欧洲文明简史chapter1ci

欧洲文明简史

(1)Mesopotamia:

Firstly, the Tigris and Euphrates create many small plains and

lowlands, although to the north of Mesopotamia lays the

mountainous Iranian plateau and to its south the Syrian desert,

thanks to the rivers, Mesopotamia is hot but humid and fertile, it

is good for people to live in. Secondly, every year in late spring

or early summer, snow melted and it caused the flooding of the

rivers, then rich soil down from the mountain to the plain, the

rich soil and humid climate provided a wonderful environment

for early agriculture, so, this also do well to the civilization

development in Mesopotamia. Thirdly, the annual floods

between April and June were irregular and the tremendous heat

would cause rapid evaporation of the river water, these make

farming impossible. In order to solve both problem, people in

Mesopotamia built irrigation systems .As systematic agriculture

began to provide a consistent food surplus, populations grew

and small villages developed into larger town and cities . More

complex social structures appeared in these town and cities. The

first human civilization was born.

(2)Egypt: The historical development of civilization in Egypt

was strongly influenced by the geography. Firstly, Egypt is called

as “the gift of the Nile”. The Nile was the lifeline of the ancient

Egyptian civilization. In some way, all Egyptians depended on the

Nile for water, food and transportation. And the Nile helped the

ancient Egyptians was in trade. Secondly, Egypt’s unique natural

environment played an important role in its peace and stability

in its political history. The Nile’s regular flooding made people

can produce enough food which provided the economic basic for

internal stability. The Nile’s valley, surrounded by deserts and

seas, the Sahara desert, the Mediterranean and the Red sea, all

served as excellent natural defenses. All this ensured great

continuity in Egyptian civilization.

2. What were the similarities and differences in the religious

belief of the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Hebrews?

Similarities:

I just found a general similarity in the religious belief among

Sumerians, Egyptians, and Hebrews, that is, they all believed in

god or gods. What’s more, they also believed that god or gods

created and governed the nature or the universe.

However, I did find some similarities when comparing two of

them. Compared with Egyptians and Sumerians, I found three

similarities between them. First, they were polytheistic, in other

words, they both believed in many gods and goddess. Second,

both of them believed in the existence of human souls. Third,

they believed that gods had a human body.

Differences:

(1)As for Hebrews, they believed in only one God, but

Sumerians and

Egyptians supported polytheistic. Secondly, Hebrews’

monotheistic religion is based on moral principles and rules in

the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh. Thirdly, they thought that Jehovah,

the only real God for the Hebrews, was not created above nature.

Fourthly, they saw nature as an example of God’s handiwork; it

was no longer supernatural, but natural. Fifthly, they had

developed an awareness of self or the “I”

men must have the freedom to choose. Sixthly, Hebrew faith

is that God had made a special agreement with his people.

(2)As for Sumerians, they believed that the earth was a flat

disc and

God created human beings in their own image. Secondly,

they believed that man had a soul, but once he died, it would

perish. Thirdly, they did not believe in life after death, and their

funerals were simple.

(3)As for Egyptians, they built temples to worship the gods

and they had

a thought that the sun god and the lord of the universe were

depicted

in human form. Secondly, they believed life after death, so

they often prevented the bodies of the dead from rotting. Thirdly,

they thought that a person’s thoughts and emotions were

located in the heart instead of the brain.

3. In what ways did civilizations and cultures in the ancient

Near East influence the development of European civilization?

Civilization and Cultures in the ancient Near East influenced

the development of European civilization mainly through Greek

Culture which is commonly took as the origin of European

civilization. The civilization in the ancient Near East contributed

to Greek culture a lot which at last led to an influence on

European civilization.

The first thing we have to mention is language. Sumerians

who live in the area of Mesopotamia plain created the first known

writing system in human history which is pictographic. And after

that they invented cuneiform which is more abstract. Later,

Egyptians invented their own writing system Hieroglyphics which

was lately used and improved by Greeks and then became Latin

which had been widely used through Europe. The invention of

language

provided a way for the inheritance and development of

European culture. And also made it more possible for the second

thing we’re going to talk about to spread and influenced Greek

and Europe.

That is religion. Religion actually took an important part in

European culture and its developments as well as the Near East

ones. The religion in Mesopotamia causes the birth of the first

mythology. But Egypt religion actually made a bigger influence.

Most Greek gods and goddess were named after Egyptian gods

or places. However, the only one which was still frequently heard

nowadays is Israelite religion Judaism in Hebrew. It developed

into the worldwide religion Christianity lately because Jews paid

too much attention on tribe. And as we all known Christianity is

one of the biggest religions all around the world and most

European culture were gave birth and improved depends on this.

When it comes to religion, we will come up with the idea that

they contributed so much to Western art including literature,

painting and so on. Most of the famous masterpieces of master

were related to religion and this comment can still make sense

nowadays. Arts can be a really important part of a culture, so as

we can see, through religion, the civilization of Near East actually

does affect the culture of Europe.

And also, religions have greatly affected social consciousness

and values of modern people which sped up the improvement of

European economy and politic.