Mesopotamia

There are many civilizations built on rivers. These civilizations experience many advantages, and disadvantages because they live along rivers. Rivers give the natural resource of water. Throughout history many great countries thrived on rivers, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, to name a few. Water from a river can be useful and therefore some civilizations thrived on their rivers, and for other communities the river was their doom.

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.

Early Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations had many similarities and differences. Nonetheless, two distinct cultures developed in each area. Neither civilization existed in isolation but were connected to nearby and more distant civilizations through trade, war, and human relationships. Their cultures were influenced by outside civilizations and impacted others as well. In studying these two civilizations, a small picture of a larger, global network of human interactions is depicted (Strayer 103).

Mesopotamia gave the world cuneiform and the first complete set of laws. The ancient Sumerians made the first cuneiform script over 5,000 years ago. It was made to keep track of business dealings for trade that happened in lands hundreds, and even thousand of miles away. Another use was keeping records and new ideas that could now be

Mesopotamia—the land of rivers. Encompassed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Ancient Mesopotamian civilization spanned thousands of years and has a deep and rich history. As a result, the culture is widely considered to be the cradle or birthplace of Western Society. Although most of the perception of their history is derived from famous texts and literary stories, there is also an equally important aspect of life in examining the everyday artifacts that civilization has left behind. We tend to focus on the more ostentatious kingships, mythological creation stories, and the advent of cuneiform, but it is also crucial to realize that there are also many smaller parts of civilization that make up an often overlooked portion of society such as the extracurricular activities of both the lower and ruling class of the Ancient Mesopotamian civilization. Although the sports, games, and music of the people that were living in this period and region were many millenniums ago, the pastimes gave rise to many of the same activities that we know today, although subtle differences arose as time passed.

We all wonder at some point in time how the first civilization of humans led to the world we have today. Studying this progression, we come upon many fascinating places, things, and peoples of different traditions. The most prominent development, in my opinion, would be the development of civilizations (Yes back before internet!). The first of these civilizations would be the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians. Although both Egypt and Mesopotamia developed at the same time, environment and natural forces had profound impact in terms of political systems, religion, and social stability. In this paper I will discuss the many similarities but many differences as well in these early civilizations.

Throughout ancient history, one can find many different examples of civilization, each with different geography, political systems, and cultures. Although many of these empires were prominent and influential, one could argue that the two most contrasting, impactful civilizations were perhaps Egypt and Mesopotamia. These two empires had entirely different circumstances in terms of the land they were erected on, the peoples both in the land and surrounding it, and the social customs that developed. However, in spite of the wildly differing conditions, both Egypt and Mesopotamia were able to develop in such a way that the two cultures were both in a position to leave behind impactful legacies that still influence the world today. Before one considers how Egypt and Mesopotamia differ socially and politically, one must first understand the different geographies that drove

The Egyptians wrote in a system of writing called hieroglyphics using symbols. Scribes were the people who recorded what was going on and they preserved their beliefs in tombs, temples on papyrus scrolls (type of paper). Sumerians used cuneiform script it is one of the earliest known systems of writing. It uses wedge shaped marks and was on clay tablets; for a pen (or stylus) they used reeds. Egyptians had a pyramid type class system.

Mesopotamia was a great place for a civilization because it was parked between two rivers which is also what Mesopotamia means. Because it was near not one but two rivers, Mesopotamia was able to be home to, and sustain a much larger number of people people than if it was only near one river. This is because there was significantly more water with which to irrigate farms, and as a result, a much larger amount of food could be produced therefore allowing civilizations within Mesopotamia to sustain even more citizens.

Early agrarian civilizations such as Mesopotamia and Egypt were unique in their own sense. A universal form of writing, specification of jobs, codes of law, social classes, wealth & power, philosophy, religion, were some of the differences. Their differences and similarities had roughly the same goal, yet there are different understandings of the root causes that have become essential to understanding how, as humans, we got from early civilizations to what is in place in most of the world today.

Moreover, the inventions of ancient Mesopotamia – such as: writing via the cuneiform script; formulation of the Code of Hammurabi (1754 BCE), where modern day law stemmed; the creation of the wheel; the making of cloth, pottery, coins, glass, beer, etc.; the invention of lateen sails for boats, among other innovative establishments – have helped to shape the world that we live in today. Our world owes the Sumerians everything: They divided time into minutes and seconds, which makes it easy for us to divide our time accordingly; they tamed the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers by creating and implementing the process of irrigation to bring water to effectively farm the lands; and they also created invented a type of communication and a way of recording history by the use of the cuneiform – a wedge shaped piece of clay that was written on using a pointed reed known as a stylus. Writing may have first

Throughout many cultures in ancient civilizations, humans have held a belief in superior beings to which they called gods. The gods, in the eyes of many of the ancient people, were responsible for many things such as crop growth, storms, fertility, and even creation of life. The Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and the Hebrews all had gods that they interacted with. Understanding the likenesses and differences in how these people interacted with their gods might give us an insight to how similar or different the three civilizations were.

Throughout the first civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, writing and written records were a central point and feature of most of the ancient civilizations. Writing was used to document and describe the way of life in ancient Mesopotamia. Access to many of the Mesopotamian’s ancient written records has given historians and researchers a look on how people lived and the type of social life and classes in the first civilizations. Based upon these written records it was shown that the social groups and classes were well ordered and clearly divided. The Mesopotamian’s seemed to live in a very hierarchical society with civilizations divided into social groups such as King, Priests, Upper class, Lower class and slaves. These class differences were mostly organized by the creation of Hammurabi’s laws known as The Law Code of

"Mesopotamia" is a Greek word meaning, "Land between the Rivers”. The Ancient Sumerians worshipped many different gods and goddesses. They thought that the gods influenced much of what happened to them in their lives. Babylonian and Assyrian’s religious was heavily influenced by the Sumerians. The Mesopotamians always thought of the importance of god in their life, as each city had it own god. And at every center of the city, there is a temple to represent that god. Some of the Sumerian gods and goddesses included: Enki and Anu.

Mesopotamia was the birth place of the world’s first civilizations. Located along the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers, the valley was ideal for hunter-gathering peoples to settle. The many groups had varying religious beliefs that eventually melded together due to the new agricultural based settlements.