Egypt and Mesopotamia Compared

Ancient Egypt

Besides Mesopotamia, a second civilization grew up in northeastern Africa, along the Nile
River. Egyptian civilization, formed by 3000 B.C., benefited from trade and
technological influence from Mesopotamia, but it produced a quite different
society and culture. Because its values and its tightly knit political
organization encouraged monumental building, we know more about Egypt than
about Mesopotamia, even though the latter was in most respects more important
and richer in subsequent heritage.

Basic Patterns Of Egyptian Society

Unlike Mesopotamia and the Middle East, where an original river-valley
basis to civilization ultimately gave way to the spread of civilization
throughout an entire region, Egyptian civilization from its origins to its
decline was focused on the Nile River and the deserts around it. The Nile
focus also gave a more optimistic cast to Egyptian culture, for it could be
seen as a source of never- failing bounty to be thankfully received, rather
than a menacing cause of floods. Egyptian civilization may at the outset have
received some inspiration from Sumer, but a distinctive pattern soon developed
in both religion and politics.

Farming had been developed along the Nile by about 5000 B.C., but some
time before 3200 B.C. economic development accelerated, in part because of
growing trade wi,h other regions including Mesopotamia. This economic
acceleration provided the basis for the formation of regional kingdoms. Unlike
Sumer, Egypt moved fairly directly from precivilization to large government
units, without passing through a city-state phase, though the first pharaoh,
Narmer, had to conquer a number of petty local kings around 3100 B.C. Indeed
Egypt always had fewer problems with political unity than Mesopotamia did, in
part because of the unifying influence of the course of the Nile River. By the
same token, however, Egyptian politics tended to be more authoritarian as well
as centralized, for city-states in the Mesopotamian style, though often ruled
by kings, also provided the opportunity for councils and other participatory
institutions.

By 3100 B.C. Narmer, king of southern Egypt, conquered the northern
regional kingdom and created a unified state 600 miles long. This state was to
last 3000 years. Despite some important disruptions, this was an amazing
record of stability even though the greatest vitality of the civilization was
exhausted by about 1000 B.C. During the 2000-year span in which Egypt
displayed its greatest vigor, the society went through three major periods of
monarchy (the Old, the Intermediate, and the New Kingdoms), each divided from
its successor by a century or two of confusion.

In all its phases, Egyptian civilization was characterized by the
strength of the pharaoh. The pharaoh was held to be descended from gods, with
the power to assure prosperity and control the rituals that assured the flow
of the Nile and the fertility derived from irrigation. Soon, the pharaoh was
regarded as a god. Much Egyptian art was devoted to demonstrating the power
and sanctity of the king. From the king's authority also flowed an extensive
bureaucracy, recruited from the landed nobles but specially trained in writing
and law. Governors were appointed for key regions and were responsible for
supervising irrigation and arranging for the great public works that became a
hallmark of Egyptian culture. Most Egyptians were peasant farmers, closely
regulated and heavily taxed. Labor requisition by the states allowed
construction of the great pyramids and other huge public buildings. These
monuments were triumphs of human coordination, for the Egyptians were not
particularly advanced technologically. They even lacked pulleys or other
devices to hoist the huge slabs of stone that formed the pyramids.

Given the importance of royal rule and the belief that pharaohs were
gods, it is not surprising that each of the main periods of Egyptian history
was marked by some striking kings. Early in each dynastic period leading
pharaohs conquered new territories, sometimes pressing up the Nile River into
present-day Sudan, once even moving up the Mediterranean coast of the Middle
East. One pharaoh, Akhenaton, late in Egyptian history, tried to use his power
to install a new, one-god religion, replacing the Egyptian pantheon. Many
pharaohs commemorated their greatness by building huge pyramids to house
themselves and their retinues after death, commanding work crews of up to
100,000 men to haul and lift the stone. The first great pyramid was built
around 2600 B.C.; the largest pyramid followed about a century later, taking
20 years to complete and containing 2 million blocks of stone, each weighing 5
1/2 tons.

Some scholars have seen even larger links between Egypt's stable,
centralized politics and its fascination with an orderly death, including
massive funeral monuments and preservation through mummification. Death
rituals suggested a concern with extending organization to the afterlife,
based on a belief that, through politics, death as well as life could be
carefully controlled. A similar connection between strong political structures
and careful funeral arrangements developed in Chinese civilization, though
with quite different specific religious beliefs.

Ideas And Art

Despite some initial inspiration, Egyptian culture separated itself from
Mesopotamia in a number of ways beyond politics and monument building. The
Egyptians did not take to the Sumerian cuneiform alphabet and developed a
hieroglyphic alphabet instead. Hieroglyphics, though more pictorial than
Sumerian cuneiform, were based on simplified pictures of objects abstracted to
represent concepts or sounds. As in Mesopotamia the writing system was
complex, and its use was, for the most part, monopolized by the powerful
priestly caste. Egyptians ultimately developed a new material to write on,
papyrus, which was cheaper to manufacture and use than clay tablets or animal
skins and allowed the proliferation of elaborate record keeping. On the other
hand, Egypt did not generate an epic literary tradition.

Egyptian science focused on mathematics and astronomy, but its
achievements were far less advanced than those of Mesopotamia. The Egyptians
were, however, the first people to establish the length of the solar year,
which they divided into 12 months each with three weeks of ten days. The week
was the only division of time not based on any natural cycles. The achievement
of this calendar suggests Egyptian concern about predicting the flooding of
the Nile and their abilities in astronomical observation. The Egyptians also
made important advances in medicine, including knowledge of the workings of a
variety of medicinal drugs and some contraceptive devices. Elements of
Egyptian medical knowledge were gained by the Greeks, and so passed into later
Middle Eastern and European civilizations.

The pillar of Egyptian culture was not science, however, but religion,
which was firmly established as the basis of a whole world view. The religion
promoted the worship of many gods. It mixed magical ceremonies and beliefs
with worship, in a fashion common to early religions almost everywhere. A more
distinctive focus involved the concern with death and preparation for life in
another world, where in contrast to the Mesopotamians the Egyptians held that
a happy, changeless well-being could be achieved. The care shown in preparing
tombs and mummifying bodies, along with elaborate funeral rituals particularly
for the rulers and bureaucrats, was designed to assure a satisfactory
afterlife, though Egyptians also believed that favorable judgment by a key
god, Osiris, was essential as well. Other Egyptian deities included a creation
goddess, similar to other Middle Eastern religious figures later adapted into
Christian worship of the Virgin Mary; and a host of gods represented by
partial animal figures. Egyptian art focused heavily on the gods, though
earthly, human scenes were portrayed as well in a characteristic, stylized
form that lasted without great change for many centuries.

Stability was a hallmark of Egyptian culture. Given the duration of
Egyptian civilization, there were surprisingly few basic changes in styles and
beliefs. Egyptian emphasis on stability was reflected in their view of a
changeless afterlife, suggesting a conscious attempt to argue that persistence
was a virtue. Change did, however, occur in some key areas. Egypt was long
fairly isolated, which helped preserve continuity. The invasions of Egypt by
Palestine toward the end of the Old Kingdom period (about 2200 B.C.) were
distinct exceptions to Egypt's usual self-containment. They were followed by
attacks from the Middle East by tribes of Asian origin, which brought a period
of division and chaos, including rival royal dynasties. But the unified
monarchy was reestablished during the Middle Kingdom period, during which
Egyptian settlements spread southward into what is now the Sudan, setting
origins for the later African kingdom of Kush.

Then followed another period of social unrest and invasion, ending in the
final great kingdom period, the New Kingdom, around 1570 B.C. During this
period trade and other contacts with the Middle East and the eastern
Mediterranean, including the island of Crete, gained ground. These contacts
spread certain Egyptian influences, notably in monumental architecture, to
other areas. It was during the New Kingdom that Egyptians first installed
formal slavery, subjecting people such as the Jews. It was also in this period
that the pharaoh Akhenaton tried to impose a new monotheistic religion,
reflecting some foreign influence, but his effort was renounced by his
successor Tutankhamen, who restored the old capital city and built a lavish
tomb to celebrate the return to the traditional gods. After about 1150 B.C.,
new waves of invasion and internal conspiracies and disorganization, including
strikes and social protest, brought fairly steady decline. It was around this
period that one people, the Hebrews, followed their leader Moses out of Egypt
and into the deserts of Palestine.

Egypt And Mesopotamia Compared

The development of two great early civilizations in the Middle East and
North Africa encourages a first effort at comparative analysis. Because of
different geography, different degrees of exposure to outside invasion and
influence, and different prior beliefs, Egypt and Mesopotamia were in contrast
to one another in many ways. Egypt emphasized strong central authority, while
Mesopotamian politics shifted more frequently over a substructure of regional
city-states. Mesopotamian art focused on less monumental structures, while
embracing a pronounced literary element that Egyptian art lacked.

These cultural differences can be explained partly by geography:
Mesopotamians lacked access to the great stones that Egyptians could import
for their monuments. The differences also owed something to different
politics, for Egyptian ability to organize masses of laborers followed from
its centralized government structures and strong bureaucracy. The differences
owed something, finally, to different beliefs, for the Mesopotamians lacked
the Egyptian concern for preparations for the afterlife, which so motivated
the great tombs and pyramids that have made Egypt and some of the pharaohs
live on in human memory.

Both societies traded extensively, but there was a difference in economic
tone. Mesopotamia was more productive of technological improvements, because
their environment was more difficult to manage than the Nile valley. Trade
contacts were more extensive, and the Mesopotamians gave attention to a
merchant class and commercial law.

Social differences were less obvious because it is difficult to obtain
information on daily life for early civilizations. It is probable, though,
that the status of women was greater in Egypt than in Mesopotamia (where
women's position seems to have deteriorated after Sumer). Egyptians paid great
respect to women at least in the upper classes, in part because marriage
alliances were vital to the preservation and stability of the monarchy. Also,
Egyptian religion included more pronounced deference to goddesses as sources
of creativity.

Comparisons in politics, culture, economics, and society suggest
civilizations that varied substantially because of largely separate origins
and environments. The distinction in overall tone was striking, with Egypt
being more stable and cheerful than Mesopotamia not only in beliefs about gods
and the afterlife but in the colorful and lively pictures the Egyptians
emphasized in their decorative art. Also striking was the distinction in
internal history, with Egyptian civilization far less marked by disruption
than its Mesopotamian counterpart.

Comparison must also note important similarities, some of them
characteristic of early civilizations. Both Egypt and Mesopotamia emphasized
social stratification, with a noble, landowning class on top and masses of
peasants and slaves at the bottom. A powerful priestly group also figured in
the elite. While specific achievements in science differed, there was a common
emphasis on astronomy and related mathematics, which produced durable findings
about units of time and measurement. Both Mesopotamia and Egypt changed only
slowly by the standards of more modern societies. Details of change have not
been preserved, but it is true that having developed successful political and
economic systems there was a strong tendency toward conservation. Change, when
it came, was usually brought by outside forces - natural disasters or
invasions. Both civilizations demonstrated extraordinary durability in the
basics. Egyptian civilization and a fundamental Mesopotamian culture lasted
far longer than the civilizations that came later, in part because of relative
isolation within each respective region and because of the deliberate effort
to maintain what had been achieved, rather than experiment widely.

Both civilizations, finally, left an important heritage in their region
and adjacent territories. A number of smaller civilization centers were
launched under the impetus of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and some would produce
important innovations of their own by about 1000 B.C.