Differences And Similarities Of Two Ancient Civilizations: Mesopotamia And Egypt

Brief Explanation

According to Bowden, Brett. 'Civilization: "It Means Just What I Choose It to Mean". According to this article, civilization is understood as an advanced state of a human society containing highly developed forms of government, culture, industry, and common social norms. Ancient civilizations such as ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt had many factors that influenced them to develop to become one of the first civilizations in the world. Although many factors influenced early ancient civilization, there was only one factor that played the most important role in creating the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia and Egypt.

I believe their constant supply source of water played the biggest role in creating the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. The water source provided an unlimited source of water, which lead to a bountiful amount of crops, which lead to trade which lead to the creation of civilization.

Unlike other civilization that had to focus all their resources on finding food and surviving because of the water source, these civilizations had the time and resources to learn and develop more differently and successfully than other civilization that failed.

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This paper is going to first, discuss the ancient civilizations of both Mesopotamia and Egypt: it will address the importance of the constant water source, what came about because of it. Lastly, both ancient civilizations will be compared to one another in terms of their differences in religion, the difference in leadership and governing, how to write, agriculture, and trade between large groups of people and the advantages the geography.

The Mesopotamia

The first matter of discussion is the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia; the word "Mesopotamia" is derived from the ancient words "meso" and "potamos" which means between or in the middle of a river. Mesopotamia is additionally situated on the banks of the rich valleys between the Tigris and Euphrates waterways; it is currently present-day Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey, and Syria. Mesopotamia advanced to become the beginning of human civilization, it prospered because it took advantage of the region's climate and geography. There have been many Mesopotamian civilizations, which includes the Sumerian, Assyrian, Akkadian, and Babylonian civilizations. Unlike other civilizations that focused on only hunting and gathering, Mesopotamia civilization had an abundant amount of water and food so they had the time to invent. Mesopotamia developments made various remarkable manifestations that lead to extraordinary change in civilization, including time, math, wheel, maps, and writing. Mesopotamians created their writing made by pictograms into a wedge; the writing was a way to store information.

Civilization of Egypt

The second matter of discussion is another early ancient civilization of Egypt that is located along the Nile River. Egyptian civilizations developed along the Nile River in large part because the river ensured reliable, rich soil for growing crops. In Egypt, there was a good storage system for surplus resources, which lead to more job and more role in society. Many wanted their land for its agricultural production and economic resources but could not get it because of the climate and geography. Just like Mesopotamia civilizations, the Egypt civilizations also developed a more complex civilization than others did; they culture, religion, leaders. With the more complex development in civilization came the bad things such as slavery, war, and invasion. When discussing ancient Egyptian civilizations it is associated with the pyramids, ancient Egyptian monarchs (Pharaohs) used their divine power and constructed monumental architecture as a show of power. Egyptians developed a strong belief of life after death; they even buried themselves with riches because they believed that would allow them to go to the afterlife. The Egyptians stored written documents by making use of the hieroglyphics writing system; some writing was preserved on stone or clay, and papyrus. Another great influence for the ancient Egyptian civilizations would be the many gods they worshiped. The gods of ancient Egypt described in a humanlike appearance but they still had unique traits like an eagles head on a human body, ancient Egypt also looked to their ruler as a divine being.

The Similiraties

The ancient civilization has many similarities but they also had a different method to function properly. Both civilizations are early ancient civilizations and were created along rivers. Religion influenced a large portion of their lives, they believed in polytheism (many gods). The writing method in ancient Egyptian civilization was a more reliable and more comfortable method of writing because writing on papyrus would be better than clay tablets. The Mesopotamian and Egyptian had governing systems that were similar in terms of; both ancient civilizations had control over their people. They taxed their citizen, which were paid in the form of slave labour and money most had to become slaves. In conclusion, I believe both ancient civilizations would not have developed the same way without their constant supply of water provided by the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates rivers.