regions and colonies, these 3 things were almost always in view. The ancient Greeks worshiped many different gods and goddesses that each controlled something in the mortal world. What was different about their gods and goddesses was that they were very human like. They looked like mortals, had thoughts like mortals, and they even quarreled with each other like we do. Ancient Greek religion is also known as Greek Mythology, Classical Religion, and Classical Mythology. Though whatever people call it, decisions made in Ancient Greece were heavily influenced by their religion.

The River Valley in Southwest Asia became the home of some great early civilizations. Some of these civilizations include Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. Many great contributions in architecture, government, writing, and many other subjects came from each of the previous civilizations listed. Without the civilizations, many agricultural advances that occurred over the years may have taken much longer, and possibly never happened. All of the contributions took a lot of effort mentally to create such as new writing systems or designing the pyramids. The many contributions from each civilization certainly helped the whole world in many ways.

Ancient Egypt prospered, expanded and flourished during the reign of the pharaohs. Although their society is very different from ours, it is still found to be successful and is a large part of why we study Egypt and why we find it to be historically significant. Egyptian civilizations were so successful because of pharaohs, geography and social hierarchy. The secret to Egypt’s stability, consolidation and expansion is portrayed through its location and society, while also being influenced by social, economic and political structures. I displayed this idea within a digital art piece. It consists of a pyramid showcasing the different levels of social hierarchy, topped with the mask of a pharaoh. This pyramid is pictured in the desert with farmland running on one side next to the Nile and palm trees on the other.

Much can be said about the Greeks and their contribution to Western Civilization greatly and how they paved the way. The Greeks subsidized Western Civilization greatly, contributing areas of architecture, government, and many more. The Greeks built the Parthenon, a temple dedicated the infamous goddess Athena, who they viewed as there patron. The famous temple has columns and groundwork that characterizes Greek architecture. The architects were concerned with conducting a sense of perfect balance to reflect cooperation and order in the universe. They were the first to think of the idea of democracy, a system in which people govern themselves rather than being ruled by a king; they also valued beauty and imagination.

Ancient Greek architecture was very intricately made and well thought out. The Greeks used different methods and reasonings behind their architecture because they made sure that their pieces were exquisitely made to represent the things they thought were important. They valued their Gods and their worship of the Gods. It was important for them to always represent or have symbolic meaning behind all of their architectural designs. There are many hidden symbols that are involved in Greek architecture like trees, trophies, leaves, hair, and sacrifices to name a few. Greek architecture includes these hidden symbols to worship Gods, and to represent culture in their pieces.

Like the Egyptians, Greek civilization had multiple gods that were immortal and very powerful, but there were twelve major gods that were the most important. Some of these gods and goddesses were Zeus, Hera, Athena, and Apollo to name a few. They were believed to reside on Mt. Olympus. Greek gods were immortal. The people of Greece built temples (much like the pyramids that were in Egypt), and gods were worshipped at these temples. Ceremonial rituals or any other special occasions took place here also. Most of the temples were constructed to honor a god, and they were sacred in their being. They sacrificed animals, held festivals, and sporting events. It is apparent that the Greeks adapted some similar qualities from Egyptian religion, but they are still unique in their own way.

There are many civilizations in history that contributed to the rise of modern day society. All of the things that we see today have been in some way shape or form improved upon to stand the test of time. From the structures of buildings, religion and pyramids, to the influence of art, it all played a part. The ancient civilization of the Egyptians was one of the most significant and well known cultures to ever have existed and technology wise, they were light years ahead.