History #1

Ancient River Valley Civilizations

Prompt: Write a compare and contrast essay on two of the ancient river valley
civilizations
Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were some of the most advanced civilizations of
their time. This was due to their location in the Fertile Crescent, an area spanning from
Western Asia to Northern Africa. Both had rivers near to supply them with water and
nutrient rich soil. Because each civilization developed in this area, they had many
similarities in culture and technology. In spite of the geographical proximity, they
developed their political structure differently because of how each culture's religion
related to how the civilizations were run.
Both Egypt and Mesopotamia developed irrigation systems to help when the river
overflowed. These irrigation systems helped manage the rushing water and keep it from
destroying the farmland, and in addition, to strategically distribute the water evenly to the
crops. The same type of engineering innovation can be found in the architecture of the
pyramids and ziggurats. The pyramids and ziggurats were both giant structures that were
constructed from stone. Each had a triangular shape, but the sides of the pyramids were
smoother, while the ziggurats were more like gigantic stairs. In addition to architecture
they both had handcrafted tools that were used for a variety of tasks. These similarities
suggest that there may have been some cultural diffusion.
While each of these civilizations had a different writing system, they both were
advanced in written language and number systems. The Mesopotamians had their own
writing system called cuneiform, which consisted of wedge shaped letters pressed into a
clay tablet by a dull reed stylus. We can read cuneiform because on the Rosetta Stone a
letter was written in ancient Greek, cuneiform, and the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Hieroglyphics is a writing system that uses symbols as characters. Along with writing
systems, they each created a numbering system. The Mesopotamian number system used
60 as its base. This system was the stem of our modern day system for measuring time.
The Egyptian version of numbers was a power of ten system with a hieroglyph for 10,
100, 100, etc.
It is in the areas of politics and religion that we see very distinct differences
between the Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Mesopotamian civilizations. In Mesopotamia
there was a city-state with the main city of Sumer having influence over the surrounding
cities that had been conquered. In Sumer, at the beginning, priests were in control
because the people though that they had to give the power to the priests to stay in the
favor of the gods. But, as wars with surrounding areas became more frequent, the people
and priests alike elected a strong fighter to lead the war. This led to the permanent rule of
the warlord, which resulted in a dynasty. In contrast, in Egypt they had one ruler, a
Pharaoh who was actually considered to be a god. One who made the sun rise, and made
the rivers flow. With the power bestowed to a Pharaoh, this made Egypt a theocracy.
Each of these civilizations, arising in the Fertile Crescent, was very advanced for
its time. Because of the aid the rivers provided, these civilizations flourished and
expanded their boundaries. They were very similar when it came to technology, including
engineering and architecture (probably because of cultural diffusion). They also had the

earliest systems for written language and numbers. Although they were very similar in
these advances, they differed when it came to politics. In Egypt, religion prevailed where
the god-like Pharaoh ruled, whereas military conquests led Mesopotamia to become an
empire ruled by a monarch.