Looking at Ancient Civilizations

There have been many civilizations that we know nothing about, but the ancient Mesopotamians are not one of these.  Why might be asked?  Well one of the reasons is because of their written language.  This allows us to study their work long after they are gone.  One of their well known works is The Epic of Gilgamesh.  This is an epic, a long poem telling about a hero, about a king blessed by the gods.  From reading this we can learn many things about the Mesopotamian culture.  One of which is that they had a king with some type of power (p.50 Worlds of History).  Another fact is that they had enough free time to read for pleasure, resulting in the creation of this epic (p.49 Worlds of History).  That this poem is still around testifies to the fact that writing greatly improved the record keeping of this time.

 

Numerous people have heard of Hammurabi’s Code, but do they really know that they are talking about a complex system of laws instead of just a few famous ones.  For instance when people say Hammurabi’s Code most people think about an eye for an eye, but do they know that the code covers laws from theft(p.59 Worlds of History)to legal agreements(p.59 Worlds of History) and to family relations(p.60 Worlds of History)?  In reality there are countless laws covering many, many things.  From reading this we know that this land was in fact, a kingdom with a semi fare ruling system favoring rich. We also know that they were militaristic because of the fact that Hammurabi conquered Mesopotamia.  So next time you think about Hammurabi’s code remember all of the other laws that were carved into the stone and not just the few famous ones.

 

 

Next we will be looking at Advice to a Young Egyptian: Be a Scribe.  This is a story telling how every job is terrible, except being a scribe (p. 62-65 Worlds of History).  As the name applies it was written about Egypt, and it exemplifies how prestigious being a scribe was.  This piece tells us about some of the other trades of that day (p. 63, 64 Worlds of History), as well as shows us how biased a writer can sometimes be.  The story Advice to a Young Egyptian: Be a Scribe is a very interesting piece to read letting us look into the distant past of Egypt.

 

The Egyptian Book of the Dead is a small book that deals with dying, and the after life.  It is a religious text that proves that the Egyptians believed in many gods (p. 66 Worlds of History).  It also shows us that they believed in life after death (p. 68 Worlds of History).  This book might have been one of the items a pharaoh would have had buried with him.

 

The pictures of Egypt depict a belief in after life, they also portray that after death everybody will have the same roles as in life.  For instance the pharaoh is still in charge (p. 71 Worlds of History), and the servants are still serving him (p. 70 Worlds of History).

 

 

I would rather live in Egypt as one of the ruling class or a merchant.  I would prefer this mainly because I would live on the river and have boat that could be used for transportation of person of goods (p. 63 Worlds of History).