A P W O R L D H I S T O RY

COMPARING MESOPOTAMIA AND EGYPT

EGYPT VS MESOPOTAMIA

• Both grew up in River Valleys and depended on their rivers to sustain a productive agriculture.• Egypt : Nile River• Mesopotamia: Tigris and Euphrates Rivers• Both shaped their societies and cultures.• Politically and culturally Mesopotamia and Egypt

differed sharply.

MESOPOTAMIA

• Outlook on life, developed within a precarious, un predictable and often violent environment, viewed humankind as caught in an inherently disorderly world, subject to the whims of caprocious gods, facing death without much hope of a blessed life. – Epic of Gilgamesh (deforestation of Mesopotamia)• In Sumer (south Mesopotamia) such deforestation

and the soil erosion that followed from it sharply decreased crop yields. Salinization of soil. • This weakened Sumerian states.

MESOPOTAMIA

• SUMER: located in the South Tigris Euphrates region organized in a dozen and independent city states. Each state ruled by a king. – making Sumer the most urbanized society of ancient times. • The reason was: frequent warfare among

Sumerian states caused people to flee to walled cities for protection. • North people of Mesopotamia, conquered south.

First the Akkadians then the Babylonians and the Assyrians. Creating larger territorial states and bureaucratic empires.

EGYPT

• Elite culture in Egypt, developing a more stable, predictable, and beneficent environment, produced rather more cheerful and hopeful outlook on the world.• Rebirth of the sun every day and of the river

every year seemed to assure Egyptians that life would prevail over death.• Pyramids, constructed during the old kingdom,

reflected the firm belief that at least the pharaohs and other high ranking people could successfully make the journey of abundance and tranquility.

EGYPT

• Egyptian agriculture depended on the flow of the Nile. – to emphasize their wheat production. • Low floods led to sharply reduced agriculture

output, large scale starvation, loss of livestock and social upheal and political disruption. • Egypt´s ability to work with its more favorable

natural environment enabled a degree of stability and continuity that proved impossible in Sumer (Mesopotamia).

EGYPT

• Egyptian civilization began in 3100 BC with the merge of several earlier states into a unified territory. For 3,000 years Egypt maintained that unity and independence though with occasional interruptions.

• Cities in Egypt were less important than in Mesopotamia, although political capitals, market centers and burial sites gave Egypt an urban presence.

• Egypt's grater security made it less necessary for people to gather in fortified towns.

• Pharaoh and his role as enduring symbol of Egyptian civilization persisted over 3 millennia.

• Trading extended to Africa, Nubia, Ethiopia, Somalia.

EGYPT

• Egyptian king´s divine origins and symbolic association with the forces of renewal made him central to the welfare of the entire country and gave him religious authority superseding the temples and priests.

• Egyptian monarchs lavished much of the country´s wealth on their tombs, believing that a proper burial would ensure the continuity of kingship and the attendant blessings that it brought to land and people.

• Gradual Nile floods were eagerly anticipated events in Egypt. The relationship with nature stamped the religious outlooks nervously tried to appease their harsh deities so as to survive in a dangerous world.

• Egyptians largely trusted in an nurtured the supernatural powers that, they believed guaranteed orderliness and prosperity.

• Egyptian society was less urban and less stratified.

EGYPT REVIEW

BIG PICTURE QUESTIONS:

• How did various First Civilizations differ from one another?• To what extend did civilizations represent

“progress” in comparison with earlier Paleolithic and Neolithic societies?• Explain Epic of Gilgamesh• Explain Law of Hammurabi Code• Explain the Book of the Dead

THE AFTERLIFE OF A PHARAOHPYRAMID TEXTS

EGYPTIAN THINKING ABOUT LIFE, DEATH AND AFTERLIFE. INSCRIBED ON THE WALLS OF A ROYAL TOMB AS SPELLS, INCANTATIONS OR PRAYERS TO ASSIST THE PHARAOH IN ENTERING THE REALM OF ETERNAL LIFE AMONG THE GODS.

BOOK OF DEAD DURING THE NEW KINGDOM, WAS A CP,ÌLED, OF NUMBER OF MAGICAL SPELLS DESIGNED TO ENSURE A SMOOTH PASSAGE TO ETERNAL LIFE. WRITTEN ON PAPYRUS. EX: NEGATIVE CONFESSION

BE A SCRIBE MIDDLE KINGDOM PERIOD. SCHOOL TEXT THAT STUDENTS TRAINING FOR ADMINISTRATIVE POSITION WOULD COPY IN AN EFFORT TO IMPROVE THEIR WRITING. IT ALSO CONVEYED THE EXALTED POSITION OF A SCRIBE

INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION• Most important cities: Mohenjo Daro and Harappa.• The cities: systematically on a grid pattern and clearly

planned, with latrines and sewage system, sorrounded with substantial walls made from mud bricks. (markets, gateways, craft workshops)

• Written language limited, many not yet deciphered. Scholars have been dependent on its physical remains for understanding this civilization.

• Seals for imprinting the image on a document or product. • Particular seals may well have represented• A specific clan or high official.• Unicorn seals have been the most numerous.• Bull: may symbolize leader of herd.• No grand temples or palaces, no burial sites.

MAN FRON MOHENJO DARO 2600 -1900 BC

THIS STATUE OF A SEATED MAN WEARING A CLOAK AND HEADBAND WAS CARVED FROM A SOFT STONE CALLED STEATITE. IT IS OFTEN CALLED “PRIEST KING” BECAUSE SOME SCHOLARS BELIEVE IT MAY REPRESENT SOMEONE WITH RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR AUTHORITY, BUT THE TRUE IDENTITY AND STATUS OF THIS PERSON ARE UNKNOWN.

MOHENJO DARO

HARAPPA

WOMEN – INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

• Limited archeological evidence suggests that some urban women played important social and religious role in Indus Valley Civilization. Figurines of women or goddesses are more common than those of men. Women appear to be buried with their mothers and grandmothers.

• Ex. The Dancing Girl . Bronze, - this figure provides evidence for the copper and bronze industry.

INDUS VALLEY REVIEW

CONCLUSION• Geographicly- the first civiizations emerged in river valleys (rainfall was

insufficient for agriculture). Civilizations (Egypt, Mesopotamia and Indus Valley channeled into construction: canals, dams, dikes). – this required political centers that could organize the necessary labor force.

• Egypt and Mesopotamia – kinship emerged as a political form. • In Egyptian kings divine origins and symbolic association with the forces

(religious authority). Egyptian monarchs lavished much of the countrys wealth on their tombs, (proper burial = continuity of kingship).

• Mesopotamia rulers: not regarded as divine but still dominated the religious institutions, built new cities, walls, palaces and lasting religious edifices.

• Violent floods of Tigris and Euphrates were alarm for people in Mesopotamia.

• Nile Floods (Egypt) were expected and eagerly anticipated. Nature and religion outlooks.

• Egyptians trusted and nurtured powers of nature they believed it guaranteed prosperity.

MESOPOTAMIA AND EGYPT CONCLUSIONS

• Gilgamesh, the hero of Mesopotamian epic, is tormented by terrifying visions of the afterlife: disembodied spirits of the dead stumbling around in the darkness of the Underworld for all eternity, eating dust and clay.

• Populations of Egypt and Mesopotamia were thnically heterogeneous, both experienced cultural continuity.

• Mesopotamia developed sharp social divisions that were reflected in the class.based penalites set in the Law Code of Hammurabi.

• Egyptian society is less urban less stratified. Poems and pictorial documents indicate respect and greater equiality for wowan.

• Mesopotamia women loss of freedom and legal priviledge may also been related to the higher degree of urbanization and class stratification.

3 CIVILIZATIONS:

• All three civilizations developed writing systems, irrigation, bronze casting, and techniques for producing monumental architecture. • Striking uniformoty in planning and construction

of cities and towns.

• Indus Valley: rapid collapse of this civiliation as a result of ecological changes.

CONTINUITIES IN CIVILIZATION • From a panoramic perspective there is “not much” of

differences from one civilization to the next. • Monarchs continued to rule, women still subordinate to men,

sharp divisions between elite and everyone else (& slaves)• No technological or economic breakthrough occurred to

create new kinds of human societies.

• CHANGES: • Population grew• Growing size of the states or empires.• The roman, Persian, Indian and Chinese empires of second

wave civilization as well as Arab, Mongol, and Incas. • Political system

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION VIDEO

• https://youtu.be/3EvTQhqXiEA