Essay Wow!

Ancient Civilizations Along the Rivers: Assyrian and Indus Valley.

Ancient civilizations have taught and passed on knowledge to following civilizations and have given us insight to what life was and how life was thousands of years ago. Two very similar yet different cultures are the Assyrians, which were a part of the Mesopotamian civilization, and the Indus Valley civilization. Mesopotamia stands for the “land between rivers” in Greek (The British Museum). The Indus Valley Civilization also existed about the same time period and flourished along the Indus River. In this paper, I will compare similarities and differences between the Mesopotamian and Indus Valley civilizations and also relate how both cultures influenced our cultures today.

Mesopotamian is a general term for Sumer, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires. Mesopotamians created many city-states along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Specialized labor and agriculture, aided by irrigation and flood control systems, helped this civilization survive. The Assyrians were warriors who defeated Babylonians, Hittites, and Elamites. Much of the Assyrian architecture, statues, murals, and sculptures depicted the cultures warring ways. Ethnic differences can be seen in Assyrian art as the physical appearances of enemies appear different than that of the Assyrians. The palace walls were covered with stone slabs and carved with images of court rituals, hunting, and war. Moreover, texts were found next to reliefs which were used to identify specific people who were important. People were also depicted by standardized clothing and headgear rather than their physical form (Bahrani 48-59). The Indus Valley civilization was a large civilization which extended over 400,000 km2 The Indus Valley civilization established itself along the Saraswati and Indus River (Lal 6). The cities were well planned along with well established farming villages. The Indus Valley civilization also had a standardization of weights and measures which portrayed “impressive administrative and economic discipline.” This complexity helped lead to the development of shell-working, bead-making, and ceramics with multi-layer patterns (Krishnan 691-703). Both cultures were very similar in many aspects. Both were established along rivers and well planned. Both the Indus Valley civilization and the Assyrians existed during the same time period, around the first and second millennium BCE. However, the Assyrians were war-faring warriors whereas the Indus Valley civilization maintained order and civilization. The Assyrian art also involved sculptures and distinguished people by clothing and head-ware in their art. The Indus Valley civilization specialized in pottery, ceramics, and beads. Both cultures set a base for future cultures to learn upon and establish upon. The well thought and planned cities and towns of the Indus Valley and Assyrians have played a very important role in shaping our cultures today. The extensive planning these civilizations undertook millenniums ago tell us how the smart these civilizations were. The ceramic art and sculptures made way for later cultures like the Greek for example; multiple layers of detail done to ceramics paved the way for future cultures to expand upon. Today, ceramic is used particularly for tile, but if it was never created and improvised upon centuries ago, it would not be what it is today. Also sculptures are a very skilled form of art which tell us how much people art has progressed over the years.

Taking a look into history, we cannot help but stand in awe at the accomplishments of previous civilizations. Overall, ancient civilizations have taught and passed on knowledge from civilization to civilization teaching us how life was thousands of years ago. It also teaches us how much cultures have progresses over the years. The fact that both the Indus Valley civilization and the Assyrian Mesopotamians chose to settle along rivers and spread surprises ms; this portrays that food and transportation were a major concern. Just like today, a small settlement alongside a river has flourished and spread north to south, east to west like cities today. This has further lead to an assimilation and exchange of ideas. From the works of these ancient civilizations, we have created our new world. Surprising as it may be, ancient civilizations already began to reach a high level of advancement. However, with most civilizations and cultures being long gone, we have been left with relics and pieces of art, providing us insight to the ancient worlds.

BibliographyBahrani, Zainab. “Race and ethnicity in Mesopotanian antiquity 1. “World Archaeology 38.1 (Mar. 2006): 48-59. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Chambers Library, Edmond, OK. 4 Jan 2009 http://search.ebscohost.com.vortex3.uco.edu:2050/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=18631147&site=ehost-live.

“Geography”. The British Museum. 31 December 2008 <http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/geography/home_set.html>.

KRISHNAN, K., I.C. FREESTONE, and A. P. MIDDLETON. “THE TECHNOLOGY OF ‘GLAZED’ RESERVED SLIP WARE—A FINE CERAMIC OF HARAPPAN PERIOD*.’’ Archaeometry 47.4 (Nov 2005) 691-703. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Chambers Library, Edmond, OK. 4 Jan 2009 http://search.ebscohost.com.vortex3.uco.edu:2050/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=19978052&site=ehost.live.

LAL, VINAY. “The Indus Valley Civilization.” Introducing Hinduism (Apr. 2005): 6-6. Humanities International Complete. EBSCO. Chambers Library, Edmond, OK. 1 Jan. 2009 <http://search.ebscohost.com.vortex3.uco.edu:2050/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=34153935&site=ehost-live>.