Four Classical River Valley Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus And China
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The four Classical River Valley Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus and China, all had unique complex institutions. An institution is any structure that is used to govern the behavior of people around it. A complex institution is one that affects the people in more than one way and has various functions. These complex institutions form how the older cultures lived their daily lives and even some shape the governments we have today; they are very important. Four of these complex institutions include: Ziggurats, Pyramids, the Great Bath and Oracle Bones. Ziggurats are complex institutions. Ziggurats were known to be the main complex institutions of Mesopotamia, in its timeframe. The first thing that Ziggurats stood for, that made them a constitution was that they were temples for the rulers of the civilization. Historians believe that only priests were allowed to enter the buildings. The people of Mesopotamia also believed that these Ziggurats were the bridges between heaven and earth, that at these temples, their leaders could meet the gods. The Ziggurat was not just a temple; it was the center of city life. Ziggurats acted as both a city hall to the people and at the same time, a temple.…show more content… Pyramids, in Egypt, were a place to bury the past rulers of the civilization. The pyramids acted as a symbol to stand for their leaders. Not only did the pyramids act as a burial chamber, they also acted as temples, in a way. The people of Egypt believed that once the pharaoh, their king, died, then they would join the land of the gods and would look over the residents of the civilization. According to some historians, these pyramids are shaped with slanted sides to represent the rays of the sun and were a way of transport, or a bridge, for the dead pharaohs to make their way up to the