Both these civilizations used a bureaucracy as their form of government. Though they both had the same kind of government, it was organized differently. Egypt had one large government throughout the region, and in the Indus Valley, each city-state had a different group of government workers. Minimal evidence has been found indication social hierarchy in the Indus Valley, however it is certain that Egypt had a social structure with pharaohs on top and peasants on the bottom. The Indus Valley and Egypt both had their own writing systems.
The Egyptian society tended to think of themselves as superior to other people, so Egyptians frequently eyed foreigners with unwelcomed glares. Another comprises the political development and characteristics. Both ancient Mesopotamia’s and Egypt’s government were ruled by some sort of king. For Egypt, the highest place of the government was the pharaoh, who was not only
Egyptian government was much more centralized than the city states of Mesopotamia. Adding to the list of political differences, Mesopotamia is also famous for later being the birthplace of Hammurabi’s code, the first law code ever, written by Babylonian king Hammurabi in around 1750 B.C.E, while Egypt has no known written law code. Just as the rulers in each civilisation shared similarities and differences, so did the societies set up by them. While both of them had a similar social hierarchy of upper, lower and middle classes and a noticeable patriarchy (because what would an ancient civilization be without one), there were a few differences, one pertaining to the role of women. Women in Egypt enjoyed many more rights and were treated with higher regard (almost equal to men) than the women in Mesopotamia, who like in most ancient civilizations were treated as second class citizens.
However they also share a number of differences because they developed in different regions with different natural influences. Egypt and Mesopotamia were both governed by god-kings. The idea of a god-king was common in early complex societies. A king established his rule by a divine right bestowed upon him by the gods of his people. Mesopotamia was broken into thirty-five separate city-states and “The ruler of each city-state claimed to rule with the support of the local guardian deity…” (Hansen and Curtis 36).
While ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian societies are very similar they can be different in some ways too. In the Middle East, in Mesopotamia, before the Common Era, the first civilizations began to appear. Then Egypt’s Nile River Valley began to populate soon after. These civilizations began to thrive and develop their own politics, economies and social class structures. Even though they were very similar, they did have their differences.
The Sumerians who were the first people who built the earliest civilization of Mesopotamia, the language was the first human tongue to have been expressed into writing. The Sumerian writing where created to record economic resources account of a temple as a temple scribe. The writing was holly and difficult, that only certain chosen people can learn cuneiform and help temple to record. Cuneiform came from the Latin word cuneus, wedge. During the Mesopotamia period, people learnt to record events and important message on solid objects such as walls, clay tablets, and etc.
The Sumerian king, Urnammu of Ur, reintroduced the Sumerian language and decided to build a famous Ziggurat dedicated to Nanna, believed to be the moon god. (Stokstad and Cothren 2011, p. 36) De Los Santos 2 The time of the Old Kingdom in Egypt was 2575 to 2150. It was a period of wealth and stability, especially among the ruling families. This is reflected in the elaborateness of tomb buildings and complexes that rulers had built for themselves (Stokstad and Cothren 2011, p. 55). world’s most famous pyramids are the three great pyramid tombs at Giza in Egypt.
The basis of our lives today started way back with ancient civilizations that were similar but also very different. Ancient Sumer and ancient Egypt were somewhat similar in the sense that they advanced in science, that they were set up near river valleys and that they shared some beliefs. They were somewhat different in their class divisions, their jobs and the surrounding geography. Egyptian and Mesopotamia were somewhat similar with their economic advancements, their economic set up and their geography. The two share a polytheistic belief system.
They held the power and control. The seclusion of women was also a major contribution of both of these empires as women, usually the elite, were required to be veiled. Women were subordinate to their husbands and fathers, eventually losing power over time. Nonetheless, women were allowed to manage trade and money-lending. Politically speaking, the Ottoman and Safavid empires differed in how they maintained power over their kingdoms.
However, the king was not always called a pharoah. This didn't start until the 18th dynasty in 1554 B.C. Before this, pharaoh just refered to the king's palace (“History of The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt”). The people believed their king was not just merely a man, but that he was a god in human form (Wilson, 14). For this reason, they allowed him to have absolutecontrol over the land, government, economy, people, laws, etc.