Early River Civilizations free essay sample

Ancient river civilizations in the Mediterranean as well as Central and South America denote some of the world’s first civilizations. The Phoenician’s civilization was founded in what is now Lebanon, Syria, and parts of northern Africa, the Chavin society developed around modern day Peru where the Mosna and huachescsa rivers merge. The Phoenician civilization created their society around 1100 B. C. E and the Chavin civilization was established around from 900 B. C. E. The Phoenician and the Chavin showed many similarities and differences in the aspects of technological advancements, economics, and social behavior. The Chavin and the Phoenician displayed more differences than similarities because of their immensely different lands. The Phoenician and the Chavin both are famous for their innovations that left an impact on the world. However the way they impacted the world was different. The Chavin were very innovative people especially in architecture and metallurgy. They created systems to carry water great distances, and were able to use the water to irrigate their crops. We will write a custom essay sample on Early River Civilizations or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They also used their architectural abilities to avoid certain underground temples from being flooded by creating canals to act as a drainage system. The Chavin also were some of the first to melt metals for soldering and gold work. The Phoenicians on the other hand left a much different legacy for the world. As opposed to the irrigation and metallurgy the Phoenicians were the first to use letters for writing records instead of images. The Phoenician alphabet did not have any vowels but it eventually was incorporated into the Greek alphabet, and Roman alphabet which was adapted to multiple languages, such as English. Economically, the Phoenicians were in much better shape than the Chavin. The Chavin were by no means in bad shape, but the Phoenicians excelled at economics. The port city of Tyre, prospered greatly because the Phoenicians traveled by sea exporting- wood, wine, fish, and fabrics/color dyes, which led to the Phoenician society growing quite wealthy. The Chavin on the other hand, did not export goods via the sea, they instead invested in transportation, creating paths and bridges over rivers in order for them to be able to trade their main export-llama meat. The social aspects of the two river civilizations were more dissimilar than most aspects of life. The chavin people domesticated llamas and used them in as many was as they could, mostly for travel and trade. They also created many great religious centers and were very artistic, creating thorough paintings and sculptures. At Chavin, shamans were the ones who had divine connections and authority in the civilization while the Phoenicians had kings to rule them. Another major difference is that the Phoenicians, in their small region, used alliances with larger civilizations like Persia to maintain freedom while the Chavin had surrounding societies admired the Chavin and even tried to mimic their ways. The ancient river civilizations, Chavin and Phoenician display many similarties and differences in their technological advancements, economics, and social behaviors. Because the Phoenicians traveled by the seas and had port cities they excelled more financially while the Chavin were more innovative. The Phoenicians created an alphabet while the Chavin domesticated animals, created irrigation, and worked metallurgy. Phoenicians exported many goods and became rich and the Chavin traveled on manmade paths to trade llama meat. Shamans influenced the Chavin and kings ruled the Phoenicians. . Due to their greatly different locations the two ancient river civilizations exhibited more differences than similarities.