Egypt Vs Mesopotamia Essay

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.

Each Mesopotamian city states worshiped local gods and spirits. If they were part of a large kingdom or Empire, then they might be forced to worship the religion of the state but usually kept local beliefs intact. This is primarily because of how fragmented ancient Mesopotamia used to be. Egyptian Polytheism differs a lot from Mesopotamian Animism and Polytheism in several ways. The Egyptian’s worshiped the state religion alone and did not have separate local religions as often. The rough geography most likely helped with this along with the unity of Egypt. The ziggurats of Mesopotamia and the various monuments of Egypt have similarities and seemingly different functions. The Mesopotamians built ziggurats as temples, but the monuments of Egypt have various roles including for burial which reflects another major religious difference, the Egyptians believed in an afterlife which resulted in many artifacts preserved helping historians know more about their culture, not what was intended, but useful later

With all these surrounding them, invasion wasn’t such a prime concern, so they evolved a complex and hearty view towards the afterlife. Religion was then tied into government, making it all the more significant because pharaohs were viewed as god-like and were considered to be ultimate rulers. Citizens then realized that much more is at stake for an act of wrongdoing. However, in Mesopotamian culture, death was simply foreseen as an eternal sleep and was the given the name “Land of No Return” that held no importance and did not have any affect when involved with government. All in all, geography affected the natural occurrences to the civilizations as well as the frequency of invasion, the evolvement of strong cultural beliefs, and self-sufficiency.

While both the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations share similar political, social and economic qualities, the details of these broad spectrums branch off in opposite directions. For example, both Mesopotamia and Egypt were ruled by kings, but in Egypt, their kings were called pharaohs and they had significantly more power than the Mesopotamian kings of the city-states. Both civilizations also had social classes in which a person fit into, but in Mesopotamia, many more rules and restrictions were forced onto women, especially young girls, than Mesopotamian boys or Egyptian boys or girls. Both Mesopotamia and Egypt traded with each other,

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

As a goddess, she not only was a mother goddess, she, with her husband the god Osiris, taught the arts of civilization to humans, and supported the reign of the Pharaohs, or kings, of ancient Egypt.

Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt both had a similar climate. They are located in river valleys or areas of flat land that has a river running through it. Yearly it would flood and once the water receded, it would leave behind fertile soil that was great for planting.The rivers were used for food, soil, water, and even transportation.

She was a powerful magician and a skillful healer, and protected the young and the ill. The goddess represented all things feminine, and the qualities of a good wife and mother. The moon was a symbol of Isis. She was said to know all secrets. She also created and nurtured all living things.

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.

Mesopotamia and Egypt’s civilization were developed near the river valleys, which were the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and the Nile river. Their rivers were different, though. The Nile river had an annual replenishing of soil and water for Egypt’s agriculture. The Tigris and Euphrates of Mesopotamia also had an annual rising of water, except that the water would sometimes flood their crops.

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.

Everyday, under the Pharaoh’s procedure, rituals and religious festivals would be held to honor the gods in the idea of maintaining the divine order of daily life. The Egyptian’s strong belief in the afterlife and final judgement of the soul led them to consider every action they carried out during their human life on earth. The goal of every non-noble Egyptian was to become an akh- a spirit that is prepared for a life after death. In order to achieve this prepared stage, one must not only build a sturdy tomb and store up treasure, but must also live a truthful and moral life so when their heart is weighed at judgement, it will be balanced. An Egyptian could additionally devote his life to reciting a complicated system of prayers, spells, and other incantations to guarantee a successful trial. The god of the underworld, Osiris, was said to be the most favored god because he used to be a human king, who experienced death, and therefore made sure his followers had an eternal life. Likewise, when a deceased passed judgment, he or she became one with Osiris and was then mummified under the guidance of Anubis. Mummies led to another major staple of Egyptian society: pyramids.

Egyptian people had an optimistic view about death and afterlife. They considered afterlife as filled with growth and lush greenery. For this reason, the usage of tombs and other artifacts were an important ritual in ancient Egyptian culture. Tombs and other decorations were used to fulfill the requirements of the deceased. Food and drink plus various sorts of furniture were created to accommodate the ba and ka, parts of human body, that resided with the deceased in the tomb. Another significant ritual was the process of mummification. They mummified the body of the deceased to prevent both identity and life essence. Process of mummification was another Egyptian ritual that preserved the identity of the deceased. Process of mummification was long and time-consuming. The body was wash, dehydrated and then filled with spices and stuffed with linen. These mummies were placed in the tombs that represented deceased.