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Egypt was located on the Nile River.
Which meant it flooded frequently. Fortunately, the Nile flooded at similar times of the year each year, so similarly that the Egyptians believed they could pinpoint the exact day it would flood each year.
Sumer was located between the Tigris and Euphrates River's.
But unlike the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates River's would flood randomly.
Because of the Nile Rivers seasonal flooding, farming was important to the Egyptians. Scientist worked out ways to measure how high the flood would be each year, and kept accurate records and calendars.They also created efficient ways to move water from the river to farms in the desert by using hand-powered irrigation pumps, called shadufs, and canal systems.
Circa 3000-2500 B.C., the Egyptians started to build the Great Pyramids. This was during the Old Kingdom, so the Hebrews did not build the Pyramids, who came during the New Kingdom. It was actually farmers in Egypt. The government decided they could not afford to feed and take care of slaves for such a long time. The farmers would work on the Pyramids during the Winter months, when the harvest season was over and they had no work, similar to paying a tax. The Pharaoh's built the Pyramids as tombs for themselves, and the first Pyramids were built in Giza.
For almost 5,000 years, Khufu's Great Pyramid was the tallest building in the world, until the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889.
Egyptians also had an extensive knowledge of geometry and engineering, and Egyptian engineers used the Pythagorean theorem thousands of years before it was actually born.
The Mesopotamians invented the seeder plow, which was a large achievement. It worked by doing the task of seeding and ploughing simultaneously. They believed that the god Enlil created the plow and an image of the plow could also be seen in the stars.
They also were one of the first to use to mortar and pestle, which were used to crush wheat to make into bread and used in pharmacies to crush/create vitamins and medication.
Mesopotamians also invented one of the earliest forms of writing, called cuneiform. They would use clay tablets to engrave symbols into the clay and when it dried it would stay there permanently.
They were also home to one of the seven wonders of the world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Legend says they were built by King Nebuchadnezzar because his queen was homesick and he wanted her to feel loved. They were 400 ft. wide, 400 ft. long and 80 ft. tall, and were built in a series of platforms with paths to gorgeous fountains and breathtaking foliage.
Sumerians were polytheistic and a theocracy, which meant they believed in multiple gods and religion dominated their government system.
They believed their gods were cruel and if they were upset they would destroy all of humanity
Priests -Upper class-Lower class-Slaves
The higher up you were in the social ladder, the closer you lived to the Ziggurat.
Social places were set in stone- if you were born a lower class you died lower class.
Biased punishment system. For example if a slave killed a priest he might be put to death, but if a priest killed a slave, he may have to pay a fine and do community service of some sort.
Each city-state represented one of the gods, meaning that the temple on the top of the Ziggurat was home to a different god/goddess.
The Ziggurat was a large building built in the center of each town with many offices and a temple at the the very top, where formal religious ceremonies were held. Only the priests could enter the Temple, because it was believed that the god/goddess him/herself lived there.
People would make small carved figurines of themselves and leave them in the Ziggurat to constantly pray, while the people that they belonged to would go about their daily lives.
Hammurabi’s code was made by the king Hammurabi circa 1790-1750 BC. They were a set of laws that everyone had to follow, though it was difficult because the only educated people were wealthy men.
The Egyptians were also polytheistic and a theocracy, but they believed their gods were loving and caring towards the Egyptians.
The people of Egypt were ruled by Pharaohs, who were believed to be either human forms of the earth god or the actual god himself.
The Egyptians believed that all of Egypt belonged to the gods, and since the Pharaoh's were technically gods, everything in Egypt belonged to the Pharaoh.
Egyptians believed that after death, the god Anubis would weigh your heart against a feather, and if your heart was heavier than the feather (from your bad deeds), you had to be punished. They believed that after you died, you entered another world similar to the real world, so they were buried with most of their personal belongings.
Unlike the Sumerians, the Egyptians believed that the afterlife was a wonderful place, which is why they would mummify their dead (to preserve their bodies so they could be used in the afterlife), and bury all of the deceased belongings with them, so that they could use them in their later life.
Social classes were not set in stone- If you were born poor you could die rich, or vise versus.
During the New Kingdom, the Pharaoh Akhenaten started to worship a new god Aten, and wanted his people to believe that Aten was the only real god, or because he thought there were no other gods worth worshiping. After Akhenaten died, people went back to worshiping the old Egyptian gods.
After the Persian invasion of Egypt in 539 BC, the Egyptians didn’t seem to change any of their religious views, but under the Greek rule, Ptolemy in 323 BC, the Egyptians started to worship some of the Greek gods, but still worshiped some of the older Egyptian gods.
When the Romans conquered Egypt in 30 BC, the Egyptians, again, continued worshiping their own gods, and still worshiping some of the Greek gods, and adding some of the Romans gods as well. Slowly but surely, the Egyptians started to practice Christianity. By the time of the Great Persecution in 303 AD, there were a lot of Christians in Egypt. After the Roman Emperors converted to Christianity and the persecution ended, most of Egypt had converted to Christianity.
Women in Mesopotamia’s roles were strictly defined. She was the daughter of her father or the wife of her husband. Which meant women rarely ever acted as individuals outside of their families, and those who did were either royalty or the wives of powerful men.
Girls were trained at a young age for the roles of a traditional wife, mother, and housekeeper. They learned how to:
Grind grain, create many beverages (especially beer), and how to spin/weave cloth for clothes. If she ever worked out of the home, it was usually related to her household tasks; i.e. sell her brewed beer.
Girls were considered fit for marriage around early puberty,and marriages were arranged by the families of the future bride and groom. Once they were engaged, the wife-to-be is considered part of her fiancé’s family. If her fiancé died before they were married, she would marry one of his brothers or another male family member.
Childbearing/childcare roles made women become midwives and also led to the creation of medication that prevented pregnancy and abortions.
Women were not equal to men,but did have more rights then most civilization.
They could run their own business, own, buy, or sell property, and they were allowed to leave their belongings to whomever they pleased, including their daughters.
They could decide if they would marry or not. If a man asked her to marry, she could say no; she could not be forced into marriage. Those who did marry would do it around early puberty. Once married, her first responsibility was to be a good wife to her husband and a good mother to their children. With raising the children and housekeeping, women were also allowed to get a paying job outside the household.
Women had the right to divorce her husband, but she had to have a valid reason for leaving her husband in a court of law. If the divorce was granted, the mother gained a third of the husbands wealth,all of her belongings she brought into the marriage (if any), the property she had been willed during the marriage and any other property she personally owned, and gained custody of all the children. She could also remarry after divorcing her husband.
Men could also file for divorce in the court, but if it was granted, the women still gained custody of her children, her belongings,and a large portion of his money.
If any women broke one of Egypt’s laws, she had to go to court and defend herself of the charge; like everyone else.
http://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1536&bih=726&q=cuneiform&oq=cuneiform&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1592.3494.0.4945.9.5.0.4.4.0.114.519.1j4.5.0...0.0...1ac.1.qYENqaThq90
blogspot
http://www.egyptartsite.com/sekmet.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyramids
http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/maptext_n2/sumer.html
http://www.kenseamedia.com/egyptian_gods/aten.htm
http://www.starbridge.com.au/en/articles/2006/12/17/dharma-right-living.htm
http://joseph_berrigan.tripod.com/ancientbabylon/id18.html
http://webserver.sms.org/intranet/classes/history/worldhist/Mesopotamia/Sumer/Artifacts.html
http://www.gregpetersoninspections.com/hammurabi.htm
http://ehistory.osu.edu/ancient/egypt/map.cfm
http://atlantis.haktanir.org/ch14.html
http://www.redicecreations.com/winterwonderland/templars.html
National Geographic Egypt Websites
This one has TONS of great websites just click through some!
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/egypt/explore/
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/egypt/
http://egypt.mrdonn.org/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/
http://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/
http://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/Sumerlife.html
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/history/sumerians.htm
http://videoclips.mrdonn.org/mesopotamia.html
-A collection of video clips click on the links!
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/worldhistory/introancientmiddleeast1.htm
http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/menu.html
The doctors in Egypt were believed to have been the best in the western world, which wasn’t saying too much, because nobody really understood what caused diseases and how to cure them. Doctors mostly believed that evil spirits either somehow sent dangerous poisons into your body or evil spirits were inside your body making you sick. To cure you, the doctors gave you something you either ate or drank that wasn’t too pleasant smelling or tasting. They hoped the evil spirit wouldn’t like it and would leave your body. Another option was the doctors would try and clean your insides, either by giving you laxatives or bleeding you. They would also pray to the goddess of healing, Sekhmet.
Some of the voodoo tricks would cure people, because seeing people "curing" them made them better, also known as the Placebo Effect.