Write an essay on the influence of the grographic environment on the origin and development of civilzation in Mesopotamia and Egypt. How were these environment similar and how were they different? What limitations and opportunities did these environments offer to the inhabitants living in them? What elements of these civilizations seem to be pre-determined by their respective geographical settings?
Although both are arid and riverine, Mesopotamia (a region now called Iraq) both challenges and nurtures residents while Egypt provides a limitless cradle. For very disparate reasons, both sites pushed their inhabitants to develop mature social complexes which reflected their geographic environments culturally.
Mesopotamia was hostile and provided only the bare necessities for civilization. It lacked enough rainfall to support even primite dry farming, and temperatures often exceeded 110°F. The soil was arid and unuseable unless heavily irrigated. Although the Tigris and Euphrates rivers provided water, they also flooded unpredictably and resulted in violent and destructive rampages which wiped out the flat land. After such a rampage, the Tigris river oftentimes settled back into a different course and left an entire city miles away from its sole water source. In addition, Mesopotamia was unprotected; lacking no natural boundaries, it was easily accessible for raids due to the Tigris-Euphrates rivers and a nearby mountain range. This mountain range, inhabited by pre-civilized Gutians, would for 60 years plunge Mesopotamia into a murderous and draining chaos. The soil itself worked against the Mesopotamians: it lacked nutrients and easily became overcultivated and just a few hundred feet below were tremendous salt beds which would eventually leech and cause famine. However, there were several positive aspects of mesopotamia. The soil was laden with tremendous amounts of clay, and this allowed architecture, tools and art to fluourish. Also, the rivers provided fish and the plains proided gazelle and horses.
Although Mesopotamia made everyday survival a daunting task, it was this same pressure which caused people to unite and form the first large-scale civilization. As the population increased, agriculture became necessary. Farming, though, required irrigation. Since irrigation required tremendous effort and investment, the residents needed to cooperate and operate as a single unit to provide water to populated regions. Also, important natural resources such as building- and precious-stone, wood and metal were unavailable in Mesopotamia. As a result, trade developed; this lead to an economy. The economy, driven by irrigation and importation, ran a civilization which was a direct response to the population pressure which needed to unite in order to live in an inhospitable region.
Mesopotamia’s lethal conditions predetermined its fatalistic perspective, pessimistic and gloomy perspective. Enuma Elish, Mesopotamia’s creation story, depicts Earth’s violent conception followed by the conception of humans from blood riddled with the contempt and blame of the Gods. This created a mentality that humans were innate slaves to their universe. Excessive Mesopotamian toil due to flooding, overcultivation and attack was conveniently yet depressingly explained as beyond human comprehension. After a lifetime of gloomy outlook, it was believed that soils would wander around in a purgatory as they faded away into nonexistence.
Egypt, however, had idyllic geography. Located along the Nile, which flowed with nutrient-laden water and lots of fish, it had tremendous natural resources (except wood) and very rich soil. Although there were annual floods, they were very predicable and less violent than Mesopotamia’s unpredictable and destructive overflows. In addition, the Niles’ floods would wash the soil with a layer of organic material. This yearly deposit of mulch was agriculturally beneficial and meant that Egyptian farms could never overcultivate. This spring was largely invulnerable to raids, as it was protected by vast deserts to the East and West and cataracts along the Southern Nile. This also made import slow, though, as the only ready way to access Egypt was to drift along the Nile via air and/or water currents. Upon encountering a cataract, a ship could either be taken onto dry land and carried beyond the cataract or unloaded so that another ship (already over the cataract) could be used. However, this setback was greatly outweighed and Egypt readily and rapidly fostered a tremendous and prolific civilization.
An obsession with immortality and worship dominated Egyptian culture. While initially only Pharaohs (equivalent to a king, and considered only one degree of separation from divinity) could attain immortality, the afterlife was rapidly democratized and after only a few generations the entire populace could cheaply and easily attain immortality through a lifetime of worship, respect and good form. Strikingly enough, it was believed that heaven was much like the land of living: essentially, Egypt itself was the same as heaven.
Both civilizations, despite being prosperous, eventually crumbled. Egypt was destroyed by an invasion and Mespotamia crumbled when undergorund salt beds, moisturized by irrigation, leeched back to the surface and rended the soil unfarmable.
