World of Gods and the World of Men as Perceived by the Sumerians

Sumerian kings where military leaders. They would have to protect their people yet control the military. The kings would set up the military as well as making sure the military was strong enough in battle. ancient Mesopotamians believed that taking over other lands was a mission and it wasn’t easy or granted to them. The kings where to have made sure each warrior had their own set of armor and weapons when a battle would happen. Winning a war in the Sumerian society looked very good on the king because they would get more land.

The geography is the biggest influence of culture and religion. The geography of Egypt and Mesopotamia are different in several ways. The geography of Egypt is naturally good for agriculture. The Nile river floods in a pattern that is useful for farmers and predictable unlike the Tigris or Euphrates rivers which flood randomly due to the mountains in the north. The Nile river also flows in the opposite direction of the wind towards the Mediterranean. Travelling the river is easy because of this and benefited the trade and economy of Egypt. The Egyptian empire stretched not far from the Nile due to the desert surrounding

The two rivers had a delta which was called the Fertile Crescent. This was because of its crescent-like shape and because of how fertile it was due to the two rivers depositing rich silk into it, giving it the ability to support agriculture. The two rivers were incredibly important to the ancient Sumerians because it supplied them with water for their irrigation systems. They were able to also dump their sewage as well. The water gave them mud to use as clay for building. The river led them to the concept of regional government, which was used to manage their irrigation systems, consequently resulting in them creating a city-state. Unlike the Chinese and Harappan people, the Sumerians left behind records that we today are able to decipher. Their writing system was called ‘cuneiform’, which they wrote on clay tablets. This tell us that the Sumerians were civilized and organized. Unlike the Chinese, they utilized their time to learn how to read and write instead of fighting

Ancient Egyptians referred to their king as pharaoh. Document 3 explains that they believed that pharaoh is a god that controls everything and has an absolute power that nobody can came close to. According to document 6 the Sumerians and Akkadians practice polytheism, the worship of many gods. They believed that keeping the gods happy will be the key of their own happiness and prosperity but, if the gods were angry, they might bring suffering and disaster.the sumerians built temples that called ziggurats, they believed that the temples linked earth with the heavens and linked people with gods.

“Surpassing all kings, powerful and tall, beyond all others, violent, splendid, a wild bull of a man, unvanquished leader, hero in the front lines, beloved by his soldiers…(71)”. This excerpt from The Epic of Gilgamesh describes Gilgamesh as “powerful” and “violent”, attributes which may possibly be real characteristics that the ancient Sumerians valued in their time. Although today’s society may find these qualities quite reprehensible, the ancient Sumerians greatly valued prominent physical strength, uttermost bravery, religious beliefs, and intimate relationships and friendships. Evidence of these aforementioned qualities are displayed in numerous occurrences in the epic.

Mesopotamia and Egypt were very different because of their geography and world view. Mesopotamia was often flooded because of their bad geography, but the land around the Nile river was built well so the Egyptians didn 't have to worry about the river flooding as often. The land in Mesopotamia was often attacked and invaded. Ultimately the geography of Egypt was significantly better than Mesopotamia because of the benefits of the nile river created a positive world view, a strong government and a universal religion.

The Nile River was the life force of ancient Egypt. People from all over the region immigrated to the area for its irrigation waters and rich silt deposits. The geography of the region played a huge role in the way the inhabitants and civilization in general was formed. The main core of Egypt covered 386, 560 square miles, of which only 11, 720 were cultivable (Tignor et al., Worlds Together, 62). The Nile differed itself specifically from the Tigris and Euphrates in that its waters did not irrigate or fertilize nearly as well but it did create green belts along the water. This created a society that flourished along the river. The Nile unlike Mesopotamia did not have a bountiful borderland but did have a desert rich in materials. The Niles predictability as the source of life and abundance shaped the character of the people and their culture. (Tignor et al., Worlds Together, 63). The Nile was peaceful and calm unlike the vicious Tigris And Euphrates Rivers. Egypt with its natural borders, which included the Mediterranean Sea, Deserts, and Large Waterfalls, was very isolated. This helped to achieve

The Epic of Gilgamesh is generally regarded as the greatest literature about tales of a great king. The Epic of Gilgamesh served to show us a lot of things. The time period of BCE is very blurry, and this story attempts to describe many different things in not only Sumerian beliefs, but also Sumerian's culture as a whole. Like many stories from BCE the truth itself is questionable, even though a lot of the information is fact. The factual information that Gilgamesh teaches us about Sumerian Civilization is that had had many craftsman and artistic skills, and also a strong belief in Gods.

The world of the ancient Near East believed in a creator deity as member within a plethora of deities; that is, there was no supreme being. Within this plethora, each deity held a specific responsibility, representing such matters as order, justice, love, and truth, to name but a few. Among ANE inhabitants, according to Philip J. Nel, “a normative principle of justice was maintained as part and parcel of the created universe. The human life-world and the order of nature were seen as inextricable entwined.” It is not surprising, therefore, how ancient civilizations understood justice to be a concomitant attribute of a deity within a pantheon of deities; a pantheon where members had origins and, in most instances, were familial in nature. According to their understanding of creation, ancient civilizations held views on social and economic justice as a means that would “facilitate the service of the community to the divine world.” Nel observes that, “The principle of justice was . . . not so much regarded as a system of moral order, but rather the assumption of an existing/created autonomous design/order which should be upheld and adhered to in all sectors of society.” The Sumerians, and the Egyptians, serve as examples.

According to the document 1, Egyptian civilizations began close to the Nile River because the Nile provided a fetile area in the middle of a dessert located near Africa, these fetile could be use for soil for the plants and crops to grow food and farming. The Nile also beneficials to the people not only for rich soil, but also for the transportation to get from one destination to another and also for trade, which allow Egypt to be open for sharing resources from other area around the world. According the document 2, Mesopotamia are located in Fertile Creasant area, which have lots of river to provide civilization food, transportation, as well as plants. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers located in Fertile Creasant are also essential to the survival of people and the Nile river proves how geographic luck play the big role in both civilizations to be

All through history, geographic features have impacted the improvement of civilizations and districts. These features have both advanced and constrained interactions with other civilizations and regions. Today, I will inform you about two main geographic features that have substantially influenced the development of ancient Egypt and have promoted or limited the interaction of this civilization with another civilization or region. These geographic features are the Nile river and the Mediterranean sea. Throughout this essay, you will also learn about how the ancient Egyptian civilization compares to modern Egypt.

As civilization has progressed through the ages, many religions have arisen and taken hold around the world, two if the most interesting, being the religious beliefs of the ancient Mesopotamian and the Greeks. These two religions were practiced in different areas and at different times and, therefore, show that religion has played a critical role in every society and civilization. No matter how it is organized or what type of god is worshiped, a society would be nothing without some kind of deity to organize it. In comparing the religious beliefs of the Mesopotamian and the Ancient Greeks religious components highlighted including the style of worship, the temples

This essay will compare and contrast the Biblical creation myths with other creation myths from Greece and the Ancient Near East. It will first discuss the initial creation of the universe followed by the creation of mankind and finally the recreation of man whilst drawing parallels to Sumerian and Babylonian texts, The Old Testament and Hesiods Theogony. In paying particular attention to the chronology of each myth it will be shown that the creation myths regarding the universe and mankind evolved from as far back as the Sumerian stories.

In this chapter, Walton contrast the state and family religion within ancient Mesopotamia. The state religion sought to understand what the Gods wanted through the needs of the god, the jobs of the gods, and the whims of the gods; whereas the family religion sought to appease the ancestral and familial gods who would hear their requests and meet their needs.

Despite the fact that ancient Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations grew up rather close together, both civilizations evolved in vastly different ways. The influence of geography cannot be underestimated. Although both civilizations were located in what is now the Middle East, ancient Sumerians lived in a constant state of instability and fear, due to the threat of flooding. In contrast, the Egyptians enjoyed the fertility conveyed by the relatively controlled flooding by the nearby Nile. For the Mesopotamians, the natural world constantly threatened to flood their crops and their homes: "floods and torrential rains were a significant theme in Mesopotamian literature as depicted in the Epic of Gilgamesh" (Kries, 2006, Lecture 2).