AP World History, Mesopotamia and Egypt

1. A P W O R L D H I S T O RY
COMPARING MESOPOTAMIA
AND EGYPT

2. EGYPT VS MESOPOTAMIA
• Both grew up in River Valleys and depended on their
rivers to sustain a productive agriculture.
• Egypt : Nile River
• Mesopotamia: Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
• Both shaped their societies and cultures.
• Politically and culturally Mesopotamia and Egypt differed
sharply.

3. MESOPOTAMIA
• Outlook on life, developed within a precarious, un
predictable and often violent environment, viewed
humankind as caught in an inherently disorderly world,
subject to the whims of caprocious gods, facing death
without much hope of a blessed life. – Epic of Gilgamesh
(deforestation of Mesopotamia)
• In Sumer (south Mesopotamia) such deforestation and
the soil erosion that followed from it sharply decreased
crop yields. Salinization of soil.
• This weakened Sumerian states.

4. MESOPOTAMIA
• SUMER: located in the South Tigris Euphrates region
organized in a dozen and independent city states. Each
state ruled by a king. – making Sumer the most
urbanized society of ancient times.
• The reason was: frequent warfare among Sumerian
states caused people to flee to walled cities for
protection.
• North people of Mesopotamia, conquered south. First
the Akkadians then the Babylonians and the Assyrians.
Creating larger territorial states and bureaucratic
empires.

5. EGYPT
• Elite culture in Egypt, developing a more stable,
predictable, and beneficent environment, produced
rather more cheerful and hopeful outlook on the world.
• Rebirth of the sun every day and of the river every year
seemed to assure Egyptians that life would prevail over
death.
• Pyramids, constructed during the old kingdom, reflected
the firm belief that at least the pharaohs and other high
ranking people could successfully make the journey of
abundance and tranquility.

6. EGYPT
• Egyptian agriculture depended on the flow of the Nile. –
to emphasize their wheat production.
• Low floods led to sharply reduced agriculture output,
large scale starvation, loss of livestock and social upheal
and political disruption.
• Egypt´s ability to work with its more favorable natural
environment enabled a degree of stability and continuity
that proved impossible in Sumer (Mesopotamia).

7. EGYPT
• Egyptian civilization began in 3100 BC with the merge of
several earlier states into a unified territory. For 3,000 years
Egypt maintained that unity and independence though with
occasional interruptions.
• Cities in Egypt were less important than in Mesopotamia,
although political capitals, market centers and burial sites
gave Egypt an urban presence.
• Egypt's grater security made it less necessary for people to
gather in fortified towns.
• Pharaoh and his role as enduring symbol of Egyptian
civilization persisted over 3 millennia.
• Trading extended to Africa, Nubia, Ethiopia, Somalia.

8. EGYPT
• Egyptian king´s divine origins and symbolic association with
the forces of renewal made him central to the welfare of the
entire country and gave him religious authority superseding
the temples and priests.
• Egyptian monarchs lavished much of the country´s wealth on
their tombs, believing that a proper burial would ensure the
continuity of kingship and the attendant blessings that it
brought to land and people.
• Gradual Nile floods were eagerly anticipated events in Egypt.
The relationship with nature stamped the religious outlooks
nervously tried to appease their harsh deities so as to survive
in a dangerous world.
• Egyptians largely trusted in an nurtured the supernatural
powers that, they believed guaranteed orderliness and
prosperity.

9. • Egyptian society was less urban and less stratified.

10. EGYPT REVIEW

11. BIG PICTURE QUESTIONS:
• How did various First Civilizations differ from one
another?
• To what extend did civilizations represent “progress” in
comparison with earlier Paleolithic and Neolithic
societies?
• Explain Epic of Gilgamesh
• Explain Law of Hammurabi Code
• Explain the Book of the Dead

12. THE AFTERLIFE OF A PHARAOH
PYRAMID TEXTS EGYPTIAN THINKING ABOUT LIFE, DEATH AND
AFTERLIFE. INSCRIBED ON THE WALLS OF A ROYAL
TOMB AS SPELLS, INCANTATIONS OR PRAYERS TO
ASSIST THE PHARAOH IN ENTERING THE REALM OF
ETERNAL LIFE AMONG THE GODS.
BOOK OF DEAD DURING THE NEW KINGDOM, WAS A CP,ÌLED, OF
NUMBER OF MAGICAL SPELLS DESIGNED TO ENSURE
A SMOOTH PASSAGE TO ETERNAL LIFE. WRITTEN ON
PAPYRUS. EX: NEGATIVE CONFESSION
BE A SCRIBE MIDDLE KINGDOM PERIOD. SCHOOL TEXT THAT
STUDENTS TRAINING FOR ADMINISTRATIVE POSITION
WOULD COPY IN AN EFFORT TO IMPROVE THEIR
WRITING. IT ALSO CONVEYED THE EXALTED POSITION
OF A SCRIBE

13. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION
• Most important cities: Mohenjo Daro and Harappa.
• The cities: systematically on a grid pattern and clearly planned, with
latrines and sewage system, sorrounded with substantial walls
made from mud bricks. (markets, gateways, craft workshops)
• Written language limited, many not yet deciphered. Scholars have
been dependent on its physical remains for understanding this
civilization.
• Seals for imprinting the image on a document or product.
• Particular seals may well have represented
• A specific clan or high official.
• Unicorn seals have been the most numerous.
• Bull: may symbolize leader of herd.
• No grand temples or palaces, no burial sites.

14. MAN FRON MOHENJO DARO 2600 -1900 BC
THIS STATUE OF A SEATED
MAN WEARING A CLOAK AND
HEADBAND WAS CARVED
FROM A SOFT STONE
CALLED STEATITE. IT IS
OFTEN CALLED “PRIEST
KING” BECAUSE SOME
SCHOLARS BELIEVE IT MAY
REPRESENT SOMEONE WITH
RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR
AUTHORITY, BUT THE TRUE
IDENTITY AND STATUS OF
THIS PERSON ARE

15. MOHENJO DARO
HARAPPA

16. WOMEN – INDUS VALLEY
CIVILIZATION
• Limited archeological evidence suggests that some
urban women played important social and religious role
in Indus Valley Civilization. Figurines of women or
goddesses are more common than those of men.
Women appear to be buried with their mothers and
grandmothers.
• Ex. The Dancing Girl . Bronze, - this figure provides evidence for the
copper and bronze industry.

17. INDUS VALLEY REVIEW

18. CONCLUSION
• Geographicly- the first civiizations emerged in river valleys (rainfall was
insufficient for agriculture). Civilizations (Egypt, Mesopotamia and Indus Valley
channeled into construction: canals, dams, dikes). – this required political
centers that could organize the necessary labor force.
• Egypt and Mesopotamia – kinship emerged as a political form.
• In Egyptian kings divine origins and symbolic association with the forces
(religious authority). Egyptian monarchs lavished much of the countrys wealth
on their tombs, (proper burial = continuity of kingship).
• Mesopotamia rulers: not regarded as divine but still dominated the religious
institutions, built new cities, walls, palaces and lasting religious edifices.
• Violent floods of Tigris and Euphrates were alarm for people in Mesopotamia.
• Nile Floods (Egypt) were expected and eagerly anticipated. Nature and religion
outlooks.
• Egyptians trusted and nurtured powers of nature they believed it guaranteed
prosperity.

19. MESOPOTAMIA AND EGYPT
CONCLUSIONS
• Gilgamesh, the hero of Mesopotamian epic, is tormented by
terrifying visions of the afterlife: disembodied spirits of the dead
stumbling around in the darkness of the Underworld for all eternity,
eating dust and clay.
• Populations of Egypt and Mesopotamia were thnically
heterogeneous, both experienced cultural continuity.
• Mesopotamia developed sharp social divisions that were reflected in
the class.based penalites set in the Law Code of Hammurabi.
• Egyptian society is less urban less stratified. Poems and pictorial
documents indicate respect and greater equiality for wowan.
• Mesopotamia women loss of freedom and legal priviledge may also
been related to the higher degree of urbanization and class
stratification.

20. 3 CIVILIZATIONS:
• All three civilizations developed writing systems,
irrigation, bronze casting, and techniques for producing
monumental architecture.
• Striking uniformoty in planning and construction of cities
and towns.
• Indus Valley: rapid collapse of this civiliation as a result
of ecological changes.

21. CONTINUITIES IN CIVILIZATION
• From a panoramic perspective there is “not much” of differences
from one civilization to the next.
• Monarchs continued to rule, women still subordinate to men, sharp
divisions between elite and everyone else (& slaves)
• No technological or economic breakthrough occurred to create new
kinds of human societies.
• CHANGES:
• Population grew
• Growing size of the states or empires.
• The roman, Persian, Indian and Chinese empires of second wave
civilization as well as Arab, Mongol, and Incas.
• Political system

22. EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION VIDEO
• https://youtu.be/3EvTQhqXiEA