More on Egypt

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Today we learned more about ancient Egypt. Here are some notes:

• Earliest Egyptian writing formed c. 3100 BC and were small pictures known as hieroglyphics
• Egyptian script was usually written in ink on papyrus, which was made from mashed Nile reeds.
• Papyrus, the precursor topper was stored in scrolls and these scrolls were the books of Ancient Egypt
• Egyptian astronomers created a calendar with 12 months and 365 days to make better sense of seasonal cycles
• Due to their excellent knowledge of human anatomy, Egyptian doctors wrote extensively on health issues and created potions and cures for a number of common ailments,
• Wooden sailboats were constructed to increase transportation ability on the Nile
• The pyramids were massive stone tombs, originally covered marble, but the marble was later stripped off during the Muslim Conquest.
• The Temple of Amon at Karnak is the largest religious building in the world, also made out of huge blocks of stone
• Stone sculptures and interior painting depicted humans and gods in a series of regulated poses, often in profile and without perspective, but were highly effective

Egypt

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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

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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.