Egypt

Hi Blog:)

Today we started learning about ancient Egypt. Here are my notes:

• Upper Egypt was a 500 mile long strip of fertile land along the Nile.
• Lower Egypt was the wide land of the Nile delta, emptying into the Mediterranean Sea
• The Nile was the major provider of life for the Egyptians and was much revered in lore and writing
• Around 3100 BC the two lands were united under a single king or Pharaoh (Narmer AKA Menes)
• Nile flows from south to north
• Biggest river in the world
• Pharaoh was all powerful, worshipped like a god, and intimately connected to the other major Egyptian gods and goddesses
• Egyptians relied on a harmony and balance of the universe which they called "maat" (personified by the goddess Maat: ideological opposite of goddess isfet)
• Pharaohs had multiple wives, and all routes to financial and social success were through the palace.
• Women could inherit money and land and divorce their husbands, though and only a tiny few wielded real political power
• THEOCRACY
• Gods were often portrayed with heads or bodies
• Egyptians believed in an afterlife (ka), and they mummified bodies to preserve them for this post death journey
• All souls would need to justify themselves at the point of death and either be sent to an after world paradise or the jaws of a monster

Quiz

Hey Blog!

Today I took the Mesopotamia quiz! I got to study before it and that helped. I didn't think I knew all of the right answers but I ended up getting a 100 on it, so that's good. We are also starting a new unit on Egypt. I'm excited to learn about Egypt.

Sick Day

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I was sick on Monday and Tuesday, so I wasn't in class.

Mesopotamia

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Today we learned more bout ancient Mesopotamia. Here are my notes:

• Wandering nomads drove herds of domesticated animals in many areas, especially to the south of Sumer in Arabia.
• Sumer was conquered by the Akkadians c. 2350 BC - their gods took the place of previous gods and were all forced to worship them
• King Hammurabi of Babylon created a series of laws known as "Hammurabi's code"- laws included "an eye for an eye" and regulations on marriage, divorce, and punishments for all sorts of crimes.
• Indo-Europeans were people from the grasslands of the Russian Steppe who introduced the horse to the Near East
• The warlike Indo-European tribe known as the Hittites settled in Asia Minor.
• The Hittites had a lucrative trade in metals and conquered nearly all of their neighbors, threatening Egypt

Mesopotamia

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Today we took more about ancient Mesopotamia. Here are my notes:

• 200,000 years ago a human species emerged in equatorial Africa
• 14,000 years ago a world wide human race existed
• Earliest prehistoric age is the Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age)
• Neolithic Age (New stone age) marked by advanced tools
• Populations rose because of surplus of food
• Permanent settlements
• Hierarchies appeared in village life
• Status of women lowered
• Inventions of wheel and plow made it possible to produce enough food for storage
• Villagers were polytheists, worshipping multiple nature, human, and animals
• AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
• Mesopotamia:
• Sumer occupied the land between the Tigris + Euphrates rivers
• Population increased dramatically due to new irrigation techniques 
• Cities and towns were founded, some with as many as 40,000 inhabitants
• Better food storage allowed for diversity in professions: priests, tradesmen, artisans, politicians, and farmers
• Kings emerged and family dynasties
• Sumerians invented the earliest form of writing, known as cuneiform
• A pantheon of Sumerian gods/goddesses emerged
• Worlds first (surviving) epic was the Sumerian "Epic of Gilgamesh"which told of a great flood
• Sumerians first divided the hour into sixty minutes and the minute into sixty seconds; they also organized a calendar based on moon cycles
• The Ziggurat was a Sumerian temple built on top of a "mountain" of earth

Western Civ Day 1

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Today was the first day of the second semester and the first day of Western Civilization. We started reading about Mesopotamia in class and taking notes on it. Here are questions 1 & 3 in the textbook.

1) Fertile Crescent: The curved shaped region in Southwest Asia with rich, fertile land.
Mesopotamia: The lands facing the Meditteranean Sea and the plains included the Fertile Crescent.
City-state: A city and the surrounding land that it controlled.
Dynasty: A series of rulers from a single family.
Cultural Diffusion: The process in which a new idea or a product spreads from one culture to another.
Polytheism: The belief in more than one specific God.
Empire: Several peoples, nations, or previously independent states under control of one ruler.
Hammurabi: The ruler of the Babylonia Empire from 1792 BC to 1750 BC.

3) Three challenges were unpredictable flooding combined with a period of little to no rain, no natural barriers fro protection, and limited natural resources.

Last Class

Bye Blog!!!

This is the last class of human geo for forever. Overall this class was really fun. I learned a lot and human geo was pretty interesting. I also liked watching jeopardy and looking at pictures of Mr. Schick's dogs. It was a great semester. I also did pretty good in this class and it wasn't too difficult. I also have Mr. Schick for Western Civilization. So that will be fun. Okay bye blog!!!

the test

Hi blog!

I just took the test. It was pretty easy, and was short. The only question I didn't know was the one about how many cows are in the us. Overall I think I did pretty good, and hopefully it raises my grade. I also liked listening to the soothing music. Now we are reading the comments, Lolz. Ok bye :)

Test tomorrow

Hi Blog!!!

Tomorrow we have a test on the video, Guns, Germs, and Steel. We watched this video in class last week. I am currently studying the notes that I took during class. I feel pretty good about knowing the info for the test. But I will still continue studying for it. In class we also watched teen jeopardy. It was interesting and funny. I also knew a lot of the answers to the questions that the contestants were asked. Anyway I hope I do well on the test, and hopefully it will raise my grade a little.

Guns Germs and Steel (the end)

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Today we finished watching guns, germs and steel. Here are my notes:

• None of the 14 domesticated animals are native to Papua New Guinea.
• All of these animals were from North Africa, Europe, and Asia.
• These are the places that advanced
• Cows, pigs, sheep and goats are native to the middle east
• Fertile Crescent
• Tigris and Euphrates rivers
• 9,000 years old
• town in Middle East
• used plaster
• and other tech advancements
• about 100 people lived there
• Papua New Guinea  doesn't have tech advancements
• doesn't produce enough food for everyone to have time to develop tech advancements
• Fertile Crescent
• Abandoned
• over use of land
• not fertile anymore
• no water

Guns, Germs and Steel continued

Hey Blog!

Today we continued watching Guns, Germs, and Steel. Here are my notes:

• People started growing their own food and stying in one location.
• became the first farmers in the world.
• Plant domestication=farming
• Chose plants that were the best and used them to grow more of the same quality produce.
• Places where the first farming happened
• China-rice
• Americas-corn, squash, beans
• Africa- sorgum, millet, yams
• Civilizations advanced because of farming
• exception: Papua New Guinea
• Why no civilization?
• Only have sago, taro root, and bananas
• no grain
• can't be stored
• low protein
• People with access to the best crops had the best civilization 
• GEOGRAPHIC LUCK
• 9,000 years ago
• animal domestication
• people control movement, feeding, and breeding of animals
• used meat, milk, and fur/skin
• can eat stubble after the harvest and fertilize the ground
• Goats and sheep were the first to be domesticated
• after came pigs, cows, and horses
• could pull a plow through the fields, help with farming
• Papua New Guinea only has pigs
• can only get meat
• no milk or fur
• can't help farm
• 14 animals have been domesticated
• goats
• sheep
• pigs
• cows
• horses
• donkeys
• Bactrian camels
• arabian camels
• water buffalo
• llamas
• reindeer
• yaks
• mithans (ox)
• bali cattle

Guns, Germs, and Steel

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Today we continued watching the video Guns, Germs, and Steel. It said that all great civilizations have three things in common. They all have advanced technology, large populations, and a well organized work force. A large population allows more people with different skills to do more than just gather food and hunt to survive. People have been been hunters and gatherers since 13,000 years ago. This is called pre-history. This was before people wrote stuff down and recored what they were doing. They used to move where the food was and would leave the area if there was no food around. The only place where people still are hunter/gatherers is deep in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea and in the Amazon. One important food source for New Guineans is the sago tree. They chop down the tree and scrape the pulp out of it and turn it into a dough like substance. One tree gives them about 70lbs of food and it takes days to process it. But it is low in nutrition and doesn't last for a long time.

We also learned about the earliest permanent settlement on Earth. This place is called Draa. It is an archeological site where they found ancient dwellings. They think maybe 40-50 people lived there. But how did they survive? They made a granary where they were able to store food year round so they didn't have to constantly go out and find food. This allowed more time for people to do other things, which led to progression of the settlement.r4

back to School

Heyyyyy Blog! its been awhile....


Today we reviewed our exams and I did better than I thought I was going to do. We also started watching Guns, Germs, and Steel in class. The video was originally a book written by Jared Diamond in 1977. Jared was a professor of geography and physiology at the University of California Los Angeles. He is also a biologist and enjoys studying birds. He came to Papua New Guinea to watch birds. He learned several New Guinean languages and learned a lot about the people there. People have lived there for 40,000 years and they still don't have the advancements that most places have. He wondered why the people there are so much poorer. Yali's question was why do white men have so much cargo and New Guineans have so little? He meant cargo as material goods that Europeans brought to Papua New Guinea. Guns, Germs, and Steel argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate primarily in environmental differences.

When Europeans first went to Papua New Guinea, they thought that power was directly determined by race.They believed that they were genetically superior. This is know as white supremacy. But Jared Diamond has seen all the Papua New Guineans can build and do just using their hands, so he knows there is no way that they can be inferior.