Compare And Contrast Shang And Mesopotamian Civilization

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Civilizations Revolving Around Religion, Life, and the Afterlife Many ancient civilizations have developed their own culture with the spare time from abundance, and the Mesopotamians and the Shang are two great examples of this agricultural revolution. Although both were agricultural societies that settled near rivers with dangerous floods, the Mesopotamians and the Shang were distinctive in their political system, art, architecture, and legacy they left behind. Yet, even with the contrasting key characteristics, in the big picture, these two civilizations centered their lives upon very similar aspects: religion and the afterlife. To better understand how these two distinctive cultures can have the same focus point of life yet remain to be…show more content…
Mesopotamians were the first civilization that developed a form of writing called cuneiform. Cuneiform was created because the lugals needed a way to record laws to make their job easier. The results were law codes such as the Code of Hammurabi. Nevertheless, cuneiform was needed for record keeping of the extensive trade that Mesopotamians took part in. Cuneiform also gave birth to a new form of art, which was literature. An example of Mesopotamian literature was the Epic of Gilgamesh, that was more than just a story but an insight to Mesopotamian view of life, religion, and culture. Nevertheless, the Mesopotamian writing system has impacted and influenced other civilizations. Hebrews, that were nomadic pastoralists used the Code of Hammurabi for the elements of the Hebrew religion. Phoenicians, that focused on trading by sea shared the polytheistic religion of Mesopotamia and was influenced by the Mesopotamian writing. The Mesopotamians also influenced Europe and Asia, for the Indo-Europeans flourished after gaining the Mesopotamian wheel technology to travel long distances and took Mesopotamian writing and religion along with them. The influence of the Mesopotamian writing gave current historians a way to know more about the
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