Civilizations of the Ancient Western World: Comparison/Cont

As a young female beginning adulthood, I find my history increasingly important and interesting. Why am I here? I wonder. Why do I have certain behaviors as opposed to other peoples? Where do I come from, and why do live in this area of the world? For those of us in the Western heritage, the time of modern man begins approximately 1 million years ago, a time where people lived in small bands of hunter/gatherer societies.

The time period from about 1 million years ago until 10,000 B.C. is referred to the Paleolithic era. Paleolithic means “old stone”, referring to the stone tools that the people used. Labor was divided according to gender. Men hunted and fought battles; women gathered food, wove baskets, and made clothing. People were constantly on the move, as they had to follow the animal herds. They had extremely short life spans, and lived in

A monarch headed the Mesopotamian cities. In Sumaria, the ruler was a warlord; in Assyria, the monarch was the chief priest; and in Babylonia, he was not affiliated with either. Beneath the royalty were the religious leaders who ran the city temple. Temples were run as a literal “home” for a city’s patron god or goddess. Literate individuals who were not religious or royalty formed the upper class. The majority of people were commoners of the lower class, and at the bottom of the social system were slaves.

Homes in a Neolithic community were basically the same size, so it is thought that people were all of the same class. Religion also played a role in the lives of the people. The dead were buried, and the living may have had a kind of ancestor worship.

Like Mesopotamian religion, Egyptian religion was also polytheistic. There were many contradicting stories about the gods; for example, there were three main stories of creation. Basically, the god or goddess of the most powerful political entity was recognized as the most important god.

Through the study of history, one can begin to see patterns, as well as the bases of traditions still observed today. Even after thousands of years, we still use a social class system where those on the top receive significantly more wealth and prestige than those in the middle or lower classes. We also have one individual leader who is visibly "at the top" of government, so to speak.

In the Neolithic Age, people began to focus on inventing new kinds of possessions such as pottery and clothing made from flax and wool. Pottery allowed for the storage and cooking of foods and liquids. The economies of these early villages are believed to have been simple,

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