Ancient Civilization Research Paper

Amazing Ancient Civilizations Whenever one thinks about amazing ancient civilizations, Egypt and Mesopotamia may come to mind. Both blossomed into successful realms that exchanged revolutionary ideas. These cultures were important because of the enormous amount of power and influence they had on future technology, due to the advanced inventions they had developed; however, while they maintained similar governments and religions, they were also very distinct in these areas as well. In terms of government, Egypt and Mesopotamia both employed theocracies, meaning that they were ruled by a ruler considered both a human and a god. Although, the king was in a way, “above” his subjects, and could communicate with other gods as well, he was not immune …show more content…
Mesopotamia and Egypt worshiped myriads of powerful gods who served many purposes. In Egypt where nature generally seemed to be less catastrophic, gods such as Osiris, Ra, Horus, Anubis, and Isis were made to be gracious, principled, and benevolent. Whereas, Mesopotamian gods were inferred to be unpredictable, violent, and chaotic. For example, this view is reflected in “Epic of Gilgamesh” when the gods repeatedly try to kill King Gilgamesh. Even if gods were appeased, this did not guarantee you were protected from their wrath. Most likely, this frame of mind was caused from assumptions that natural disasters such as flooded rivers, were dealt from enraged deities. Regarding the afterlife, Mesopotamians didn’t have much to look forward to, as all that remained after death was a gloomy, unpleasant journey to the underworld, but the Egyptians’s destination was much more extravagant. During the Old Kingdom in Egypt, if Pharaoh could pass the “House of Judgement” he was free to enter paradise, but when the Middle Kingdom began, his subjects became free to also embark on this journey as well, if they were moral enough to pass the test. Because Mesopotamians lived life in fear of their gods and couldn’t attain much of an afterlife, this resulted in an overall anxiety over death. Thus, it is safe to say that both of these civilization’s varying …show more content…
For example, both cultures heavily relied on agriculture, as both were situated by extremely fertile ground that was nurtured by sediments brought by constant overflow of rivers. Most think that Egypt was the first to engineer new techniques of irrigation, however, Mesopotamia was the first to develop this vital method. Other technology included writing methods. Although, Mesopotamia began carving symbols called “cuneiform” into stone tablets, Egyptians discovered that they could make a far lighter, paper-like material to write on called papyrus. They also admired the concept of communicating with symbols and thus conjured up their own symbolic language called hieroglyphics. Despite these improvements, it was Mesopotamia who seemed to develop more written works, while Egypt tended to stick to making their mark on the world by designing incredible architecture. This art was also roused by Mesopotamians who constructed giant Pyre-like structures called Ziggurats, which later inspired Egyptian Pyramids, although Egyptians definitely held architecture more highly than Mesopotamians and saw it more as a demonstration of the Pharaoh’s power and wealth, rather than a functional edifice. Today, even we are influenced by the advancements in technology to both the Mesopotamians and Egyptians. In a lot of ways they were interdependent and influenced each other on how they lived