Ancient River Civilizations: Distinct And Unique

Ancient River Civilizations: Similar yet Distinct and Unique
The four Ancient River Civilizations share similar core features within their societies; however, their cultures are still distinct and unique. In the Ancient World (±3500 BCE – ±500 BCE) there were four major river civilizations: Mesopotamia (±5000 BCE - ±33 BCE), the Indus Valley (±2100 BCE - ±1750 BCE), Egypt (±3100 BCE - ±323 BCE), and China (±2100 BCE - ±1368 CE). All four river civilizations’ core features are similar in their social structure, leadership, and agriculture. The differences between the river civilizations began in the geography of their placement, whether it is the rivers or the trade made possible through the geography. The river civilizations were distinct and

Social structures were formed into pyramid social structures with the king on top. Following the king would be the nobles then priests and so on, with slaves being at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Slavery made up a great deal of the societal hierarchy. One was not always a slave but with the conquest of land came slaves until they gained citizenship under the new ruler, as was the case in Mesopotamia. Another key element of the social structures was gender. The ancient river civilizations abandoned the matrilineal lineage of prehistory and adopted a patrilineal society. Husbands owned their wives and children, able to sell them into slavery and have control over them; which, in some cases, meant women were seen as second-class citizens. Each river civilization had a social contract that allowed them to form their societies. Furthermore, the core features of social structures were similar in all of the Ancient River

In the case of Mesopotamia and Egypt, they both built pyramid-like structures but Mesopotamia built rough pyramid structures, called ziggurats, while Egypt built smooth pyramids. Mesopotamia’s ziggurats were temples of worship, whereas Egypt’s pyramids were tombs for their deceased pharaohs. Similar to Mesopotamia and Egypt’s building-like structures, China built the Forbidden City, which could house 10,000 people. Not all of the civilizations built large scale buildings, for instance, China also built the Great Wall, one of its largest projects. The Indus Valley’s large scale construction project was the great bath at the center of the city. Furthermore, despite each Ancient River Civilization partaking in large scale construction, each had a distinctly unique structure