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Power concedes nothing without a demand.
Name:
Date:
Ancient Egypt Vs. Mesopotamia
Mr. Carey/Mr. Clarke
Ancient Egypt
I. Overview
Directions: Actively read and annotate the provided article on Egypt. For homework, you only need to read and annotate
the aritlce. When you get to class, you will have a quiz on the reading to ensure thay you are doing the reading at a high
level.
Egypt Part 1
Besides Mesopotamia, a second civilization grew up in northeastern Africa, along the Nile
River. Egyptian civilization, formed by 3000 B.C., benefited from trade and technological influence from
Mesopotamia, but it produced a quite different society and culture. Because its values and its tightly
knit political organization encouraged monumental building, we know more about Egypt than about
Mesopotamia, even though the latter was in most respects more important and richer in subsequent
heritage. (1)
Unlike Mesopotamia and the Middle East, where an original river-valley basis to civilization
ultimately gave way to the spread of civilization throughout an entire region, Egyptian civilization from
its origins to its decline was focused on the Nile River and the deserts around it. The Nile focus also gave
a more optimistic cast to Egyptian culture, for it could be seen as a source of never- failing bounty to be
thankfully received, rather than a menacing cause of floods. Egyptian civilization may at the outset have
received some inspiration from Sumer, but a distinctive pattern soon developed in both religion and
politics. (2)
Farming had been developed along the Nile by about 5000 B.C., but some time before 3200 B.C.
economic development accelerated, in part because of growing trade wi,h other regions including
Mesopotamia. This economic acceleration provided the basis for the formation of regional kingdoms.
Unlike Sumer, Egypt moved fairly directly from precivilization to large government units, without
passing through a city-state phase, though the first pharaoh, Narmer, had to conquer a number of petty
local kings around 3100 B.C. Indeed Egypt always had fewer problems with political unity than
Mesopotamia did, in part because of the unifying influence of the course of the Nile River. By the same
token, however, Egyptian politics tended to be more authoritarian as well as centralized, for city-states
in the Mesopotamian style, though often ruled by kings, also provided the opportunity for councils and
other participatory institutions. (3)
In all its phases, Egyptian civilization was characterized by the strength of the pharaoh. The pharaoh
was held to be descended from gods, with the power to assure prosperity and control the rituals that
assured the flow of the Nile and the fertility derived from irrigation. Soon, the pharaoh was regarded as
a god. Much Egyptian art was devoted to demonstrating the power and sanctity of the king. From the
king's authority also flowed an extensive bureaucracy, recruited from the landed nobles but specially
trained in writing and law. Governors were appointed for key regions and were responsible for
supervising irrigation and arranging for the great public works that became a hallmark of Egyptian
culture. Most Egyptians were peasant farmers, closely regulated and heavily taxed. Labor requisition by
the states allowed construction of the great pyramids and other huge public buildings. These
monuments were triumphs of human coordination, for the Egyptians were not particularly advanced
technologically. They even lacked pulleys or other devices to hoist the huge slabs of stone that formed
the pyramids. (4)
Given the importance of royal rule and the belief that pharaohs were gods, it is not surprising that
each of the main periods of Egyptian history was marked by some striking kings. Early in each dynastic
period leading pharaohs conquered new territories, sometimes pressing up the Nile River into presentday Sudan, once even moving up the Mediterranean coast of the Middle East. One pharaoh, Akhenaton,
late in Egyptian history, tried to use his power to install a new, one-god religion, replacing the Egyptian
pantheon. Many pharaohs commemorated their greatness by building huge pyramids to house
themselves and their retinues after death, commanding work crews of up to 100,000 men to haul and lift
Power concedes nothing without a demand.
the stone. The first great pyramid was built around 2600 B.C.; the largest pyramid followed about a
century later, taking 20 years to complete and containing 2 million blocks of stone, each weighing 5 1/2
tons. (5)
Some scholars have seen even larger links between Egypt's stable, centralized politics and its
fascination with an orderly death, including massive funeral monuments and preservation through
mummification. Death rituals suggested a concern with extending organization to the afterlife, based on
a belief that, through politics, death as well as life could be carefully controlled. A similar connection
between strong political structures and careful funeral arrangements developed in Chinese civilization,
though with quite different specific religious beliefs. (6)
Despite some initial inspiration, Egyptian culture separated itself from Mesopotamia in a number of
ways beyond politics and monument building. The Egyptians did not take to the Sumerian cuneiform
alphabet and developed a hieroglyphic alphabet instead. Hieroglyphics, though more pictorial than
Sumerian cuneiform, were based on simplified pictures of objects abstracted to represent concepts or
sounds. As in Mesopotamia the writing system was complex, and its use was, for the most part,
monopolized by the powerful priestly caste. Egyptians ultimately developed a new material to write on,
papyrus, which was cheaper to manufacture and use than clay tablets or animal skins and allowed the
proliferation of elaborate record keeping. On the other hand, Egypt did not generate an epic literary
tradition. (7)
Egyptian science focused on mathematics and astronomy, but its achievements were far less
advanced than those of Mesopotamia. The Egyptians were, however, the first people to establish the
length of the solar year, which they divided into 12 months each with three weeks of ten days. The week
was the only division of time not based on any natural cycles. The achievement of this calendar suggests
Egyptian concern about predicting the flooding of
the Nile and their abilities in astronomical observation. The Egyptians also made important advances in
medicine, including knowledge of the workings of a variety of medicinal drugs and some contraceptive
devices. Elements of Egyptian medical knowledge were gained by the Greeks, and so passed into later
Middle Eastern and European civilizations.(8)
The pillar of Egyptian culture was not science, however, but religion, which was firmly established as
the basis of a whole world view. The religion promoted the worship of many gods. It mixed magical
ceremonies and beliefs with worship, in a fashion common to early religions almost everywhere. A more
distinctive focus involved the concern with death and preparation for life in another world, where in
contrast to the Mesopotamians the Egyptians held that a happy, changeless well-being could be
achieved. The care shown in preparing tombs and mummifying bodies, along with elaborate funeral
rituals particularly for the rulers and bureaucrats, was designed to assure a satisfactory afterlife, though
Egyptians also believed that favorable judgment by a key god, Osiris, was essential as well. (9)
Egypt Part 2
Stability was a hallmark of Egyptian culture. Given the duration of Egyptian civilization, there were
surprisingly few basic changes in styles and beliefs. Egyptian emphasis on stability was reflected in their
view of a changeless afterlife, suggesting a conscious attempt to argue that persistence was a virtue.
Change did, however, occur in some key areas. Egypt was long fairly isolated, which helped preserve
continuity. The invasions of Egypt by Palestine toward the end of the Old Kingdom period (about 2200
B.C.) were distinct exceptions to Egypt's usual self-containment. They were followed by attacks from the
Middle East by tribes of Asian origin, which brought a period of division and chaos, including rival royal
dynasties. But the unified monarchy was reestablished during the Middle Kingdom period, during
which Egyptian settlements spread southward into what is now the Sudan, setting origins for the later
African kingdom of Kush. (10)
The development of two great early civilizations in the Middle East and North Africa encourages a
first effort at comparative analysis. Because of different geography, different degrees of exposure to
outside invasion and influence, and different prior beliefs, Egypt and Mesopotamia were in contrast to
one another in many ways. Egypt emphasized strong central authority, while Mesopotamian politics
Power concedes nothing without a demand.
shifted more frequently over a substructure of regional city-states. Mesopotamian art focused on less
monumental structures, while
embracing a pronounced literary element that Egyptian art lacked. (11)
These cultural differences can be explained partly by geography: Mesopotamians lacked access to the
great stones that Egyptians could import for their monuments. The differences also owed something to
different politics, for Egyptian ability to organize masses of laborers followed from its centralized
government structures and strong bureaucracy. The differences
owed something, finally, to different beliefs, for the Mesopotamians lacked the Egyptian concern for
preparations for the afterlife, which so motivated the great tombs and pyramids that have made Egypt
and some of the pharaohs live on in human memory. (12)
Both societies traded extensively, but there was a difference in economic tone. Mesopotamia was
more productive of technological improvements, because their environment was more difficult to
manage than the Nile valley. Trade contacts were more extensive, and the Mesopotamians gave
attention to a merchant class and commercial law. (13)
Social differences were less obvious because it is difficult to obtain information on daily life for early
civilizations. It is probable, though, that the status of women was greater in Egypt than in Mesopotamia
(where women's position seems to have deteriorated after Sumer). Egyptians paid great respect to
women at least in the upper classes, in part because marriage alliances were vital to the preservation
and stability of the monarchy. Also,
Egyptian religion included more pronounced deference to goddesses as sources of creativity. (14)
Comparisons in politics, culture, economics, and society suggest civilizations that varied substantially
because of largely separate origins and environments. The distinction in overall tone was striking, with
Egypt being more stable and cheerful than Mesopotamia not only in beliefs about gods and the afterlife
but in the colorful and lively pictures the Egyptians
emphasized in their decorative art. Also striking was the distinction in internal history, with Egyptian
civilization far less marked by disruption than its Mesopotamian counterpart. (15)
Comparison must also note important similarities, some of them characteristic of early civilizations.
Both Egypt and Mesopotamia emphasized social stratification, with a noble, landowning class on top
and masses of peasants and slaves at the bottom. A powerful priestly group also figured in the elite.
While specific achievements in science differed, there was a common emphasis on astronomy and
related mathematics, which produced durable findings about units of time and measurement. Both
Mesopotamia and Egypt changed only
slowly by the standards of more modern societies. Details of change have not been preserved, but it is
true that having developed successful political and economic systems there was a strong tendency
toward conservation. Change, when it came, was usually brought by outside forces - natural disasters or
invasions. Both civilizations demonstrated extraordinary durability in the basics. Egyptian civilization
and a fundamental Mesopotamian culture lasted far longer than the civilizations that came later, in part
because of relative isolation within each respective region and because of the deliberate effort to
maintain what had been achieved, rather than experiment widely. (16)
Both civilizations, finally, left an important heritage in their region and adjacent territories. A
number of smaller civilization centers were launched under the impetus of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and
some would produce important innovations of their own by about 1000 B.C. (17)