Egypt

Today in Western Civilization with Mr. Schick we changed seats and started talking about Egypt. I moved from the back corner of the room to the middle of the room. I like my new seat but i would much prefer to be in the back of the class room. I like my seat but i am right in the middle which i don't enjoy per-say. Anyway we then began doing a paper on Egypt, covering things we haven't even talked about yet and then he goes on to tell us about a test Monday. We haven't even had a couple days to read or take notes and now we have a test. We wrote down some definitions on the paper and some weren't even in the book but we could not use our laptops. Then we had to skim the papers to find different answers to the fill in the blanks on the front. We didn't even finish. 

Questions After Test

Delta= A delta is significant because that's what the Sumerians used to grow in the silt.
Narmer= A Narmer is an Egyptian name meaning name of a king, this could be because were learning about Egypt next.
Pharaoh= A ruler in Ancient Egypt, one who made the rules and was viewed as a man and God.
Theocracy= A place where priests ruled much like in most Sumerian cities.
Pyramid= A large triangle shaped stone building that the Egyptians built for the pharaohs.
Mummification= The Egyptians would mummify a body so that the soul could return to it later, they would do these to the pharaohs and people of high importance.
Hieroglyphics= What the Egyptian writing style was, there own from of writing.
Papyrus=This is what made a rope like substance for which the Egyptians used.
 3) Being surrounded by Deserts allowed for a natural protection from anyone whom tried to invade.
 4) The Egyptians viewed the pharaoh as a man and as a God who could talk to the other Gods.
 5) They mummified the bodies so that the soul could return to them later, and so they would always be preserved for that day.

Study, Study

Today in Western Civilization with Mr. Schick he told us about our test we have tomorrow. The entire class had no idea what he was talking about when he told us that, he said he talked to us about it last week but he didn't. Anyway, We learned we have to know about Cuneiform which was the first form of writing, we have to know about the fertile crescent, which is in modern day Turkey,Iran,Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Jordan, It also includes the Euphrates and Tigris River, and it was made easy to Farm wheat and barely. We need to know what a city state is which is a government control over a city and the surrounding area. A dynasty or Rulers who come from the same family, Cultural diffusion which is a new idea spread to another cultural, Irrigation which in short is controlling the water and bringing it to your plants. Polytheism is the belief in multiple Gods, Monarchy which is a Government in which Kings rule, and a Ziggurate or a lace of worship and city Hall, place were the government meet. Gilgamesh was a King in which there was a story about a great flood, the Paleolithic Age or old stone age for everyone was a hunter and gatherer, and the neolithic Age or New stone age fro everyone had farming and farming tools.

Hammurabi and Egypt

Today in Mr. Schick's Western Civilization class we did more work on Hammurabi's code and started book work for another section. As we started a blue paper on what we would do compared to what Hammurabi's code said to do, we finished that in class today. We went around the room and there were multiple different posters in which told us what the code would do for each individual situation. We turned in a salmon colored paper and he graded it and i relieved a one hundred on it. After we completed the work sheet we turned it in and he told us to do some book work on Egypt. No one seemed to do that much reading and note taking, the notes i got consisted of this; While Mesopotamia was raising, Egypt was growing on the Nile. Egypt was united into a kingdom, which allowed a high degree of unity, stability, and cultural continuity over a period of 3,000 years. The last thing i got was that the Nile flows northward across Africa for over 4,100 miles making it the largest river in the world. 

Hammurabi's Code

Today in Mr. Schick's Western Civilization class we talked more about Hammurabi's code and did an activity based on his opinion vs. ours. Me and Joey were in a group, and we were given from what i believe six different situations to look at and choose what we would do as a leader. Me and Joey picked pretty harsh punishments for each thing, however it was hard to do because the rules were so different back then compared to now. Like one had to deal with a slave and what if  he told his mater that it wasn't his master. Me and Joey tried to look at things like back then and decided on exactly ten lashings. Some people said thirty lashings or jail time. We didn't even end up finishing the activity that's how long it took to complete and discuss, because everyone had a different opinion on what to do and how to go about doing it.

Sumerians and Mesopotamia

Today in Western civilization with Mr. Schick we talked more on Sumerians and Mesopotamia. During this time they had many Gods and Goddesses as we have already talked about so i recon its important. They also had the worlds first story of a great flood "Epic of Gilgamesh". Sumerians also divided the hour to 60 minutes and the minutes to 60 seconds; they also organized a calendar based on moon cycles. They also again had a Ziggurat which we've talked about before so its probably important, they built these on top of mountains of Earth. they also had wondering nomads that drove herds of domesticated animals in many areas, especially to the south of Sumer in Arabia. Sumer was conquered by the AK Kadians in 2350 B.C- their Gods took the place of previous Gods and all were forced to worship them. King Hammurabi of babylon created a series of laws known as " Hammurabi's Code"- laws that included on "eye for an eye" and regulations of marriage, divorce, and punishments fro crimes. 

More on Mesopotamia

Today in Western Civilization with Mr. Schick we talked about Mesopotamia. We started with how 200,000 years ago the human species emerged in Southwestern Africa and 14,000 years ago a worldwide human race existed. then to how Prehistoric age is the Paleolithic age (Old Stone age) and the Neolithic age (new stone age) was marked by advanced tool making and beginning of agriculture. Initially humans were hunter gatherers and in the Neolithic revolution there was a shift from hunter gatherers to more permanent settlements. Population increased due to food surplus, which made it able to take care of young children. A hierarchy became noticeable in these city-states where women's status lowered as they did more domestic duties. The Invention of the wheel and plow made it possible to produce enough food for storage, these villages were polytheists, worshiping multiple nature, human and animal Gods. The modern day countries of the fertile crescent is Syria, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, and part of Turkey. The earliest district known as Sumer occupied the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The population increased dramatically due to the irrigation invention. Cities and towns were founded some had as many as 40,000 people. They had better food which lead to a diversity of jobs, such as priests, tradesmen, artisans, politicians, and farmers. Kings emerged in these cities and towns as well did dynasties and the concept of a city-state. Sumerians also invented the first form of writing, known as "Cuneiform".

More and More Book Work

Today in Western Civilization with Mr. Schick we continued to take more notes and talk about said notes. We started with the idea of a city-state, which was first established in 3000 B.C and how Mesopotamia had independent countries. Then we went on to talk about the Ziggurat which was the center of all Sumerian cities was a walled Ziggurat in the middle. This is where the Priest would do sacrifices to the Gods. In these cities the Ruler and the Priest would rule the government. The Priests would manage Irrigation systems and demand a portion of every farmers crops as taxes. Then we talked of the importance of Cultural Diffusion and that it is when a new idea or a product spreads from one culture to another. We then had a discussion about how the priests would do sacrifices and then eat the animal they sacrificed and took farmers crops as taxes and the city believed in everything thy did and how wild it was. 

More Book Stuff

Today in Western Civilization with Mr. Schick we continued to read from the book and got our tests back. We started with reading again, I started on page thirty one where i finished the page and continued. I was taking notes on how Sumerians stand out because they were one of the first groups of people to form a government. They had the five characteristics which set them apart from earlier civilizations, one being the advanced city, 2 being specialized workers, three being complex institutions, four being record keeping, and five being improved technology. The later people who lived there built upon the innovations of Sumerian civilizations and by 3000 B.C they had built a  number of cities, each surrounded by wheat and barley. However all the cities had different rulers and governments, and each called a city state. 

Textbook

Today in human geography with Mr. Schick we started reading out of a textbook that we will be reading more often this quarter. We started with the title of the article called Early River Valley Civilizations 3500 B.C-450 B.C. The next information was about how the fertile crescent was a desert climate, and the curved shape and richness of soil got it its name. The land in between the Tigris and Euphrates river in the fertile crescent is called Mesopotamia which means "Land between the rivers". These rivers flow southeast to the Persian Gulf. These rivers flood the land once a year, leaving mud called silt which is rich soil that they planted in. The problems with this spot however was the unpredictable flooding, no natural barriers, natural resources were limited, building material and other such things were very scarce. Over living there for hundreds of years they came up with ways to fix these problems, like digging irrigation ditches for water, carrying it to the fields, building city walls with mud brick, and trading grain, cloth, and crafted tools with mountain and desert people for raw materials such as stone, wood, and metal. In order to do these things it took leaders and a large number of people working together. They had to then create laws in order to settle disputes over how land and water would be distributed, these leaders and laws were the beginning of Government.  Then AFTER i had written all this down we told o]us the importance of Hammurabi's code during the Babylonian empire which was the first set of written laws that held people responsible for their actions.

First Test

Today in Western civilization with Mr. Schick we had our first. I think i passed the test with ease, it was very simple. All of the questions were very straight forward and right out of the video. The only question that was hard for me was picking 12 out of the 14 animals that are domesticated and weigh over a hundred pounds. I got to eleven and was struggling to come up with one more, looking back on it i could have used llama but i didn't i instead used both kinds of Camels. Other than that it wasn't very hard and i finished in about fifteen maybe less minutes. Mr. Schick was very nice as well because he gave us a good five minutes to study before the test which he normally would not. Anyway it was a good test and was actually pretty easy and i think i got a solid one hundred and four percent.

Mass

I was not in class due to the school mass.