Compare and Contrast of Ancient Cultures

1.     Religious beliefs

-       All of these were the polytheistic

-       Babylonians professed by the peoples inhabiting the Tigris and Euphrates from what may be regarded as the dawn of history.

-       Egyptian focused on afterlife, life after death and this led to the invention of mummification that was done to pharaohs.

-       Phoenician religion was inspired by the powers and processes of nature.

2.     Writing systems

-       Phoenician writing system can be classified as an abjad, because it records only consonantal sounds, with the addition of matres lectionis for some vowels.

-       Babylonian writing system called Cuneiform script and it began as a system of pictographs and written on clay tablets, by means of a blunt reed for a stylus.

-       Egyptian writing system called Hieroglyphics that consisted of a series of pictures that represented letters and words.

3.     Geography

-       All of them were located near the source of water.

-       Phoenicians occupied a string of cities along the Mediterranean coast.

-       Babylonian was located in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates River.

-       Egyptians were located near the Nile River.

4.     Agriculture advances

-       The Phoenicians were not an agricultural people, because most of the land was not arable; therefore, they focused on commerce and trading instead.

-       Agriculture formed the economic base of Babylonian civilization. People did a lot of farming from the river.

-       Egyptians were very successful in agriculture, because they were able to farm the fertile soil around the Nile and produce their own food and cloth.

5.     Social structure of Society

-       Phoenicians where divided into three classes that citizens of Phoenicia were divided into. Social class was the top class which included priests, government officials, and land owners. The middle class included merchants, craftspeople, farmers, and fishermen. The working class included slaves and servants.

-       For Babylonians, King was at the top, nobles (the free citizens) were at the middle and slaves were at the bottom.

-      Ancient Egyptian’s social structure (right picture).

6.     Technology advencement and inventions

-       The Phoenicians first invented alphabet and they also built ships and the vessels that came to be known as the ships of Tarshish.

-       Babylonian technology and invention: The zodiac; and eclipses of the sun and moon could be foretold, Mathematics, metalworking, copper-working, glassmaking, lamp making, textile weaving, flood control, and water storage, as well as irrigation.

-       Egyptian technology and invention: pyramid, mummification, shadoof, locks, paper, plows, medicine, and eye make-up.

7.     Trade routes

-       Phoenician trade routes in the Mediterranean. They also sailed out through the Pillars of Hercules, the Strait of Gibraltar up the coast of Europe to Britain.

-       The main foundation for Babylon's economy was trade routes between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea, as well as agriculture fed by the rich Euphrates River.

-       Egyptians exported goods from several neighboring countries and they traded overseas such as Nubians.

Assignment for Sept.27

Uruk,on an ancient branch of the Euphrates River in Iraq now is the first major city in Sumer built in the 5th century BC, and is considered one of the largest Sumerian settlements and most important religious centers in Mesopotamia. It was continuously inhabited from about 5000 BC up to the 5th century AD.

Artistic- Uruk dominated by monumental mud-brick buildings decorated with mosaics of painted clay cones embedded in the walls, and extraordinary works of art. They first started to make a sculpture for representing of human faces. Large-scale sculpture in the round and relief carving appeared for the first time, together with metal casting using the lost-wax process. Also stone sculptures were created.

Society- Social classes began to emerge based on increasingly entrenched differences in wealth, power, and access to resources; the more stratified society became, the greater the coercive power its rulers could exercise over those beneath them in the social hierarchy.The difference of social statuses were implied by monumental architecture which was temples or halls and fancy goods that only rich people own. However we cannot recognize it with burials, because burials were scarce.

Politic- Gilgamesh who was king at this time ruled the city of Uruk at around 2750 BCE. He gradually grew in importance and increasingly sought luxury materials to express his power. These often spread from abroad, which caused to acquire either by trade or conquest. Further, Gilgamesh became the hero of many later stories and epics.

intelligence- Uruk people used simple labels and lists with pictographic symbols to use clay tablets; it helped to development of writing.

Religious: There was no organized set of gods; each city-state had its own patrons, temples, and priest-kings. The Sumerians were probably the first to write down their beliefs, which were the inspiration for much of later Mesopotamian mythology, religion, and astrology.

Inanna, the deification of Venus, the morning (eastern) and evening (western) star, at the temple (shared with An) at Uruk.

Economy- people in numbers larger than had ever before been possible, could be marshaled and deployed to build their city's infrastructure—monumental buildings, defensive walls, and irrigation systems; to produce the economic surpluses necessary to support their rulers and others, including artists and artisans, who were not directly engaged in subsistence activities; and, when necessary, to fight in their city's army.