Commonalities in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia

The advances in agricultural methods and technology were played a major role in the growth of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt but at the end of it all the evolution of government structures both political and religious that formed the social positioning to reinforce these advances.

Agriculture and technology

The Mesopotamian climate was very warm and dry with very little rain, so farming in that era was not easy. So, therefore, the Tigris and Euphrates river played a major role to move water to their crops. But the changing in the rivers form due to floods made life difficult so to overcome the challenge they developed a way to steer the flow of water in the way they wanted. The irrigation systems they constructed steered the water to their crops. The could also regulate the water to raise and lower all of the systems water levels, but also every farmer was only able to use a restricted amount of water. But at the end of it, all the use of irrigation systems in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt was one of the most important aspects for developing those countries in that time.

The Sumerians had given instructions on how to plant the crops and how much. In Mesopotamia, barley and wheat were the main crops. They had planted bigger trees next to the smaller fruit growing trees to protect them from the conditions of the area.

The most grown vegetable was the eggplant but they also grew a lot of other vegetables. Hunting was also a large part of their agricultural methods both the Mesopotamians and Egyptians used spears to catch fish and wildlife. And also made use of slingshots and bow and arrows. The people even started using crops as a form of currency. They did not have enough capital to buy all the things they needed so they gave up crops in return for other materials. So in short conclusion farming played a big role in all parts of development in both Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Technology in both Mesopotamia and Egypt technology played a crucial part in development. The early settlements of the Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians all gave us examples of the first information of the early technology. These included pottery skills, the ability of mining and making different materials like metals, wood and construction methods. And these inventions were established even before the Christian era. They were highly informed about astrological observations, mathematical sciences and working out of calendars to have the knowledge of when to do what in terms of farming and agricultural information. They started common means of what things weigh and are worth to keep a sense of control in how things work in their settlements. Both communities were very well controlled and started trading and with different places around them including other countries and communities around them. So basically they started their own trading routes.

Here are a couple of examples where the technology created that are still prominent in the 21st century: writing and different forms of the alphabet, papyrus sheets which is the earliest form of paper used in the past, ink that was used to write with made with plants and other materials, the calendar and how days and years and months are spilt up and understood, clocks about how the time works through the day, the police, surgical instruments including stiches and other smaller commonly used aparatus and toothpaste.

Government structures

The early cities were no more than farming villages, the farming brought in food to eat and capital to be made and that started the formation of larger villages. The gods were of very high importance for the people of Mesopotamia and Egypt and so the priests who fully worked for the gods became the prime people in the area, and that's how the priests took over the governmental roles. The priests could not run the ever-growing cities on their own and sought assistance from temporal leaders who confined with them to take the role of the non-religious part of leadership in the cities to focus on distribution of labour and organization. As the small villages transformed into large cities the secular leaders and the priests worked together in running the cities. “The secular leader was called the Lugal, the strongman” They were in control of the labour division and the priests were in charge of keeping the gods happy and the Lugal keeping the city up and running. After time progressed the strongmen became the kings of the cities who now overruled everything and had to start participating in religious matters, and so the king had the duties of both parties.

In both Egypt and Mesopotamia there was a very abnormal form of government which is in close correlation with one of the earliest forms of democracy. In this government structure there was a king, and then noblemen who were in charge of making new laws and decided were to go to war and then how to merit the gods. There was also wise men who were democratically elected, and the could override the king and help him come up with better solutions and support the king in all situations and help with governing the city.

Ancient Mesopotamia was a large area consisting of several cities, Mesopotamia at this time did not just have one government running the entire region but had smaller governments in charge of their own villages or cities. The kings, in the beginning, were only rulers under their own areas. Without the one government in charge of all the region was vulnerable to wars among the cities in the same area. The reason for these fights was for extra land and resources. And so these kings were constantly involved with wars between the cities around them to gain or hold the resources and everything they owned.

Religions origin in Mesopotamia is a result of the weather conditions what was highly unpredictable in the region. They started believing that the cause was one of the doing of a god. To settle themselves they bowed down before the gods instead of just believing its normal weather. “Mesopotamian gods were anthropomorphic” in saying that it means that the gods were in human form with many aspects of them the same as a human and had the same needs as human but they had more power than the average person in that era.

Ancient Egypt very territorial state and not a city-state so the government had to control a very large area of land lying against the Nile river as that was the best place to build a city as it had access to water and a chance for a trade. A central organization was in charge by the pharaoh and they were the high priest and were in charge of keeping peace and happiness amongst all the cities or villages. These instructions of them were kept alive through managerial units. Egypt was divided into provinces and ruled by one person.

The Egyptian country was run in a very steadfast structure and divided into different levels of authority and responsibilities. The entire scheme could be understood in a form of a pyramid structure. The Pharoah who was seen as gods in human form by the people of Egypt and were believed to have more power over the people around them. As the pharaohs were seen as gods they were responsible for a number of different duties. But as one person could not run an entire country he had to give orders for people beneath him and that person was called a “vizier” who in charge of tax collection and keeping government records. In the position below the pharaoh there were the noblemen and priests. Where the priests were in charge of keeping the gods happy and understand them. The soldiers where next on the food chain, they were the men who fought in the wars and protected its cities. As well as equal to them were the specialized workers in terms of jewelry and architecture. And those at the bottom of everything was the slaves and the farmers.

So in conclusion, it is evident in many aspects of the ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt that the agricultural methods and technology evolved in such a way that it is still prominent in the 21st century and development of cities and civilisations in our time and did really speed up the way everything developed in those times. But the main contribution to these cities growing to where they were in those times was because of the advances in government structures and social arrangements that were mainly responsible for the evolution that is very evident in all research collected.