The Early Dynastic Period Of Egypt And Sumerian Of Mesopotamia

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,

1. Recorded history began 6,000 years ago. It was 500 years ago that Europeans set foot on the Americas to begin the era of accurately recorded history on the continent.

While both Mesopotamia and Egypt have clear similarities on their views on religion, Mesopotamia struggled with their geography due to the high flooding that surrounded the area and on their government due to the harsh laws and rules, while Egypt triumphed in their culture and geography.

I chose the Mesopotamia and the Nile River Valley. These two civilizations are two of the most favorable ancient civilizations. Although these civilizations are similar in many ways, the small, but impacting differences it what makes these two civilizations stand out the most. The Nile River Valley was located in northern Africa in a country called Egypt. Mesopotamia was located in modern day Iraq, Iran, Syria, Kuwait, and parts of Turkey. The origin of Mesopotamia comes from the meaning “between two rivers.” The land is between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Defining moments for human civilization began within these two.

Egypt and Mesopotamia were successful civilizations because they were able to adapt to their harsh surroundings because of the influence of their powerful leaders. This is first example of this when it mentions that their only building tool was mudbrick due to their lack of resources(document 1). They were able to brilliantly adapt to their surroundings and were able to invent things like the arch and the dome out of hardened mud. Mud brick was also used to create the ziggurat(document 7). Mud brick was their only resource because they were so isolated from everything else. They also could really only inhabit the euphrates river because the Tigris river would flood a lot, so that’s why all of the cities are on the Euphrates (document 2).

Mesopotamia and Egypt are very important to history in many ways such as religion, social, and economic development. All Countries evolved around Mesopotamia which was the first civilization in around 3000 BC. Egypt on the other hand emerged around 3100 BC. To compare both women from each civilization it is important to know the history between the two civilizations. Ancient Egypt gave power to a pharaoh which commanded wealth, and resources to all people in Egypt. Not only that the pharaoh was a lord to both the lower and upper parts of Egypt. The pharaoh was also a temporal and a spiritual ruler. Mesopotamia was somewhat alike; class structure was divided into two classes. The king was at the top with the free commoners on the bottom.

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.

A civilization is a type of culture or social order of a specific habitation, group, or time. The first established and most stable societies that became the origin for future empires is known as an ancient civilization. Some of the first ancient societies known are the Mesopotamia, Sumer and Ancient Egypt. Egyptian civilization from its roots to its deterioration was based on the Nile River and the Sahara desert around it. The Nile River also gave a more optimistic view to Egyptian culture, as it was seen as a never dying reward because of its regular menacing floods that brought tons of rich sediments to replenish the banks; most of the population was based on the river banks as Egypt was surrounded by the desert.

As you will journey through a time which two of the greatest civilizations that thrived in both similar and different ways. Although the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia had many similar and handful of differences characteristics due to their individual geographies, both have there own cteristics towards their way of religion and economy, The civilization of Mesopotamia created by people called Sumerians have chosen the land “Between Rivers” Tigris and Euphrates (pg.9) to flourish a civilization. In the blazing hot desert of Egypt you would not think civilization would flourish like the “Fertile Crescent” (pg.10) of Mesopotamia, but the “Gift of the Nile”(pg.14) begins in the heart of Africa and crossing northward flourishing civilization by its sides. Both Mesopotamia and Egypt have agricultural And trades oversea or land. One thing that these two civilizations had in common was the leaders calling themselves being a divine being and that they were the chosen one, as for the Egyptian pharaoh was the almighty “Son of Re” and Mesopotamian kings where the “Son of Anu” god of the sky. Both civilizations were polytheistic, belief in many gods.

Did you know that Sumerians developed the world’s first form of writing? That many of today's household objects were invented or used by the ancient Egyptians (lock and keys, combs, scissors, wigs, makeup, deodorants, toothbrush and toothpaste)? Or that for the last 4,000 years China has been the oldest continuous civilization on Earth? The Sumerians, Egyptians, and Chinese created flourishing civilizations filled with many achievements in writing, architecture, and technology that made lasting contributions to humankind.

Although the Mesopotamian and the ancient Egyptian civilizations had similar agriculture based economies and polytheistic cultures, the people of each had severely different outlooks on life as well as the afterlife. While the Egyptians were able to rely on the consistent flooding of the Nile river to irrigate their crops, the people of Mesopotamia were not able to depend on the flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates, making farming significantly more difficult and life for the people seemingly less enjoyable.

Mesopotamia and Egypt two ancient civilization who have so much in common, yet are also different in many ways. These two civilization both share geographic characteristics. Even though Mesopotamia was brought up in 5000 BCE a whole 1900 years before Egypt, they both used similar techniques to grow their civilization to what they were. (Acrobatiq, 2014)

Describe the ancient Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations in terms of political structure, religion, society, and culture. Account for the similarities and differences between them.

In ancient Iraq, 3200 BC there was a civilization called Sumer. Sumer is located in the fertile Crescent also known as “The Cradle of Civilization”. This area was also referred to as Mesopotamia which means the land between two rivers The two river that the Sumerians settled on were the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The most common occupations were farming, trading and crafting.Their people were called the Sumerians and they invented many things. However the most important ones are Cuneiform writing and Irrigation.

Sculpture: Very few of their sculptures are around today, but the most famous is the Woman of Willendorf, which is thought to have a connection to fertility.