Ancient Middle East and Egypt

Honors World History A Unit 3: Ancient Middle East and Egypt

Daniela Castillo

Thursday Sept 1 2016

Mesopotamians and Egyptians have many similarities. Both civilizations believed in gods and goddesses, they domesticated plants and animals, and they both created systems of writing (hieroglyphic writing in Egypt, cuneiform writing in Mesopotamia). Although the Middle East and Egypt had many similarities, they also had many differences in culture, religion, politics, and in social aspects. In this essay, I will compare Mesopotamia and Egypt using these 4 classifications.

Unlike Egypt, Mesopotamia was a multicultural civilization influenced by Akkad, Babylon and Sumer. Over time, the Mesopotamian culture was developed. In a Mesopotamian home the house was made of sandstone and mud bricks. Egypt was a more unified civilization. Like the Mesopotamians, Egyptians had lived in homes made of sandstone and mud bricks and had a home with their families. One thing that Egyptians believed that Mesopotamians didn’t was that the land was intimately tied to their personal salvation and they had a deep fear of dying beyond the borders of Egypt. Because of the tied relationship with their land, Egyptians didn’t really accept other cultures and they weren’t very good travelers of the world. In Egypt, being married was very important and usually happened after puberty.

Both Egypt and Mesopotamia are polytheistic which means they believe in many gods or goddesses. Although they have this in common doesn’t mean all of their rituals are the same. In Mesopotamia, people believed they needed to work for the gods in order to keep the recurring peace. In Egypt, they believed that the gods handled everything in their daily lives so they celebrating and gave thanks to the gods constantly. Rituals for death were very different as well. When a person would die in Mesopotamia, they would place the body in a ceramic container and seal it with a ceramic lid. Egypt was a bit more complicated, for they would mummify the body and conceal it in a tomb where it would be safe and accessible for the journey to the after-life.

The difference in Mesopotamia and Egypt socially was that in Egypt, gender roles didn’t exist. Men had no right to dictate how women acted and although they were the head of the house, the woman were the head of the home. In Mesopotamia, In the home, the man would go out to work in a specialized job, such as a builder, and the woman would stay and clean the house and raise the children. Children were raised differently according to gender. Boys would learn skills that they would use to work while girls learned skills that were necessary to be housewives and mothers to their own children. Mesopotamia and Egypt had social classes as well. These two classes varied because Egypt had Pharaohs and viziers at the top of the social class.