A Comparison of Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian Societies Essay

Although Egypt and Mesopotamia were both primal agricultural societies built upon the water provided by the study rivers which sustained them, they exhibited important contrasts as a consequence of the different bodily environments in which they veritable. In this paper I will first focus on what I consider to be the major aspects of these differences in environment and then look the consequences of these differences in their religious beliefs, political g everyplacenment and moneymaking(prenominal) practices.A major difference in somatic environment amidst these past societies was the seasonal river flows on which they depended for farming. The Nile which support early Egyptian civilization was characterized by predictable and annual flooding in the early fall. These floods occurred after crops were harvested. This variety was a consequence of the regular late summer monsoon rains which fell at its headwaters. The Nile also possess a large spreading delta expanse that gave rise to natural irrigation canals that would flood the areas surrounded by them with fertile nutrients for the next planting year.The Tigris and Euphrates rivers which support the Mesopotamian society would typically flood in the late spring just when crops would be ripening, often with disastrous results on harvests. This pattern was a result of these waters originating from winter snow melt in the Anatolian mountains (now in presend day Turkey) where these rivers originated. These floods sometimes caused the rivers to swap their course abruptly cutting collide with fields from water. Another primary physical difference contributing to cultural differences was the sexual relation isolation in which ancient Egypt organizeed compared to Mesopotamia. fit in to our text book Egypts natural isolation and material self-sufficiency fostered a unique culture that for languish periods of time had relatively little to do with other civilizations. In contrast, Mesopotamia was open to migration or invasion and was dependent on trade resources. Also some(prenominal) different heathenish pots contributed to the growth of Mesopotamian society. The religious beliefs of Egypt and Mesopotamia were bowd by many factors. The rivers, every day objects, and the beliefs of the people. In Egypt in contrast to Mesopotamia the Pharaoh was considered to be a divinity fudge in addition to being the compulsory ruler.He was the main god of their devotion. In Egypt people praised their gods for the annual flooding of the Nile. except in Mesopotamia the people were frightened of their gods because the gods could commute the landscape arbitrarily. In return they gave their gods gifts in hopes of appeasing them. In both of the civilizations religion was polytheistic, i. e. , having many gods. The political organization of Egypt was base on the central authority of the Pharaoh. Since he was the embodied form of a god, he was the fairness. He chose where the capitol would be located, such a Thebes, Memphis, etc.Although piddlinger cities existed in ancient Egypt the majority of Egyptians appeared to live in small farming villages. In contrast, Mesopotamia was built slightly a number of independent urban center states surrounded by farming villages. umteen of these cities competed with each other or eventide warred with each other to become a dominant center of power. No reproducible basis for law or arbitrator existed in this decentralized environment until Hammurabi succeeded in becoming the first king of Babylon and open the Babylonian Empire with control over all of Mesopotamia.He created a law code of which may copies were made. These inscribed tablets were sent to the different clans of Mesopotamia and became a basis for a uniform legal system, including categorizeification of the people living under his dominion The commercial activities in Mesopotamia were quite extensive as a result of the requirement to develop trading relationshi ps between the different city states and other regions to obtain needed resources.This resulted in the phylogenesis of a merchant class in the urban centers unlike the billet in Egypt. Trade was based on bartering rather than money. Goods traded included wood, metals, and stone in exchange for wool, cloth, barley, and vegetable oil. These practices required the development of the skills needed for acquiring, transporting, and protecting valuable commodities. According to our textbook, independent merchants and merchant guilds had gained considerable influence in Mesopotamian society by the cooperate 2000 BC.