...Ancient Egypt vs. Mesopotamia The decision to write this Paper came about as soon as I read the subject. I am in love with Ancient Cultures. It is very interesting to me to study and learn new things about the style of life peoples of ancient times lead, the type of housing and furniture ancient peoples possessed, the foods and resources they had at hand, as well as the religious and other daily values which ancient peoples believed in. To compare the Ancient Egyptian civilization to the civilization of Ancient Mesopotamia is surely going to be a task which will not be easy, especially since it is my personal believe that both of these grandiose civilizations cannot be compared to one another. Comparing the Ancient Mesopotamian Civilization to the Civilization of Ancient Egypt is not really possible once you think about the difference of years between the beginnings of each of these Civilizations. Mesopotamia is considered to be at the least 5000 years older than Ancient Egypt. The earliest civilized form of Human development in Mesopotamia is known to Historians to have occurred between 10500-3500 BC (Mayan Archeology), whilst Historians believe the Ancient Egyptian Civilization to have started between the years of approx. 5500- 3100 BC, which is what is considered the Pre-dynastic Period. (Experience ancient) While Ancient Egypt started to develop Mesopotamia already made big progress in forms of Farming, building the first settlements...
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...Egypt Ancient Egypt is one of the first pristine states. Before Egypt there were many ancient civilizations that were considered secondary states and not pristine states. The secondary states only met some of the criteria needed, not all six. Egypt has been well documented in which it provided the ways of becoming a pristine state. The six criteria needed to become a pristine state were population pressure, intensification of agriculture, warfare, hereditary leader, storable grains, and impaction/circumscription. By becoming a pristine state in ancient times, it meant that Egypt would be a powerful civilization for many years. Egypt was one the first major pristine states in ancient times. Egypt was an ever growing population, which had population pressure from the need to support all of the people in the society. To be able to support the population, they needed to intensify the agricultural aspect of the society. Food is one of the basic needs for life to sustain itself, especially for all types of population. They used the Nile extensively for the water to help the production of crops. After they planted the crops there was a time of harvest in which they were able to gather food and store them for future use. They also had a hereditary leader because most, if not every Pharaoh had the throne passed from one generation to another. Warfare is also needed to expand the boundaries to help give more land to support a growing population. Egypt was also surrounded by deserts and...
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...Geyer Ancient World History Rough Draft 11/8/2014 In most civilizations in the ancient world, there were vast differences between the lives of men and women. For example, women could not serve in the Roman Senate, own property in ancient Greece, or ask for divorce. All of these rules existed while men had the ability to do all of these things. The life of a woman in the ancient world was in no way equal to men in most societies. The Egyptians believed that joy and happiness were of the utmost importance in life, and regarded the home and family as a major source of happiness. This meant that the Egyptian’s thought better of women who did not work, and took care of the home and family. All other ancient civilizations had one thing in common. Mesopotamia, Rome, Greece, and Israel were all surrounded by other sets of people. This meant that these other civilizations had to be warlike societies, and this meant women would have less of a role because men believed women could not fight as well in battle. Egypt developed under unique circumstances. The Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea separated the Egyptians from everyone else in the ancient world. In other words, the Egyptians did not have a warlike society because training like that was unnecessary. Since there was no need for a warlike society in Egypt, women had a more established role in society. Women’s rights in Egypt were more equal to men than other civilizations because of the unique circumstances under which Egypt developed...
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...usually include a system of values as well as various practices. Egyptian religion included their ancient gods, the mythology of the gods, and other parts of their religion. For example their religion explained and included creation, death and the afterlife, and the cults that worshiped the gods. In Egypt, the king or pharaoh played a very important part in their religion and what the gods expected of the people also. Egyptian religion consisted of many myths and rituals too. Religion was a very influential part of Ancient Egyptian culture and shaped their ancient civilization of the Nile greatly. Like most other cultures, the ancient Egyptians wanted to find the meaning for their existence, but there were also other influences on their religion, such as the need to justify kingship, along with many others. Egyptians have numerous Gods in there culture and they feel that the Gods walk among them, invisibly on Earth. Ra is the most central God of the Egyptian gods. Known as the sun god, Ra was the most important element of life in ancient Egypt and represented light, warmth, and growth. Ra embodies the Egyptian beliefs of order and truth, and he signifies the cycle of birth, life and death. Of all the ancient Egyptian Gods Anubis is frequently the one referred to as the gatekeeper of the underworld and god of death. The Egyptian goddess Isis was worshiped throughout Egypt. Isis was considered to the patron saint of women, mothers and children. Horus was always associated...
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...EGYPTIAN CULTURE LOCATION Today more than sixty-one million people live in Egypt. Egypt is located in northeastern Africa. On the north it borders the Mediterranean Sea, on the east the Red Sea and the State of Israel in the Sinai desert. Most of the population is concentrated in the Nile Valley, which is only a very small part (six percent) of Egyptian territory. Almost all the rest of the country is desert. HISTORY Archaeological evidence shows us that hunters lived in Egypt more than 250,000 years ago when the region was a green grassland. Around 25,000 BC, climate changes turned Egypt into a desert. The people survived by hunting and fishing and through agriculture. In 3100 BC, King Menes joined the two parts of the land into one kingdom. The Dynasty that he founded, together with the one after it, are now called the "Archaic Period". Egypt soon evolved into a centralized and well organized kingdom. Egypt gained a growing influence in the ancient world and its power came to dominate the Near East for more than 500 years. The construction of the great pyramids of the 4th dynasty (about 2575 - 2465 BC) took place during this time. The new kingdom expanded rapidly and the country was quite stable internally. Ancient Egypt and its culture had a tremendous impact on what is now the Western World. After the death of Tutankhamon the fourth, the Dynasty and the power of the king weakened. A period of decline followed and Egypt was invaded by the Assyrians and the Persians, and opened...
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...How Geography Effected Ancient Cultures Mesopotamia and Egypt in the ancient world were in modern day Iraq, and Egypt is still there today. Culture in theses societies, was loosely based on their natural surroundings. While geography in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt differed in stability and protection, they were similar in farming opportunities, with comparable sources of water giving them both the chance to excel in agriculture. The river flooding in Mesopotamia and Egypt differed in predictability; while rivers in Mesopotamia were sporadic in flood patterns, the Nile in Egypt was very predictable in its flooding. This caused the two civilizations to have opposing ideas of the power of their gods. In ancient Mesopotamia, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were incredibly unpredictable, and when they flooded they caused frenzies in surrounding areas. This unpredictability was reflected in their religion, as they felt the flooding of the rivers was a punishment for something they did. In thinking they could never please the gods, the people of Mesopotamia believed one only had the underworld to look forward to after death. They viewed nature as something out to get them. This belief led to more selfishness in people, and as a result, people were generally less trusting. However, in Egypt, the Nile River and its yearly predictable flooding led to the creation of calendars to plan agriculture around flooding; therefore, the flooding would help, not hurt them. The predictability...
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...first hunter-gatherers settle in the Maya highlands and lowlands. 3114 or 3113 B.C. The creation of the world takes place, according to the Maya Long Count calendar. 2600 B.C. Maya civilization begins. Olmec figurine 2000 B.C. The rise of the Olmec civilization, from which many aspects of Maya culture are derived. Village farming becomes established throughout Maya regions. 700 B.C. Writing is developed in Mesoamerica. 400 B.C. The earliest known solar calendars carved in stone are in use among the Maya, although the solar calendar may have been known and used by the Maya before this date. Mayan Calendar 300 B.C. The Maya adopt the idea of a hierarchical society ruled by nobles and kings. 100 B.C. The city of Teotihuacan is founded and for centuries is the cultural, religious and trading center of Mesoamerica. 50 B.C. The Maya city of Cerros is built, with a complex of temples and ball courts. It is abandoned (for reasons unknown) a hundred years later and its people return to fishing and farming. Teotihuacan 100 A.D. The decline of the Olmecs. 400 The Maya highlands fall under the domination of Teotihuacan, and the disintegration of Maya culture and language begins in some parts of the highlands. 500 The Maya city of Tikal becomes the first great Maya city, as citizens from Teotihuacan make their way to Tikal, introducing new ideas involving weaponry, captives, ritual practices and human sacrifice. Palenque 600 An unknown event destroys...
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...common characteristics between the periods of ancient civilizations, Paleolithic, and Neolithic to Egyptian civilization. What we are looking for are changes in these cultures, if any, how and why did the change occur and what may have triggered them. As a civilization progresses and evolves they bring with them common characteristics from their predecessors. Some of these characteristics are government, economy, food and supplies, social equality, and religion. The Paleolithic were among the first to inhabit the regions of Western Europe stretching to Egypt. They were also the first to adapt to the land, hunt and gathered, and also experimented with art, textures, and colors. The Paleolithic didn’t have a form of government more of a tribe family which were ruled by the male and differed from city to city. They also didn’t have an economic system or a way to trade goods. However they were among the many to learn how to evolve their weapons into more effective ways to hunt. The Neolithic civilization carried these same common characteristics, but evolved it and organized it a lot better. There form of government was evolved into a chief and council system. Hunting and gathering was also in existence but were evolved to farming and creating surpluses. Art was also apparent more so in sculptures, textures, and more discovered materials. Also a barter system was established where one could trade their precious items with another. Egypt most commonly shared these characteristics...
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...When examining the ancient cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia, it is vital to observe the distinct similarities between their religious beliefs. Considering the geographic closeness of the two ancient civilizations, Mesopotamia occupying mainly modern day Iraq, centered around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and Egypt which is still located in the region recognized as modern Egypt, centralized around the Nile River, and the overlapping time frame both of these societies occupied, it is not unexpected that Mesopotamia and Egypt would possess similar ideologies. Despite the fact that the political structure of these civilizations differed between Mesopotamia’s unstable collection of city-states and Egypt’s unified monarchy, both societies were comprised a polytheistic philosophy where the Gods reflected a larger, universal system. Furthermore, both ancient civilizations relied on the flooding of their adjacent rivers for survival and these floods manifested within their religious ideologies. Although, the annual flooding of the Nile gave the Egyptians a sense of comfort and satiability surrounding death and was the direct rational of the Egyptians belief that rebirth followed death, the inconsistent flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates left the Mesopotamian people uncertain of the continuity of lives, evident in their harsh God’s and lack of interpretation of what the after-life consists of. Nevertheless, the similarities between the two culture’s religious beliefs are far too comparable...
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...Material culture often plays an important role in providing archaeologists and historians with a better understanding of the peoples and cultures associated with them. These artefacts date back to many thousands years ago however; some of the earliest artefacts can be found in Egypt. Egypt is located in the northeast corner of Africa, spanning to the southwest corner of Asia, while the Nile runs north throughout the entire country. Before the Old Kingdom, Egypt was divided in to Upper and Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt in the South and Lower Egypt in the North. The reason for this is the direction in which the Nile ran, towards the North. The roots of Egyptian civilization date back to over 6000 years ago back to the earliest human settlements along...
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...Women in Ancient Egypt -Pilgrim couple The Met, 1982.60.291 ca. 1755–59, Italian (Naples) -Statue of Demedji and Hennutsen The Met, 51.37 ca. 2465–2438 B.C., Egypt, Memphite Region, el-Giza or Saqqara Learning about certain ancient cultures can be difficult when there is not a lot of documentation about daily events and actions, as these two aspects of life are the ones that tell us most about the needs and beliefs of a culture. Learning about the needs and beliefs of ancient Egyptian culture brings up these barriers. In order to get an idea of the events and actions that pertained to the needs and beliefs of ancient Egyptians, we can look at certain physical artifacts from the time. Art and everyday objects can explain a lot about the daily events and actions of ancient Egyptians. However, these objects cannot give a thorough explanation about aspects of the culture on their own. In order to make the most out of the interpretation of ancient artifacts, they must be compared to similar artifacts from a culture that is known by the individual conducting the comparison. Finding the similarities and differences between the objects’ appearance and usage can lead to conclusions about the culture as a whole. One aspect of Egyptian culture that can be learned about and analyzed through certain artifacts is the depiction of women, and how women were viewed by other members of ancient Egyptian society. The way women are depicted in art during the times of ancient Egypt, can help...
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...Egypt has one of the richest cultural and religious histories in the world. The level of advancement of the ancient Egyptian culture was higher than that of its neighbors. The Egyptian culture helped in the advancement of various aspects of humanity. The significance of the Egyptian culture in the modern day world makes it one of the most studied cultures in the world. Contemporary mathematics has its roots in the ancient Egyptian culture. Ancient Egyptians used various form to express their culture. Of all the forms used to express Ancient Egyptian culture, none is more significant than the Egyptian art. Ancient Egyptian art give insights into the ancient Egyptian culture. In ancient Egypt, sculpture had a significant religious and political importance. Art symbolized various seasons and religious practices. Sculpture continues to have a significant political and religious importance in the contemporary world, just as it did in the ancient Egyptian culture. The giant stone head of King Amenhotep III is one of the sculptures that symbolize ancient Egyptian culture. The giant stone head of King Amenhotep III is 2.5 meters high and is a portrait of the king with very youthful features. The head has double crowns, which represent the unification of the Upper and Lower Egypt. The upper crown of ancient Egyptian kings was white with the lower crown being red. In essence, the king was the symbol of the unification of the ‘two lands’ (Kuhrt 125). Egyptian art for kings was usually...
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...Compare and contrast essay: Ancient Egypt and Greece The ancient Egyptian and ancient Greek civilizations are two of the oldest known civilizations in our history. The Egyptian civilization, based in the eastern part of North Africa, is believed to have started around 3150 BC and continued till the end of the Pharaoh rule in 31 BC. The ancient Greek civilization is believed to have been in effect from 1100 BC till about 146 BC. Many similarities and differences existed between these two civilizations, as even though they co-existed during a certain timeframe (1150 BC to 146 BC), they were located in different geographical areas. Because of these differences in geography, both these civilizations were subjected to different kinds of exposure, which included contact with other civilization and cultural inheritance. In the political sphere, we find that the Egyptian civilization had stronger emphasis on central authority, while the Greeks had a more decentralized structure, where powers were distributed over the cities and the states as well. As far as art is concerned, we find that the Egyptians were more involved in creating great monumental and gaudy structures, while the Greeks were more involved in creating smaller, more literary pieces of art. One of the biggest reasons why these two civilizations had these differences is due to their geography. The Egyptians had easy access to large stones that they could bring in to their country and use them to erect such monumental...
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...Ancient Egypt Love Poems Ancient Egypt literature and poetry foundation and growth were religious basses and beliefs. In a short amount of time, poetry evolved to deal with people ordinary lives and had a great place among Ancient Egyptian civilization. They wrote religious hymns, plays, dramatic poetry, songs, and in particular love poetry. Ancient Egyptians started and utilized strong literature in order to efficiently communicate their feeling that it affected other cultures, yet these master pieces lack names and titles. These master pieces are originally written inside tomb walls, papyrus and limestone which celebrates the pleasures of food, music, dance, and love. Ancient Egypt Love Poems are significant in our literature because they are one of the first recordings of human literary works and sure enough the earliest example of love poetry. It took them a long time to create these magnificent pieces of literature in writing, but before that oral poetry was part of their tradition; composition of Hymns, stories, and prayers that were passed down from a generation to another orally. The reason was that only a few could read and write in a city and they were more likely royals and merchandisers. Egyptian invented hieroglyphic writing to help their trade system for recording their merchants; later on, they used this writing in tombs in order to compose biographies, narrative poems, and songs. Soon after, Egyptian came up with a new system of writing, hieratic script, which...
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...Geographically it is about three times the size of the United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. At its northeast corner is Egypt, which is connected to the Sinai Peninsula—and hence to the Asian continent by a very narrow strip of land. This is the only spot where Africa touches another continent; otherwise, it is surrounded by water. The Mediterranean Sea separates it from Europe in the north; the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden lie between it and the Arabian Peninsula to the east. Two vast bodies of water—the Indian Ocean on the eastern side, and the even larger Atlantic on the west—surround the remainder of Africa. A Why Africa is important One of the greatest civilizations of all time, Egypt, was in Africa. Perhaps the only ancient civilizations that can be compared with it are those of Greece and Rome, which were influenced by it. Egypt, of course, has had its own chapter in this series; and Carthage, in North Africa, is also covered elsewhere. The focus of this chapter is entirely on Africa south of the Sahara 283 Map of Africa. XNR Productions. The Gale Group. Desert—that is, sub-Saharan Africa—as well as on the desert itself. That desert would have an impact on African history right up to the modern day; so, too, would the African civilizations of ancient times. There was the kingdom of Kush, which developed its own form of writing and briefly ruled Egypt; the kingdom of Aksum, an important trading center; and the Bantu peoples, who developed ironworking and spread it...
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