Comparison of PERSIART-ME for ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Politics, Econ, Beliefs, Social Hierarchy & Gender roles, Art & Architecture, Technology, Migration, Environment... Janet Pareja, Signature School.

1. A Comparison:
Mesopotamia & Egypt
2012
Janet Pareja, Signature School, Evansville, IN

2. Geography of Mesopotamia

3. Open Farm Land…
Invitation to Invasion

4. Egypt

5. Geography of Egypt
Surrounded by
Uninhabitable
Desert!
• Low Desert:
– Could not be farmed- too dry.
Hunting: antelope, hare, lions.
Cemeteries here.
• High Desert:
– Barren area crossed later only
by trade caravans & organized
groups in search of stone and
minerals such as calcite, gold,
copper, amethyst, carnelian,
diorite for black obelisks.
• Some oases:
– cultivated to grow grapes,
dates; Also housed exiled
prisoners.

6. River to Desert….in a few steps!

7. Historiography : Comparison
Egypt -Stability
• Isolated from Invasion –Desert
surrounds & protects
• Excellent Alluvial Soil w/
PREDICTABLEflooding,
rare droughts
• Nile promoted unity of culture;
Civilization remained centered
along the Nile.
Mesopotamia –
Unpredictability
• Open to Frequent Invasions
from mountains, arid region
• Excellent Alluvial Soil w/
UNPREDICTABLE,
sometime horrific flooding or
drought
• City State structure did not
encourage unity; later
progression of empires 
shared culture mix Spread of
Civilization in the region.

8. Migration?
• No - “Foreigners”
were suspicious,
looked & acted
different
• Most foreigners were
slaves, often due to
conquest
“Melting Pot”
• Nomads periodically
came to trade…
Abraham of Ur.
• Others came for
opportunity -
Newcomers did most
difficult work, such as
building…

9. • Covenant (Contract)
• Abraham – Patriarch, pastoral
nomadic tribe
• One abstract, formless, all-powerful,
nameless God.
• “Chosen People”
Judaism

10. Political & Social Systems
Pharaoh – Hereditary
Absolute Ruler
• Divine or semi-divine
• Owned the land
King – Hereditary
Absolute Ruler
• Not divine
• Did not own the land,
but charged tax

12. Comparison: Government
Menes/Narmer -
Unified Egypt for 3,000
years
– Old, Middle, New Kingdoms
• Series of Invaders, Kings &
Empires:
•Ramses II 1278-1237 bce
•Akhenaton -1381 -
1379bce
• Tutenkhamen 1361-1352
bce
• height- 1400 bce
•Hatsepsut – 1482 bce
– Sumerians
– Akkadians -Sargon of Akkad,
– Babylonians -Hammurabi,
1792-1750 bce
– Assyrians
– Neo-Babylonians –
Nebuchadnezzar, 605-562 bce

14. http://www.crystalinks.com/akhenaten.html
Akhenaten
• First called Amenhotep IV (r. 1353 BCE-1336 BCE) , tried to compel
monotheistic worship of Aten (disc of the sun).
• Egypt in decline – may have been way to give total power to the pharaoh, and
side-step the priests who were very powerful. He closed the doors of the
temples to Amun at Thebes, Memphis, Heliopolis, took over their revenue.
Built Amarna where his family lived out in the desert, and brought the royal
court there without the priests of Amun.
• Reigned 16 or 38 years. Royal Queen - Nefertiti. Also of course had lesser
wives & concubines
• May have had Marfan’s Syndrome - Symptoms include, short torso, long
head, neck, arms, hand and feet, pronounced collarbones, pot belly, heavy
thighs, and poor muscle tone. Those who inherit it are often unusually tall and
are likely to have weakened hearts and can die at an early age. His daughters
are shown with similar symptoms. He had six daughters; no son is ever shown.
• People did not understand new abstract god – Missed the many gods they had
grown up with. At his death, his city was abandoned and people moved back to
Thebes and took up the old religion again. His “son,” King Tut came to power.

15. Akhenaten

16. Social Structure:
Pyramidal, of course!
• Pharaoh - Divine
• Priests- funerals, rituals
• Nobles
• Artisans, incl. Physicians, Architects
• SCRIBES to Pharaoh,
Royal Artisans,
Priests.
• Peasants –
– worked land &
generated most of the
kingdom’s wealth:
– Over half of produce to
Kingdom, as Pharaoh
– Shopkeepers, laborers
• King
• Priests
– Advised people on ritual
– Performed rituals,
ceremonies
– Collected taxes, rents,
– Owned most of the land
• Nobles
• SCRIBES – To king, priests,
merchants, surveyors, tax collectors…
• Merchants
– Worked for themselves; kept entire profit
• Artisans
• Peasants
– Farmers mostly – paid percent to
government & priests
– Shopkeepers, laborers

17. Slavery
Egyptian Slaves
• Fewer than peasants
– POW & descendants;
– Captured pastoralists
& families
– Not much worse than
being a peasant
– Building & irrigation
projects;
– Sometimes appointed
to trusted positions in
government or in
palaces
Mesopotamian Slaves
– One could sell oneself
or family members into
slavery to work off
debts
– POW
– Criminals

20. Egyptian & Mesopotamian Religions
• Priestly class:
– rituals, with Pharaoh – NOT
WITH EGYPTIAN PEOPLE.
– State/ city celebrations
– Mummification & funerary
– Served & supported Pharaoh;
VERY POWERFUL – advised
and sometimes
CONTROLLED.
• Polytheism:
– Pantheon of gods, w/ godly &
human-like qualities –
– ordered & organized,
– punished at end of life if heart
weighed too heavy
• Pyramids- Burial rites
– Pharaohs, then wealthy, then…
• Priestly class:
– in charge of rituals, offerings
from people & rulers
– worship, celebrations with
leaders, advised leaders
– helped people deal with
frequent crises of life
• Polytheism, Animism-
– 3,000 gods – took offense
easily & punished often
• Ziggurats – temples
(sometimes priests lived
there)
– Collected Taxes, Rents &
Offerings
– Supported Kings
• House of Clay or House of
Song

21. • Weighing of the Heart – Feather of Ma’at
• Ba; Anubis (2); Amit; Thoth; Jury/Witnesses; Horus;
Osirus in Judgment; Amentet and Isis behind Osirus.

22. Egyptian Art

23. Egyptian Art

26. Mesopotamian
Art

27. Who were the Mesopotamians?

28. WHY?

29. Technology
IRRIGATION, POTTERY, WHEEL, BOATS, MATH,
GEOMETRY, CALENDAR…
• Astronomy,
• Mummification
• Astrology,
• Fertilizer,
• Glass,
• Potter’s wheel,
• Sail boats…

30. Writing – Bye, bye “Pre-History”
• Hieroglyphs –
word & letter pictures
on walls, papyrus
• Formal Scribe
schools Career with
government, priests,
upon graduation.
• Class of Scribes
• Cuneiform – stylus in
clay tablet
• Formal scribe schools
 Career with
government, priests,
merchants upon
graduation.
Class of Scribes

32. Role of Women in Ancient
Societies: Clues in Art
What do we know?
How do we know it?
What difference
does it make?

33. Earliest Horticulture
WOMEN
Nomadic
Pastoralists
Patriarchs

34. • Patriarchal
• Patrilineal
• Patrilocal
Irrigation
The Plow

35. Mesopotamian Women
• Serve husband / father.
• Contract law: marriage,
divorce, inheritance…

36. Egyptian Women
• First female ruler in history:
Hatshepsut – ruled 22 yrs.
• More choices than
Mesopotamian
women
– Buy & sell property
– Inherit
– Choose to whom to will
property
– Right to dissolve marriages
– Still subservient to men;
valued most when bore
children
– Young girls not as educated
as boys

37. Decline
EGYPT
• Assyrian & Persian
Empires conquered parts.
• Greeks occupied later.
• Romans absorbed Egypt
into their Empire, though
Egypt kept its flavor &
much of its culture
Mesopotamia
• Series of constant
invasions until Persians
conquered…
• Usually, Conquerors
adopted & adapted
customs & culture of
Mesopotamia

38. Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelly,
1818
I met a traveller from an antique land Who said:
"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert…

39. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage
lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of
cold command
Tell that its sculptor well
those passions read
Which yet survive,
stamped on these lifeless
things,
The hand that mocked them
and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these
words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias,
King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye
mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains.
Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck,
boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands
stretch far away.

40. Continuing the Comparisons…Early
Civilization…
Let’s talk about the
Indus Valley
Civilization and
China.
 Neo Babylonian “Ishtar Gate, “ the eighth gate
to the city of Babylon, 575 BCE, now in
Pergamon Museum, Berlin