Compare And Contrast Mesopotamia And Shang

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With an increasing population, many civilizations had technological advances, new forms of worship, and expanding societies. The Shang dynasty, one of the earliest known East Asian civilizations, and Mesopotamia, the origin of human civilization, had numerous similarities and differences in technology, religion, and architecture. Both the Shang dynasty and Mesopotamia believed in many gods, as well as selecting one ruler to maintain peace and developed a form of written communication. However, Mesopotamia performed rituals and sacrifices to gods that controlled prosperity, and grew out of urban polities. Regarding religion most ancient civilizations had different beliefs, but the Shang dynasty and Mesopotamia had a similar foundation. Of course, the Shang dynasty and Mesopotamia didn’t worship the same deities, or have the same ceremonies, but both civilizations believed in a polytheistic religion. Shang Di, “who was the supreme god that…show more content…
The Shang Dynasty recorded their history on bronze artifacts and oracle bones. “These bones typically had three sections: a question for the oracle, the oracle’s answer, and whether the oracle later proved to be correct.” People often used shells or turtle eggs to tell the future. The symbols used during the Shang dynasty evolved into characters incorporated into the Chinese alphabet. During the Shang dynasty they used their written language to create anything from offerings to gods, to keeping records of successful hunts. Similarly, the Mesopotamians created cuneiform to record and communicate information. Cuneiform was created by using burnt reeds to carve wedge shaped pictographs on clay tablets. Having the ability to read and write was a highly specialized task, in which only the king and very few scribes would be able to do. The scribes would use different shapes to record literature, astronomy and
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