The Similarites and Differences Between the Early Civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia.

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Mariah Escarsega 1st block R Egypt and the early civilization of Mesopotamia had many similarities and differences. They Both Egypt and Mesopotamia had a centralization of power. Although, the Mesopotamians were a lot left more venerable to attack than the Egyptians were. That was because the Egyptians had natural defenses to surround them, and the Mesopotamians were left naturally exposed. Both of these river valley civilizations had a centralization of power that ruled over their lands. The Mesopotamians started out by being separated into small city states, which are small self – governing urban centers. Then it was lead by head priests who controlled and managed their wealth. It wasn’t until about the third millennium that they gained a king. The king or temple leaders had controlled large agricultural estates, and collected taxes from their subjects. While the Egyptians started out with separate kings for upper and Lower Egypt. That was until one ruler named Menes united them both. In Mesopotamia the ruler Sargon who was king of the city state Akkad, decided to unite the city states and became ruler of Sumer and Akkad. Much like Menes did with upper and lower Egypt. The Egyptians believed their kings to be a god, an incarnation of the son of the sun god Re. their job as a god was to maintain what the Egyptians calls ma’at, the divinely created and maintained order of the universe. The Egyptians didn’t have an impersonal code of law, because the king had divine right to do as he pleased. What the king said went. Unlike Egypt though, Mesopotamia did develop an impersonal code of law under their king Hammurabi in the eighteenth century b.c.e . These codes were inscribed on the back of a polished black stone pillar, the code provided judges with specific sets of examples illustrating principals that were used when the judges were deciding cases. Egypt was

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