Mesopotamia and Egypt Civilizations

Mesopotamia was surrounded by most of the world’s ancient highly developed and social complex states. Mesopotamia was considered one of the four riverine civilizations because at that time writing began or was invented and also, that’s when the Nile Valley in Egypt developed. Egypt was a second civilization that grew up in northeastern Africa, along the Nile River. The Egyptian civilization began its formation by 3000 B.C., which was mainly benefited by the Mesopotamia technological influence and trade, but differ from their culture and society.

The Egyptian civilization began to develop near to the Nile River. The Nile River provided the population food and water because of its location in a fertile area in the middle of the desert. Farming began developing along the Nile River around 5000 B.C. Egyptian civilization consolidated about around 3150 B.C. with political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, Narmer. Ancient Egyptians had a king but referred to him as a Pharaoh which was the most powerful person of Egypt. The pharaoh possessed the power of a god so he was considered the political and religious leader of the Egyptian people. The Pharaoh had two roles which were titled: “Lord of the Two Lands (Ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt)” & “High Priest of Every Temple (Gods on Earth)”. He was provided with own of land, collection of taxes, defense of Egypt, and also, creation of laws. As a God, he did rituals and built temples to honor gods. The huge pyramids built by the workers in Egypt where used as tombs to buried the kings (Pharaohs) with their possessions after death.

The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers were a mainly and important occasion of the Mesopotamian civilization because it was the cause of its development. Mesopotamian civilization is mostly better explanatory by dividing it into different periods or ages. The Stone Age which started around 10,000 BCE was a period of warfare between the tribes in the place and crude settlements. Pottery Neolithic Age which began around 7000 BCE was a period that the use of tools was spread and a new culture began to emerge in Fertile Crescent. Copper Age that lasted from 5900 through 3200 BCE was a period that the weapons and tools made of stone did a conversion to copper. Also, in the region of Sumer, the cities began to rise.

Early Bronze Age began from 3000 to 2119 BCE, which was a period that supplanted tools and weapons made of copper for bronze. Also, an increase of city-states caused the rise of Akkadian Empire at 2350 BCE because of political stability. Middle Bronze Age lasted from 2119 through 1700 BCE and was a period of Assyrian Kingdom expansion and the development of Babylonian Dynasty which Hammurabi was its king and created the famous “Code of Hammurabi”. Iron Age, 1000 through 500 BCE, period of rise Neo-Assyrian Empire and famous constructions of Sumerians called ziggurats. Classical Antiquity, the last period that lasted 500 BCE through 7th c. CE which was when Mesopotamia became part of the Persian Empire and had a strong cultural decline.

In conclusion, Mesopotamia and Egypt were two great ancient civilizations at the North Africa and Middle East. However, there were many differences and similarities among them such as economic, society, cultures and politics. The comparisons among the civilizations suggests and states that Egypt was a more stable civilization and Mesopotamia had a lot of movement going on. The difference of deep history was that Egypt was far from being full of disruption than Mesopotamia. Egypt and Mesopotamia had both emphasized social stratification with a noble, landowning class on top and mass of peasants and slaves at the bottom. The durability of both civilizations was greater than the civilizations that came after and also, they both left a big heritage in each of their region that marked their period of existence.