1. Make a comparative study of the
Harappan and the Mesopotamian
Civilization.
Answers
Answer:
There are many differences between them both
Explanation:
comparative study of the harappan and mesopotamian civilisation
At the dawn of civilization two distinct civilizations appeared in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley: the Sumerians and the Harappans. The Sumerians settled in the valleys between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, aland known as Mesopotamia, the area known today as Kuwait and Iraq. One of the most important cities of this civilization was Ur. Ur is the city from which God called Abram a
s mentioned in Genesis 11:31(“Abram…set out from Ur”) and Nehemiah 9:7, “You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham”. Concurrently, in the area that is now Pakistan, part of Afghanistan and
Northern India the Harappan civilization appeared in the flood plain of the Indus and Hakra rivers. Its two most important cities were Mojeno-doro and Harappa. The Sumerian and Harappan economies developed along similar lines, and have comparable religious and social structures. Nevertheless their politics, art, treatment of women and intellectual advancements stand in sharp contrast to one another.
The Harappans and Sumerians are distinctly different politically. While the Sumerians developed the world’s
first monarchy, the Harappans may have developed the first democracy. Very little evidence has been found of a king in the Indus Valley, only one white priest-king idol and a silver crown; not enough to establish that the
“royalty” were the rulers. Instead the e mpire was divided into regions with half a dozen cities functioning as capitals and was governed by a group of people. Archaeologist Jonathan Mark Kenoyed has speculated that the Harappan rulers were merchants, ritual specialists and individuals controlling important resources, instead of just one social group controlling the rest. From the construction of the cities however it does appear there were some social classes, as the citadel is usually 20 feet higher than the middle and lower town. The Sumerians, on the other hand, developed into city-states ruled by a priest-king. The king led the military, administered trade, judged disputes and performed certain important religious ceremonies. The king also had a bureaucracy, which consisted mostly of priests, who assisted him in governing. To justify the authority of the priest-kings the Sumerians declared that the king was divinely selected, but later this changed and eventually they asserted that the king himself was divine and worthy of worship. So while the Sumerians worshiped their king the Harappans chose not to glorify any particular person and were instead ruled by ordinary people. The economies of the Harappan and Sumerian civilizations were very similar. Both civilizations relied heavily on trade; in fact they appear to have traded extensively with one another. In records found in Mesopotamia there is mentioned a civilization they traded with in the area of the Indus valley and many Indus seals, for which they are well known, have been found in Mesopotamia. The Sumerians exported mostly textiles and crops, while the Harappans traded in lumber, copper, gold and ivory, which were bought by the Sumerian royalty. Both civilizations made great advances in transportation in order to carry their merchandise with greater ease. The Sumerians appear to have developed the wheel and possibly the sailboat and the Harappans developed ox-cart sand small flat-bottomed boats all of which were used commercially. Perhaps it is because of the extensive trade between the two civilizations that they developed similarly in many areas. In terms of religion, we know little about the Sumerian religion and even less about the Harappan religion. We do know that both civilizations were polytheistic. The Sumerians believed in many gods that were humanlike with human emotions. They believed that the sun, moon and stars were gods and everything that happened was controlled by one of the gods. According to the Sumerian religion, humans were created to serve the gods, and the gods controlled their destinies. Because they believed the gods controlled them, they sought ways to discover what the gods held in store for them. By doing this they invented astrology that eventually led to the invention of the lunar calendar.
Harappan and Mesopotamian civilization
Explanation:
- Harappan civilization was a bronze age while Mesopotamis are known for developing one of the first written scripts.
- Traders ruled Harappan civilization while in Mesopotamia was ruled by the king.
- Houses were built to the east of citadel in Harappan civilization while in Mesopotamia houses were around distinct palaces dedicated to Gods.
- Harappan people mostly lived in villages, while in Mesopotamia people lived in cities and towns.
- Harappans traded in cotton, beads, art jewellery etc, Mesopotamians traded in precious stones.
- Measurement and weighing system was established in Harappa, wheels were first created in Mesopotamia.