A Compare and Contrast Study of Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt
The ancient civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia is where world history begins. This paper will explore how they lived their similarities and differences and the influences that other groups had on them.
Ancient Mesopotamia It is generally accepted that civilization started in the area of the world that is now Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Ancient Mesopotamian society started as people began to turn to agriculture and fixed settlements. The Fertile Crescent, as the area is known, produced such as abundance of food, and that enabled people to “specialize” in occupations – farmers farmed and craftspeople and other performed their specialized skills. Farmers were able to supply craftspeople with food surpluses forming the beginnings of trade (Hunt, Martin, Rosenwein & Smith, pg. 7, 2016). The population of this area varied by city, and developed social classes based on social standings. At the top was the King and nobility, then the Priests and Priestesses, then the upper and lower class, followed lastly by the slaves (Mark, 2014). One could end up enslaved by capture during war, born to slaves, being sold off by family, or selling yourself to avoid debt or starvation. The Hierarchy system became so important to the people of
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This was important as the law was believed to be the will of god, but each tribe and city may have a different god that they were trying to please. Hammurabi’s code was very detailed in the punishments for crimes. His code was one of retribution – an eye for an eye type of justice (Mark, 2018). Hammurabi also included rights for women – they could make contracts, divorce their husbands and provided protections that mandated husbands returned their wife’s property after a divorce (Hunt, et. al. pg. 14,