The Yellow and Yangzi river valley people of China during Shang times were prosperous civilizations in their time. In addition, so were the Egyptians and Nubians on the Nile River. Both groups of peoples had their own traditions and ways of living, based on environment and where they migrated from. While these civilizations are quite different, they have more in common than some would realize. While they differ in religious views and political organization, the Chinese and Egyptians have similar agricultural practices and writing systems.
There are numerous similarities in the agricultural practices of the Nile, Yangzi, and Yellow river valley civilizations. For example, fertile and infertile soil due to the rivers’ flood plains. In China, the Yellow River picks up loess soil along its route, and deposits it when it floods. This brought abundant harvests to the people of the valley, even before metal tools were introduced. The flood plain of the Nile helped to create fertile soils in Egypt, which needed little preparation before planting. In contrast, great amounts of labor was put into irrigation systems in the Yangzi and Nubian areas, because the flood plain was less extensive in these regions. Another similarity between these civilizations is their writings. While not much writing from the Shang
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This was partially because of the rivers, which gave them agricultural surpluses, and allowed them to expand their societies. Their writing style is similar as well, using an ideographic system to convey their meaning. Despite these similarities, the civilizations differ in religious views and political organization. Their similarities may be attributed to migrations north out of Africa, as well as similar ways of dealing with flood plains. Differences are most likely due to the needs of the peoples in their environments, and what the societies needed most