Comparing Nile River Valley And Mesopotamia

During the third millennium, early civilizations began to expand. These civilizations started evolving from simple farming and trade to advanced governments, economies, and cultures. The Nile river valley civilizations of ancient Egypt and the early civilizations of Mesopotamia near the Tigris and Euphrates River had many similarities and differences in political, economic, and cultural aspects. Both the Ancient Egyptians and the Mesopotamians had rich, fertile soil for agriculture; they also had very similar religion. However, Mesopotamia had more abundant trade opportunities, a city-state style government, and less gender equality.

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.

The civilizations of the Nile River valley, the Mesopotamia valley, and Indus Valley marked human progress toward fixed settlements and the development of a rich culture. These civilizations shared many characteristics that contributed to their success. What made these civilizations unique were the contributions that each one gave to the world. They contributed their own ideas and accomplishments in the areas of religion, science, and mathematics. These contributions defined each civilization and how they would be remembered, as well as, their importance to the world.

Ancient river valley civilizations are one of the earliest societies in the world. The rises of these ancient river valley civilizations started the first cradle of civilization. The Indus Valley Civilization, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mesopotamia, and Ancient China are the earliest civilizations that were successful enough to make enough food for everybody. Every one of these civilizations had three things in common: they all had a special relationship with the river, they created their own writing system, and they all relied on trade.

Historians are confident that Mesopotamia and Egypt are the earliest documented civilizations based on archaeological evidence. They are known for their innovations in technology, agriculture, and law, which society uses today. The evidence from various researches by credible historians and archeologist shows that indeed both civilizations had a legal system whether written or not. The Mesopotamian people were tame by rules put forth by Hammurabi – the sixth king of Ancient Babylon – referred to as Hammurabi’s Code by historians. The Mesopotamian government went to great lengths to spell out their laws, and consequences for breaking them, in depth detail; on the other hand, Egypt failed to do the same. While less visible proof of Egyptian law exists today, there is evidence that proves they had a structured and progressive legal society. Even though both societies were advanced, their legal system in many ways contrasted each other.

1. What are some similarities and differences among the cities and city-states that developed in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus River Valley?

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.

Finally, there is the next level down is the lower class. The lower class contains farmers and under them, is the slaves. Fields and crops, cared for the animals, maintained the water canals and reservoirs were all taken care of by the farmers. At the bottom of the classes were Slaves and Farmers, they represented the greatest percent of the Egyptian population. The workers supported the professionals above them, just as the base of the pyramid supports the rest of the structure Above were skilled Craftsmen Scribes.

They brought writing, the wheel, the calendar, and astronomy. Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt allowed human beings, for the first time in history, to settle down in one place and farm instead of chasing their often dangerous wild animal food sources. Both civilizations shared similarities and differences in their climate, politics, intellect, religion, arts and architecture, technology, economics, and social structures, that allowed them to flourish and become two of the most well-known ancient civilizations.

The Nile River was also used for many things including trade and fertilization. Some of the things most often traded were gold, papyrus, linen, and grain. In return, Nubia traded back with cedar wood, ebony, copper, iron, ivory, and lapis lazuli. Every time the Nile River floods, which is often, it brought in rich soil so the people could plant and grow their crops. The excess availability of mud was one of the main ways

Around 3000 BC, civilizations began to form in Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia. Those being the Indus River Valley in Northern India, Mesopotamia near the Arabian Desert, The Nile River Civilization found along the Nile River, and the Shang and Zou Dynasty in China located in the East. All of these are important when discussing historic civilizations, but the Nile River and Mesopotamia have the greatest amount of differences in what they believed was a civilization and how it worked. Due to, religious beliefs, caste system, and the type of government they had ruling over them.

To compare the governmental writing s between the civilizations of Mesopotamia and The Nile River Valley their writings are similar yet nothing alike. Such as the civilization of Mesopotamia had writing to preserve their history, just like the people of the Nile River. All of the civilizations had their own specific form of writing that seemed to mirror each other in either style of what was being written or what the information was being written on. Keeping a record of what happened trough each civilization was important so thought time them each made their own form of writing, which made writing start to be more effective to preserve history. These forms of writing have also been spread to other cultures other then just the ones mentioned.

Ancient Egypt was a classified as a hierarchy. In ancient Egypt a hierarchy meant that people and groups were ranked according to status. Pharaoh’s and the royal family were first class. The second class was the aristocrats

The Nile Valley, with its predictable natural cycles, fostered the self-sufficient civilization of Egypt. Increasingly complex farming societies eventually unified into a single kingdom under a pharaoh. As a god on earth, the pharaoh maintained universal order, ma'at, and was the source of law and justice. Less urban than Mesopotamia, Egyptian society was also less stratified. Peasants made up the majority of the population, slavery was limited, and women enjoyed more freedoms and legal protections than their Mesopotamian counterparts.

The class structure the top with the highest social importance was the 1. King, 2. The Patricians, 3. The Plebeians, and 4. Everyone else. The patricians were not satisfied with the structure and overthrew the king and monarchy leading to his downfall and rise of the Republic. As the republic was set in place the class structure consisted of 1. The Patricians, 2. The Plebeians, 3. Everyone else (slaves/poor).