Compare And Contrast Mesopotamia And Shang Civilization

The Neolithic Revolution began around 6000 B.C.E to 8000 B.C.E. with the addition of agriculture and pastoralism civilizations began to form. These civilizations include Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley, and the Shang dynasty in China and later more. All of these societies took on the same change for hunting and gathering to stationary life. While Mesopotamia and Shang had many similarities a early civilizations there culture was very unique. Both Shang and Mesopotamia used art as a form of creative expression and to honor royals and god's. Art in China consist mostly detailed paintings and figurines of jade clay. These paintings depict scenes of nature and sometimes humans, there is immense realism in these works of art. You can infer that the Shang dynasty value detail over size and that these pieces were owned by royals and the wealthy who could afford it. In Mesopotamian art consist of large scale works of art, like massive reliefs carved into the wall of ziggurats. While these arts would take artistic ability they would also require lots of tough labar. Art was used to honor rulers and there connection to the gods. Art was predominantly …show more content…
The Shang dynasty was ruled by a king who was the top of the social pyramid next are his nobles or priests. The next highest class were the people owned land and the artisans then the laborers and slaves. The government was centrally located and directly connected to the gods. In Mesopotamia the kings ruled individual cities instead of the entire civilization. The class system was very similar to the Shang dynasty; priest, merchants and artisans, commoners or laborers, slaves. In Mesopotamia, religion and often fought for power. These two civilizations both favored artist or people who grew the food this says a lot about how much they value art. Mesopotamia and Shang had similar class systems in place although the highest power