CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
EGYPT AND
MESOPOTAMIA
David A. Warburton
TWO GREAT LANDS THAT WERE
FAR APARTT
he two greatest civilisations of the Bronze Age Near East were those of southern
Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley. In terms of intellectual vibrancy, Mesopotamia
must be viewed as the greater of the two. In terms of identity, continuity,
monumentality, and power, Egypt had no equals. Although far from enjoying a
glorious solitary existence far removed from the hurly burly of daily politics, Egypt
was never exposed to constant abrasion by abusive neighbours which was the part
assigned to Babylonia. The results are thus expressed in the masterpieces of the two
civilisations. Constant challenge forced Babylonia to respond in a fashion at least
partially moulded to express the Babylonian identity in a manner recognizable to
neighbours. This gave it an enormous advantage, and the result was the development
of an intellectual heritage shared by all the civilisations of the Near East. Power and
wealth allowed Egypt to impose its will on its own landscape, but it was less concerned
about neighbours, and its influence diminished as one left the Nile Valley.
Given the simple geographical distance separating the two civilisations, one could
suggest that it is logical that there was very little actual contact between the two,
and in fact the two did not come into direct conflict during the Bronze Age, and
just barely during the Iron Age. Although the Egyptians moved deep into Nubia,
in the south, they never got beyond western Syria in the north, and thus the lack of
contact is not surprising. During the second half of the second millennium BCthe
Babylonians were not very active to the west, and this could likewise be ascribed to
geographical distance, or a lack of political ambition. However, neither argument
is particularly illuminating, since the Akkadians campaigned in Syria and Anatolia
in the third millennium and the Babylonians themselves would return to Syria in
the first.
Clearly distance or lack of interest cannot be the sole reason, and the situation was
far more complicated, for even in the first millennium BC– when Egypt was overrun
by Libyans, Assyrians, Ethiopians, Persians, Greeks and Romans – Egypt was not
invaded by the Babylonians. Even the peripheral Hittites were able to invade Babylonia
in the Bronze Age, and, under Alexander, the peripheral Greeks were able to subdue