Ancient Civilizations : Compare And Contrasting Ancient Civilizations

With governmental machinery that brought political and social order to their territories, effective political and military power enabled them to build regional empires and expand their authority to neighboring people. Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were two great civilizations among the earliest to emerge in the Middle east and North Africa. Both made significant contributions in areas such as mathematics, medicine, agriculture, astronomy, technology, architecture, art and writing. They had differences as well, including their political structures. Most importantly is that Egyptians were under a centralized government, and the Mesopotamians had self-controlled city state governments.

The /Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations developed many differences. The geography, culture, and religion are all different and play a huge role in history.

When you look back in history to the development and the contributions of both the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations, you see that there was a lot accomplished, as well as a lot created. The earliest forms of writing developed in Mesopotamia, while Egypt was referred to the “Gift of the Nile” by traveler Herodotus (McKay,42). Development of cities was another major marker, especially in the “old world”, of how people eventually determined civilizations and what they represented. According to McKay, civilizations were determined by people who considered themselves more “civilized”, urban people mostly. Made up of cities, written rules of law, and social justice codes, Mesopotamia and Egypt would develop into two of the largest civilizations in history.

Over the years the Egyptians had more experience than the Mesopotamians, because the Egyptians had more ideas for making new things. In Ancient Egypt the Egyptians had built pyramid structures and in the Ancient Middle East the Mesopotamians had built ziggurat structures. The Egyptians and the Mesopotamians had most things in common, but they mostly have a lot of differences. The Mesopotamians were the first to develop tools during that time, but over the years the Egyptians had also developed tools but it was real science technology. Another thing is that when it came to women’s rights in Ancient Middle East all the women were owned by their husbands, and in Ancient Egypt the people worshiped women and there was even a woman ruler. Even though Ancient Middle East and Ancient Egypt share written language and both heavily relied on the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates, rivers the difference between Ancient Middle East and Ancient Egypt is that they both had an opposite view of the afterlife.

Most societies that developed in ancient civilizations were centered around their belief systems. The Egyptians and the Mesopotamians were no different in this sense. Both civilizations were polytheistic and built elaborate temples to praise their gods. Additionally, the leaders in both regions were believed to be related to the gods because of the great power they held and the wealth under their control. However, the Mesopotamians had a pessimistic outlook on life because of the unpredictability of their environment. The Egyptians, on the other hand, had an optimistic outlook because the Nile River inundated their region regularly, which could be predicted by the stars. The similarities and differences in the religions of these two

Egypt developed around the Nile River, while Mesopotamia developed between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Egypt and Mesopotamia grew into complex civilizations. Politically, both Egypt and Mesopotamia had a government with one main ruler, but Egypt had a centralized government with a pharaoh, while Mesopotamia had a decentralized government with a king. Socially, both civilizations were patriarchal, but Egypt was more lenient towards women while Mesopotamia was stricter. The political and social structures of Egypt and Mesopotamia both similarities and differences.

Economically, these two civilizations both shared prosperous success in similar manners. One connection between Mesopotamia and Egypt is that they both manipulated their designated rivers to perform critical trade operations by using them as routes. They were able to communicated and send goods with other civilizations in a farther location via the river system. Also, these two civilizations were very productive in the agricultural field due to the strategically created irrigation systems that provided water to their fertile soils to provide lush vegetations in Nile and Sumer. The one difference between Mesopotamia and Egypt in terms of economy is that the Nile government controlled most if not all of the trading monopoly, and they had their citizens pay substantial taxes.

Mesopotamia and Egypt were very different because of their geography and world view. Mesopotamia was often flooded because of their bad geography, but the land around the Nile river was built well so the Egyptians didn 't have to worry about the river flooding as often. The land in Mesopotamia was often attacked and invaded. Ultimately the geography of Egypt was significantly better than Mesopotamia because of the benefits of the nile river created a positive world view, a strong government and a universal religion.

To start with, the ancient Mesopotamians and Chinese had fairly similar religious beliefs. Both were polytheistic, and their gods were anthropomorphic. The Chinese, however, primarily worshipped a supreme god. The first was Di and the second was Tian, a more benevolent god. In Mesopotamia, there were high priests and temples to preform religious rituals, while the common Chinese belief was that only the ruler could communicate with the supreme god through their ancestors. Alternatively, two relevant ideals present in both societies was the belief an afterlife, as shown through the possessions left in tombs, and the thought that gods demonstrated anger through natural disasters. The Chinese, especially, valued the idea of gods using natural disasters to show disapproval in the current ruler, and called it the “Mandate of Heaven”.

Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia present a valuable area of historical research. They are of great importance mostly because of their ethnic kinship (Watson, 2017). In such case, comparison and contrast essay is very promising as causal relationships can be formed based on a mutual starting point. This comparison-contrast essay focuses on differences and similarities in these societies’ economic, political and cultural life in order to make further implications regarding the circumstances the peoples of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia faced.

Throughout the history of Earth, there have been many fascinating developments, the most prominent being the first civilizations, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. They had many similarities, such as characteristics of early civilizations and social structures, but they also had their differences. The most embossed differences included the divergent geography, prior belief, trade, relations with other civilizations, and politics.

Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt are both cradles of civilization. Both contributed greatly to human development through their achievements, failures, peoples, scientific accomplishments, philosophies, religions, and contributions.

While describing the cultural among the people of Mesopotamia and Egypt, I learned the differences and similarities in culture. The birth of Mesopotamian Civilization began in c. 3000 B.C.E., in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers of Southwest Asia. Mesopotamia is a Greek word and it means ‘between the rivers.’ In contrast, the birth of Egyptian Civilization began in c. 3100 B.C.E., in a valley of the Nile River in Northeastern Africa. Egypt is a Greek word and it means ‘House of the Spirit of Ptah.’ Since there are several categories in the cultures of the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians, I decided to narrows it to three categories: Religion, Writing, and Geography. The three categories will present the basis to compare cultural differences and similarities.

Egyptians viewed the afterlife in a very positive way - they believed if they lived by the standards of “Ma’at”, they would end up in the “Happy Field of Food” or “Field of Offerings” in the afterlife. “Ma’at”, simply put, composed of acting in ways that are truthful, harmonious, moral, balanced, and orderly. In simple terms, Egyptians believed that if they acted with morality, they would have a happy afterlife with no hunger or pain. Mesopotamians had a much darker view of life after death: they believed they would spend eternity in the “House of Dust” with other tortured souls. Mesopotamian gods were not moral or truthful - they cheated, lied, stole, etc., and Mesopotamians believed that humans were created simply because the gods grew tired of working. Mesopotamians worshipped their gods because they believed if they worshipped enough, they may receive blessings or justice, but this was not guaranteed.

In the first civilization, both Mesopotamia and Egypt relied on a hunter-gatherer economic system, during that time, every country in the world strived on it. Mesopotamia had rich soil for agriculture, but experiences floods. For the Mesopotamians, these floods would destroy major cities, but for the Egyptians it would keep the soil rich all year long without the damage that the Mesopotamians had experienced.