Transcript A Comparison:

A Comparison:
Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt
Geography of Mesopotamia
Open Farm Land…
Invitation to Invasion
Geography of Egypt
Surrounded by uninhabitable
desert on both sides:
•
Low Desert:
– could not be farmed- too
dry. Hunting: antelope,
hare, lions. Cemeteries
here.
•
High Desert:
– barren area crossed only by
trade caravans & organized
groups in search of stone
and minerals such as
calcite, gold, copper,
amethyst, carnelian, diorite
for black obelisks.
•
Some oases:
– cultivated to grow grapes,
dates.
– Also housed exiled
prisoners.
Ancient
Egypt
River to Desert….in a few steps!
Historiography : Comparison
Egypt - Stability
• Isolated from Invasion – Desert
surrounds & protects
Mesopotamia – Unpredictability
• Open to Frequent Invasions
from mountains, arid region
• Excellent Alluvial Soil w/
predictable flooding, rare
droughts
• Excellent Alluvial Soil w/
• Civilization remained centered
on Nile
• Civilization spread all over
region
• Nile promoted unity of culture
• City State structure did not
encourage unity; later
progression of empires 
shared culture mix
UNPREDICTABLE,
sometime horrific flooding or
drought
Comparison: Government
Egypt:
Mesopotamia:
• Menes/Narmer  unified government• Series of Invaders, Kings & Empires:
of Nile under an Egyptian state for
– Sumerians
3,000 years
– Akkadians - Sargon of Akkad,
– Old Kingdom
– Babylonians - Hammurabi, 17921750 bce
– Middle Kingdom
– Assyrians
– New Kingdom –
– Neo-Babylonians –
• Ramses II 1278-1237 bce
Nebuchadnezzar, 605-562 bce
• Akhenaton -1379-1381 bce
• Tutenkhamen 1361-1352 bce• Melting pot of peoples  Assimilation of
each wave into Mesopotamian culture
• height- 1400 bce
• Hatsepsut – 1482 bce
Political Systems
Pharaoh
• Divine or semi-divine
• Owned the land
• Absolute ruler
King
• Not divine
• Did not own the land,
but charged tax
• Absolute ruler
No Merchant Class –
trade missions sent
by Pharaoh
Merchant Class –
traveled, traded,
spread culture for
own profit
Monumental Architecture
Walled cities / city states only in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamian
Art
Egyptian Art
Egyptian Art
Egyptian & Mesopotamian Religions
• Priestly class:
– rituals,
– celebrations & worship,
– Mummification & other
funerary careers
– Supported Pharaoh
• Polytheism:
– pantheon of gods, w/ godly &
human-like qualities –
– ordered & organized,
– punished at end of life if heart
weighed too heavy
• Priestly class:
– in charge of rituals,
– worship,
– helped people deal with
frequent crises of life
• House of Clay or House of
Song
• Ziggurats – temples
(sometimes priests lived there)
– Collected Taxes, Rents &
Offerings
– Supported Kings
• 3,000 gods – Polytheism,
Animism– took offense easily,
– punished often
Technology
• Irrigation – peasants, slaves
• Astronomy, math, geometry,
calendar
• Mummification
• Irrigation – peasants, slaves
• Astrology, math, geometry,
calendar
• Wheel, fertilizer, glass, potter’s
wheel, sail boats…
Writing
• Hieroglyphs – word & • Cuneiform – stylus in
clay tablet
letter pictures on
walls, papyrus
• Career as scribe –
formal schools.
Career with
government, priests,
upon graduation.
• Career as scribe – first
formal schools.
Career with
government, priests,
merchants upon
graduation.
What was the Role of Women
in Ancient Societies?
What do we know?
How do we know it?
What difference
does it make?
Mesopotamian Women
• Women’s role was to keep the home, bear & care for children,
serve husband / father.
• Few legal rights under the law as far as we know outside the
relationship with husbands / fathers.
– Contract law: marriage, divorce, inheritance…
• Females did not receive formal education as far as we know,
except some upper class women learned to read and write.
Egyptian Women
• First female ruler in history:
Hatshepsut – ruled 22 yrs.
during New Kingdom.
– Greatly expanded trade
• More rights than
Mesopotamian women
– Buy & sell property
– Inherit
– Choose to whom to will
property
– Right to dissolve marriages
– Still subservient to men;
valued most when bore
children
– Young girls not as educated
as boys
Social Structure:
Pyramidal, of course!
•
•
•
•
Pharaoh - Divine
Priests- funerals, rituals
Nobles
Skilled artisans, incl. Physicians,
Architects
•
Peasants –
–
–
•
worked land & generated most of the
kingdom’s wealth
Give over half of produce to Kingdom,
as Pharaoh owned the land
Slaves at bottom, but fewer than
peasants–
–
–
POW & descendents
Life not much worse than peasants’
Building & irrigation projects;
sometimes appointed to trusted
positions in government or in palaces
•
•
King
Priests
–
–
–
•
•
Advised people on ritual
Performed rituals, ceremonies
Collected taxes, rents, owned most of
the land
Nobles
Merchants
–
Worked for themselves; kept profit
•
Artisans
•
Peasants
–
•
Farmers mostly – paid percent to
government & priests
Slaves
–
–
–
One could sell oneself or family
members into slavery to work off debts
POW
Criminals
Decline
EGYPT
• Assyrian & Persian
Empires conquered parts.
• Greeks occupied later
• Romans absorbed Egypt
into their Empire, though
Egypt kept its flavor &
much of its culture
Mesopotamia
• Series of constant
invasions until Persians
conquered…
• Usually, Conquerors
adopted & adapted
customs & culture of
Mesopotamia
Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelly,
1818
I met a traveller from an antique land Who said:
"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert.
Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies,
whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold
command
Tell that its sculptor well those
passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these
lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the
heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words
appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King
of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and
despair!'
Nothing beside remains.
Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless
and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch
far away.
Rule of Thumb:
Decline of Civilizations
• Civilization becomes powerful & prosperous
 attracts attention & envy of neighbors 
Conquest.
• Wealthy civilization so big & complex, it can’t
adequately protect all its borders, so over
time it begins to weaken.
• True of Empires that arose in Mesopotamia,
ancient Egypt, …Greece, Rome…
Continuing the
Comparisons…Early
Civilization…
Let’s talk about the
Indus Valley
Civilization and
China.
 Neo Babylonian “Ishtar Gate, “ the eighth gate
to the city of Babylon, 575 BCE, now in
Pergamon Museum, Berlin