I haven't posted in a while, so here's my blog post topic for this week: civilizations! More specifically, it's the first civilizations, such as Mesopotamia, China, and Egypt.
This time, I will be going over all of Chapter 2. So if you're looking for the section of the book I'll be talking about today, it shouldn't be hard to find.
Something New: The Emergence of Civilization
Civilizations started separately from each other. From the Middle-Eastern Mesopotamia to the Asian China, it's a miracle humanity has even thought of the concept of civilizations like this. Some even survive to this day!
Writing also became a thing. So if you're reading this blogpost, you're using an invention that civilization invented. I'm very thankful for this invention, since my writing is better than my speaking ability and I'm an English major.
Also, close to Peru, archeologists discovered Caral, a new member of the First Civilizations Club. It had no writing, defensive walls, or pottery, but at least it had some nice art. Still, historians have numerous questions about Caral, and it's a mystery if any of them will be answered.
Of course, when talking about ancient civilizations, China should always come up. It's arguably one of the most successful civilizations of all time, and is known for being ahead of the world until Britain caught up a couple centuries ago. Still, they not only had monarchs rule over land millenia before Britain, but they also wrote on oracle bones. Modern Chinese (and other languages that use Chinese characters, such as Japanese) looks very different than the oracle bone writing, but it's still impressive that an ancient writing system is still in use today.
Now, how did civilizations start? Nobody knows for sure. Everyone has their own theories, but in the end, we may never know. It adds to the mysteriousness of it.
The Erosion of Equality
When civilization happened, inequality happened.
Classism starts in this time period. While there were wealthy people that benefited from the economy, there were also the commoners that were treated less favorably.
In fact, slavery existed at the time. It wasn't because of race, and the children of slaves could become free, but it's still slavery. Women were also captured during war and became slaves. They worked in weaving enterprises. After reading about the working conditions of American women in the textile industry during the 1800's and early 1900's, I feel very uncomfortable at the thought of women slaves forcing to weave during ancient times. Imagine the working conditions...
Lastly, sexism became a major thing during this time period. They stayed in the house to take care of and produce babies. Also, the laws were very much against them. It's scary how much of this was true until recently, and even in some places, this is still the case.
The Rise of State
States start to become a thing. Not states, as in US states, but city states. They didn't have Internet or telephones back then, so they had to manage large pieces of land this way.
Instead of talking about how leaders used religion and violence to rule, I'll instead talk about scribes, because they're the underrated heroes of history. They wrote down things that historians can use to learn about history! Also, it had practical purposes, such as writing down taxes, but scribes held a power that no one else had. Sometimes, writing was very threatening to rulers, who tried to censor it if they found it threatening. That shows the power the scribes had.
Oh, and it should come as no surprise that kings were treated the best. They even got beautiful burial grounds!
Comparing Mesopotamia and Egypt
They're related because they're some of the first civilizations. Look, instead of going over the similarities and differences between two ancient civilizations schools teach to death, I'm going to just say the most notable things about this section.
For example, Mesopotamia wrote down possibly the oldest story known to man, The Epic of Gilgamesh. It's an epic poem about a possible Neanderthal who turns into a human. Apparently, it's similar to modern-day romance movies, where the man finds a beautiful woman and stops hanging out with his "guy friends." They did the romance movie cliches before movies ever existed.
A funny thing about Mesopotamia was that they didn't know how to take care of the soil. They destroyed the environment and were most likely surprised that the soil was destroyed, too. They had to grow barley to make up for their destruction. Meanwhile, Egypt worked with the environment and didn't face the salt problem. Those ranchers in the Amazon Rainforest need to take notes on ancient Egypt.
And lastly, let's talk about the tale of the tale of Paneb, the Egyptian troublemaker. He's a legendary criminal that apparently committed major crimes and scared the high officials. I don't know how much of this is true, but it's almost as fascinating as reading about gangsters. I don't support his actions in the slightest, but his extreme actions is probably why his story included in the textbook.
That's all for this blogpost! Next time, I will answer a question in a much shorter blog post. See you next time!
From Wikimedia Commons
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