River Valley Civilizations - A Comparison

The four main river-valley civilizations: Sumer, Egypt, the Indus Valley civilization and China all had many similarities and differences. For one, they all developed along a river (or more than one). Sumerian civilization developed between the Tigris and Euphrates, giving Mesopotamia its name (“between two rivers”). Egypt developed along the Nile, which is the longest river on Earth. The Indus Valley civilization developed in the Indian subcontinent along the Indus River and Chinese civilization developed along the Huang He and Yangtze Rivers. This essay will be exploring the similarities and differences between the writing and record keeping as well as the similarities and differences in social organizations in these four unique but similar river-valley civilizations.

The Sumerians were arguably the first people to start writing. They were, however, shortly followed by the Egyptians. The meanings of cuneiform writing (from Sumer), hieroglyphics (from Egypt) and also old Chinese characters from Shang China has been deciphered, but historians have, until now, not been able to uncover the mystery of Indus Valley writing. Egyptian, Cuneiform and Shang Chinese characters all started as pictograms, although it is likely that the Indus Valley started like this as well. The Sumerians were driven to find a way to translate the spoken language into words for record-keeping purposes – especially trade and economic transactions. The Indus Valley, much like this, also used their form of writing for record-keeping – they used them as seals to mark the belongings of one or another person. However, we know little about the Indus Valley writing, so we do not know if they also used writing for other purposes. In Sumer, scribes would keep receipts and keep track of grain reserves by using clay tablets. The Egyptian society was very complex and large – thereby requiring communication over long distances as well as a need for record-keeping and accounting, leading them to develop hieroglyphics. Similarly to Egypt, China also needed a way in which the government could communicate with the vast range of people (all of which spoke different languages) in China. Chinese characters were a key unifying factor of China. Interestingly, in China, unlike in Egypt and Sumer (again, we don’t know about the Indus Valley), being literate was not only limited to scribes – but to the people in the upper class / nobles. While Chinese stayed a language in which people had different characters for different words, Sumer and Egypt (we don’t know about the Indus Valley) developed beyond this. Eventually, the pictures which they drew came to stand for ideas/categories, and finally also just sounds. The materials which people wrote on also varied depending on the civilization. In Sumer, scribes wrote with a reed stylus on soft clay tablets, which would then later harden. In Egypt, scribes wrote on papyrus, in the Indus Valley on soapstone seals and in China, on oracle bones. As well as using writing for record-keeping, Sumerians wrote stories, hymns, love poems, novels and proverbs. The ancient Egyptians also wrote these, along with songs, prayers, wisdom books, religious stories and instruction manuals. We don’t know much about the Indus Valley writing’s uses. However, we know that, in China, priests used the writing to write on bones. They would ask a question for god, and would then put a hot metal rod into the bone. The direction of the first crack which appeared hinted to the answer. In conclusion, whilst the languages all started in the same way, they developed in different ways, depending on the needs of the society which used the language.

The social organization of the different river valley civilizations was very similar in terms that there was a clear social hierarchy with different classes. Social organization was required in order to build massive projects, and the different classes relied on each other. For example, farmers relied on potters for pots to store grains in, whilst the potters would rely on farmers for grain. Egypt and Sumer both had quite a complex social hierarchy. At the top of both of them was the king. In Egyptian culture, he was believed to be an incarnation of Horus, the falcon-headed son of Isis and Osiris. In both Egypt and Sumer, priests and officials came next, as they were considered to be able to communicate with the gods, and therefore vital to the survival of the civilization. Then came the wealthy landowners in Sumer, and the skilled professionals, tax collectors and book keepers in Egypt. After that came skilled craftsmen followed by free laborers. Free laborers, who made up the largest part of the people. Finally came the slaves. In Sumer, there were many slaves, but there were not so many in early Egypt. Slaves in Sumer were usually people who had been captured in wars, but could also be people who had been sold into slavery or people who could not repay loans. Although we don’t know much about the social organization of the Indus Valley, it is likely that it was very organized, as it would have been difficult to build such complex cities otherwise. We also know that there were farmers in the Indus, and also artisans. China also had lower and upper classes. In order to accomplish huge projects, they used slaves but also farmers. In China, the emperor was at the top of the social organization, and there were many different roles to play, such as priests, scribes, artisans and craftsmen. Unlike most other river-valley civilizations, women in Egypt had most of the same rights as men – they could divorce, own property and even work in most occupations (these were things that would take a long time for the world to develop – in fact, many parts of the world still do not give women the same rights as men). In China, women not only had a low position in the home, but also in the general Chinese society. In conclusion, all of the river valley civilizations had a slightly different social structure, but they were very similar. Interestingly, Egypt was a civilization which, in early times, had equal rights for women.