Ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica
Ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica
"We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where civilizations once flourished. The shepherds play with fragments that pop up to the surface, having no notion of the beautiful structures of which they were once a part." Alan Bloom expresses how all should feel when looking back to civilizations before. The Ancient Egyptians and Mesoamericans were two civilizations that continue to influence life today. These had both similarities and differences. Although Egypt and Mesoamerica had similar intellectual accomplishments, they had very different religious beliefs and economic structure. When one looks closely at the intellectual accomplishments, religious beliefs and economic structures of both civilizations, this is easily seen.
There were many advancements in intellectual ideas and structures during the height of the Egyptian and Mesoamerican societies. First of all, both societies had calendar systems. Egypt based their calendar on the regular flooding of the Nile. Through this, they developed a 12 months calendar with five extra days a year. This was called the civil calendar. The Maya calendar, which was the most prominent of Mesoamerican calendars, is actually a system of calendars. It consists of cycles of different lengths. A calendar round is the name for how long it takes for all the cycles the line up the same way again, and it is 18, 980 days. Second of all, they both built pyramid structures. Egypt is very famous for it's pyramids that were used for burial. Mesoamerica is famous for their step pyramids that were used for temples in the center of ceremonial centers. Third of all, both had similar styles of writing. Egypt used hieroglyphics, which comes from the greek words meaning "Sacred Writing". They consisted of pictures representing letters or sounds. Mesoamerica used Maya glyphs which were also pictures representing letters or sounds. Therefore, the intellectual accomplishments of Egypt and Mesoamerica were
"We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where civilizations once flourished. The shepherds play with fragments that pop up to the surface, having no notion of the beautiful structures of which they were once a part." Alan Bloom expresses how all should feel when looking back to civilizations before. The Ancient Egyptians and Mesoamericans were two civilizations that continue to influence life today. These had both similarities and differences. Although Egypt and Mesoamerica had similar intellectual accomplishments, they had very different religious beliefs and economic structure. When one looks closely at the intellectual accomplishments, religious beliefs and economic structures of both civilizations, this is easily seen.
There were many advancements in intellectual ideas and structures during the height of the Egyptian and Mesoamerican societies. First of all, both societies had calendar systems. Egypt based their calendar on the regular flooding of the Nile. Through this, they developed a 12 months calendar with five extra days a year. This was called the civil calendar. The Maya calendar, which was the most prominent of Mesoamerican calendars, is actually a system of calendars. It consists of cycles of different lengths. A calendar round is the name for how long it takes for all the cycles the line up the same way again, and it is 18, 980 days. Second of all, they both built pyramid structures. Egypt is very famous for it's pyramids that were used for burial. Mesoamerica is famous for their step pyramids that were used for temples in the center of ceremonial centers. Third of all, both had similar styles of writing. Egypt used hieroglyphics, which comes from the greek words meaning "Sacred Writing". They consisted of pictures representing letters or sounds. Mesoamerica used Maya glyphs which were also pictures representing letters or sounds. Therefore, the intellectual accomplishments of Egypt and Mesoamerica were