comparative study of the harappan and mesopotamian civilisation

At the dawn of civilization two distinct civilizations appeared in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley: the
Sumerians and the Harappans. The Sumerians settled in the valleys between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, a
land known as Mesopotamia, the area known today as Kuwait and Iraq. One of the most important cities of this
civilization was Ur. Ur is the city from which God called Abram as mentioned in Genesis 11:31(“Abram…set
out from Ur”) and Nehemiah 9:7, “You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the
Chaldeans and named him Abraham”. Concurrently, in the area that is now Pakistan, part of Afghanistan and
Northern India the Harappan civilization appeared in the flood plain of the Indus and Hakra rivers. Its two most
important cities were Mojeno-doro and Harappa. The Sumerian and Harappan economies developed along
similar lines, and have comparable religious and social structures. Nevertheless their politics, art, treatment of
women and intellectual advancements stand in sharp contrast to one another.

The Harappans and Sumerians are distinctly different politically. While the Sumerians developed the world’s
first monarchy, the Harappans may have developed the first democracy. Very little evidence has been found of
a king in the Indus Valley, only one white priest-king idol and a silver crown; not enough to establish that the
“royalty” were the rulers. Instead the empire was divided into regions with half a dozen cities functioning as
capitals and was governed by a group of people. Archeologist Jonathan Mark Kenoyed has speculated that the
Harappan rulers were merchants, ritual specialists and individuals controlling important resources, instead of
just one social group controlling the rest. From the construction of the cities however it does appear there were
some social classes, as the citadel is usually 20 feet higher than the middle and lower town. The Sumerians, on
the other hand, developed into city-states ruled by a priest-king. The king led the military, administered trade,
judged disputes and performed certain important religious ceremonies. The king also had a bureaucracy, which
consisted mostly of priests, who assisted him in governing. To justify the authority of the priest-kings the
Sumerians declared that the king was divinely selected, but later this changed and eventually they asserted that
the king himself was divine and worthy of worship. So while the Sumerians worshiped their king the Harappans
chose not to glorify any particular person and were instead ruled by ordinary people.

The economies of the Harappan and Sumerian civilizations were very similar. Both civilizations relied heavily
on trade; in fact they appear to have traded extensively with one another. In records found in Mesopotamia there
is mentioned a civilization they traded with in the area of the Indus valley and many Indus seals, for which they
are well known, have been found in Mesopotamia. The Sumerians exported mostly textiles and crops, while the
Harappans traded in lumber, copper, gold and ivory, which were bought by the Sumerian royalty. Both
civilizations made great advances in transportation in order to carry their merchandise with greater ease. The
Sumerians appear to have developed the wheel and possibly the sailboat and the Harappans developed ox-carts
and small flat-bottomed boats all of which were used commercially. Perhaps it is because of the extensive trade
between the two civilizations that they developed similarly in many areas.

In terms of religion, we know little about the Sumerian religion and even less about the Harappan religion. We
do know that both civilizations were polytheistic. The Sumerians believed in many gods that were humanlike
with human emotions. They believed that the sun, moon and stars were gods and everything that happened was
controlled by one of the gods. According to the Sumerian religion, humans were created to serve the gods, and
the gods controlled their destinies. Because they believed the gods controlled them, they sought ways to
discover what the gods held in store for them. By doing this they invented astrology that eventually led to the
invention of the lunar calendar. They also studied the inner organs of sacrificed animals to predict the future. To
worship their gods the Sumerians built the ziggurats, large temples, which are architectural wonders. One such
temple is found in the ancient city of Ur where the moon god, Nanna, was said to have lived in a little house at
the top of the ziggurat. The lesser gods, who did not have enormous temples built for them, were idols and
statues, which were worshiped in homes. Since the Indus script has not been deciphered and apart from the
bathhouse in Mohenjo-doro there are no religious structures there is very little evidence for the beliefs and
practices of the Harappans. What we know is from figurines and seals, many of which depict a horned goddess
with the sacred pipal tree. This probably indicates the worship of a mother goddess who presided over fertility,
birth and possibly the dead. The great bath at Mohenjo-doro was probably dedicated to this goddess and was
used for purification rights and possibly ceremonial bathing before ritual cohabitation with prostitutes in the
small antechamber. Because of the lack of religious structures in the Indus Valley it is very hard to discover as
much about their religion as has been discovered about the Sumerian religion.

The Harappan and Sumerian social structures consisted of similar social ladders, yet differed greatly in their
treatment of women. Like the Sumerians, the Harappan civilization had a social hierarchy. In Mesopotamia the
highest class consisted of nobles, priests and important officers, as did the highest classes in the Indus Valley,
although the priests and scholars were considered slightly higher than the noblemen. The middle class was the
same in both civilizations and contained the merchants, farmers, landowners and craftsmen. The last class
however is different. The Sumerians had slaves that made up the last class, however slavery in Mesopotamia
was not the same as that in the rest of the world. (Instead of being differentiated by race, it was considered a
misfortune and a slave could free himself through three years of service.) In the Indus Valley however the
lowest class contained the servants, workers and wage earners who performed the tasks no one else wished to
do. Where the two civilizations differed socially was their treatment of women. In the Indus Valley the men
were the head of the house and could do whatever they wished with their wife and children. Women could do
nothing if their husband did not permit it. In Mesopotamia however women were free to buy, sell, attend legal
matters for absent men, own property, borrow, lend and engage in business. High status women could even
learn to read and write and were given considerable administrative authority. Women were not considered equal
with men in Mesopotamia, but they were respected and given considerably more power. Indeed while both
civilizations had similar social hierarchies, the Sumerians treated their women with much more respect than the
Harappans did.

The Sumerians and Harappans both advanced greatly in the areas of science, math and writing, but in different
ways. At first both civilizations used pictographs to depict their spoken words, but the Sumerians advanced
even further by developing cuneiform, (wedge-shaped) writing. They replaced pictures with symbols and added
symbols for spoken sounds, developing phonetic letters. In the scientific and mathematical realm while the
Sumerians were concerned with studying the stars and developed the twelve-month lunar calendar and the
zodiac to measure time, the Harappans advanced in the accurate measurements of length and mass. The
Harappans developed he first standardized system of weights and measures. Their measurements were
extremely precise, the smallest division being equivalent to 1.704 millimeters. They carefully planned their
cities and the building of their houses to make them symmetrical. They also developed a sewage and drainage
system more advanced than many of those in the Middle East today. In the technological realm both civilization
once again made great advances. The Sumerians developed the water clock, the wheel and the plow, while the
Harappans invented a way to produce copper, bronze tin and lead. It is almost impossible to decide which
civilization advanced more intellectually because they both advanced so much in different areas.

Artistically it is easy to determine that the Harappans were more advanced. While most Sumerian art was
strictly religious in nature, the Harappans appear to have loved art simply because it was art. The Sumerians’
preferred mediums were sculpting and painting. They also inlayed and enriched wood with scenes made of
shells and semiprecious stones and did relief carvings in stone, but almost always these pieces of art were for
their gods. In contrast the Harappans celebrated all art, but especially the arts of dancing, painting, plastic arts,
pottery, modeling, weaving and metal working. They were very skilled in all these areas. Their pottery is of
very high quality with surprisingly beautiful designs. The anatomical details found in their modeling are far
beyond their time. Their carved seals used in trading are now considered miniature masterpieces in art. They
were responsible for a new style of painting animals in their natural environments. It is generally accepted that
the Harappan art is much more advanced than any other of its time, including the Sumerians.

The Harrapans and Sumerians both developed during about the same time period in river valleys. They traded
with one another and had similar economies. They advanced along parallel lines in mathematics, science and
technology although in different areas. They were both polytheistic and were both hierarchical societies. Yet
they were very different politically, artistically, and in their treatment of women.