Comparing Sumer And Egypt's Old Kingdom

Human civilizations all started out in much the same way. As climate changed, animals began to migrate and many humans decided to settle down instead of follow after the animals. These early humans settled down next to large freshwater sources. Watching the natural world around them, they slowly learned how to take seeds from edible plants and how to plant them again in a more accessible area. They learned how to plant crops. Overtime, as populations of these early humans grew, they began to grow a surplus of food. This could be stored away for hard times or it could be used to trade with each other. This also started division of labor. People began specializing in certain things instead of all doing the same task. Surplus of food also gave
Sumer, Egypt’s Old Kingdom, Indus River Valley, and the early Chinese civilization, were four of the first civilizations in history. These early civilizations had a lot in common, but they differed in many things as well.
Sumer and Egypt’s Old Kingdom both had writing systems. These were first developed to record economic transactions and for long-distance communication. While these writing systems were not all that similar, they both used pictures that stood for simple words. Sumer started out using clay tokens with shapes on them. This progressed to pictograms. Sumer eventually developed Cuneiform. Cuneiform is a series of wedge shaped markings that are strung together to form coherent sentences. It was written on soft, clay tablets using sharpened reeds. Egypt’s Old Kingdom started out using pictograms as well.
At the top, was the pharaoh. He was the official ruler of all the Egyptians and was looked upon as god-like. Under the pharaoh, there was the grand vizier. The grand vizier was the highest ranking official serving the pharaoh. He was the one to carry out the kings orders and reported directly to him. Next came all the other priests and officials. The priests were such high-ranking officials because the people of ancient Egypt believed in the gods’ power over all things. Egyptians also believed in the afterlife. They believed that a person’s belongings in this world could be taken to the afterlife (after they passed judgement). This was why the pharaohs had such huge tombs built and filled with their belongings. The people believed that was where the pharaoh would be “living” after he died. Underneath the priest and officials, ranked the tax collectors, bookkeepers, skilled professionals, and doctors. This was where the literate citizens were ranked. Below them, were the merchants and skilled artisans. Then came the peasants, who did labored to serve the people above them. They had the hardest lives and on average had about half the lifespan of the people in the higher classes. Below the peasants were the slaves. Ancient Egypt did not have many of them. Sumer and Egypt had similar class systems, but they differed greatly when it came to women’s rights. While Sumer did not have many women’s rights, Egypt was greatly