“Two ancient civilizations, Mesopotamia and Egypt, created complex societies with distinct social, political, and economic characteristics. One similarity is that both civilizations developed strong economies based on trade with other cultures. One difference is that the Mesopotamians traded with people across the Indian Ocean in South Asia, while the Egyptians traded with their neighbors to the south in Nubia. The historical evidence would indicate that the two civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt had some subtle differences, but were, for the most part, nearly
