As an ancient Egyptian peasant, I am struck by the story of the Great Flood from The Epic of Gilgamesh. The story tells of a great flood that devastated all life except for a man and his family. They were able to survive by constructing a large boat (Jackson, 2014). This story reminds me of the importance of water in our own lives and how it can be both a source of life and death. In Mesopotamia, where the story takes place, water held particular significance for agriculture, as the rivers Tigris and Euphrates furnished the essential supply for crop cultivation. The arid and rigorous environment of Mesopotamia would not have been able to accommodate the development of the first urban civilizations that sustained large populations were it not for the rivers.
This leads me to wonder about the reasons for the evolution of civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Civilization in Mesopotamia began around 4000 BCE, with the emergence of the Sumerian city-states, which could support large populations through their mastery of irrigation and agriculture (Jackson, 2014). Similarly, in Egypt, the development of civilization was intimately tied to the Nile River, which flooded annually and provided the necessary water for agriculture. The Nile was the lifeline of Egyptian society, and its annual floods provided fertility and abundance to the land. I believe that the Egyptian peasant’s experience of the Nile River would help them sympathize with the story of the “world flood,” as they would have seen the power of water firsthand. However, the Nile was different from the rivers of Mesopotamia, as Jackson described “The “miracle” of the Nile: annual, predictable flooding” (12). This may have contributed to the different ways civilization developed in Egypt and Mesopotamia, with Egypt’s society being more centralized and hierarchical and Mesopotamia’s being more fragmented and decentralized.
Reference
Spielvogel, J. J. (2014). Western Civilization (9th ed.). Cengage Learning.