C-Notes #2

Nile and the "Two Lands"

• Upper Egypt 500 miles long; Lower Egypt wide land that encompasses the Nile delta region.
• Nile was the major provider of life revered in both lore and writings; personified as gods.
• Around 3,100 BC, the two lands were united under the rule of pharaoh Narmer.

• Pharaoh: all-powerful, worshipped as a god intimately connected to major Egyptian gods and goddesses.
• Pharaohs were able to have multiple wives.
• The route to financial and social success was through the palace; one had to be born into royalty or perhaps be a high priest.
• Women had many more rights back then than in many other societies at the time.
• They were able to receive land and money, as well as divorcing husbands.

• Gods were often portrayed with animal heads or bodies.
• Maat: represents harmony and balance of the universe (can be compared with Yin and Yang).
• Egyptians believed in an afterlife (otherwise known as ka) and mummified bodies them for post-death journey.
• At the time of death, souls need to justify themselves and be sent to either an after-world paradise or the jaws of a monster.

• Technology Advancements
• Hieroglyphics (circa 3,100 BC) - earliest Egyptian writing that look like small pictures.
• Papyrus (made from mashed Nile reeds) is an Egyptian script that is written in ink.
• Papyrus was stored in scrolls.
• Papyrus were the books of Ancient Egypt.
• Calendar with 12 months and 365 days to make better sense of seasonal cycles.
• Egyptians had exact knowledge of human anatomy.
• So, they wrote extensively on health issues and created potions and cures to treat common ailments.
• Sailboats created to increase transportation ability on the Nile river.
• Buildings at the time.
• Pyramids are massive stone tombs which were originally covered in marble and then stripped from their former beauty during the Muslim conquest.
• Temple of Amon at Karnak is the largest religious building (with 54,000 ft^2) in the world.
• Sculptures and interior paintings depicted humans and gods in regulated poses: profile, without perspective.

C-Notes #1.5

I'll write down the other part of the notes I had taken back from the book. There were too many words in the other blog so I decided to save the notes for when I did not have anything to write (such as today).

Sirius was a star that appeared above the eastern horizon before floods. Egyptians calculated the number of days between the first rising of the Sirius star and the next and came up with 365 days (very close to a solar year). The year was divided into twelve months with 30 days each with five days added for holidays and feasting. This year with 365 days was so accurate that it fell short of the solar year by only six hours.
Egyptians invented math numbers for counting, adding, and subtracting.

• To assess and collect taxes, for property boundaries, and for engineering and architecture.
• They also had advanced medicine.
• Were able to find heart rate, heal broken bones effectively with splints, treat wounds and fevers, and performed some kinds of surgery.

Middle Kingdom (2,040-1,640 BC)

Hyksos ("the rulers of foreign lands") ruled Egypt from 1,630-1,523 BC.

Games were popular in all hierarchy classes.

Egyptians (both men and women) used cosmetics to enhance beauty.

• Applied kohl to their eyes, which in turn softened the sun's glare. 
• Also soaked flowers and fragrant woods in oil to protect skin from dry air.

The names of about 150 physicians are remembered, of which 2 were women.

There was a species of royal dogs in Egypt called Pharaoh hound.

Classwork #2

Terms and Names
1.

• delta: Lower Egypt includes the Nile delta region--a broad, marshy triangular area formed by deposits of silt at the mouth of the Nile river.
• Narmer: The king thought to have united both Lower and Upper Egypt is king Narmer; especially since he was depicted in Narmer Palette wearing both Lower and Upper Egypt crowns, creating one crown that had attributes from both crowns.
• pharaoh: The Egyptian god-kings, otherwise known as pharaohs, care more about their tombs than they do about their palaces.
• theocracy: The type of government used in Egypt is called a theocracy--government in which rule is based on religious authority.
• pyramid: A pyramid is an immense structure for resting after death.
• mummification: The process of embalming and drying of a corpse to prevent it from decaying is called mummification.
• hieroglyphic: Hieroglyphics comes from the Greek words hieros and glyph meaning "sacred carving".
• papyrus: When papyrus dries, the plant's sap glues narrow strips of itself into a paper-like sheet.

Main Ideas
3. How did being surrounded by deserts benefit Egypt? The deserts shut out invaders, which led to Egyptians living a peaceful life with confidence and optimism.
4. How did the Egyptians view the pharaoh? They thought of pharaohs as god-kings; they were the connection between Egyptians and god.
5. Why did Egyptians mummify bodies? Egyptians mummified bodies to prevent them from decaying. This method is especially used to preserve royal and elite Egyptians' bodies.

C-Notes #1

Today during class, we had to take notes on the textbook pages 35 through 43.

Pyramids on the Nile
The Fertile Crescent is situated near Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Egypt is situated near the longest river in the world, running through 4,100 miles-- the Nile river.

• Herodotus, a Greek man, stated in the fifth century B.C. that Egypt was the "gift of the Nile".
• The desert prevented invaders from entering Egypt, and Egyptians from leaving.

A cataract is the point in a river where boulders turn it into churning rapids.

Nile delta region is a broad, marshy, triangular area formed by deposits of silt.

Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt were united under the reign of the king Scorpion or king Narmer.

A pharaoh in Egypt was seen a god-king, an example of a theocracy-rule that is based on religious authority.

• Pharaohs in Lower Egypt wore a red crown while in Upper Egypt, they wore a white crown.
• At around 3,000 BC, the Narmer Palette was sculpted; it perhaps celebrated the unification of both Lower and Upper Egypt, as it depicted Narmer wearing both crowns.
• In the Old Kingdom (2,660-2,180 BC), pyramid-building was becoming a rising practice.

• A pyramid is a place where kings' tombs were buried.
• At the time, it was believed that kings had eternal life force even after death, otherwise known as ka.
• Egyptians and people in the Fertile Crescent were polytheists, as were most other civilizations.
• Some important gods and goddess in ancient Egypt were:
• Re, the sun god,
• Osiris, the god of the dead, and
• Isis, the ideal mother and wife.
• Overall, Egyptians worshiped more than 2,000 gods and goddesses.
• Anubis was the guide of the underworld--who weighed each person's heart.
• (If someone's heart was as light as a feather, the or she was able to live eternally, otherwise, he or she would go to hell because his or her sins were too heavy).
• Mummification was the practice of drying up a corpse to prevent it from decaying; it involved embalming.
• The book of the dead is a collection of scrolls containing hymns, prayers, and magic spells that would supposedly guide a deceased's soul in the afterlife.
• Hieroglyphics (from the Greek words hieros and gluph) means "sacred carving".
• It translates a picture into an idea--and later a sound, which resembles the modern alphabet.
• In the beginning, Egyptians wrote on slabs.
• Later, they discovered papyrus reeds (which grew in the Nile delta region); they are better writing surfaces that resemble a paper-like sheet.
• Hierarchy in Old Egypt:
• King and queen, and other royals.
• Government officials, priests, army commanders, and wealthy landowners.
• Merchants and artisans.
• Peasant farmers and laborers.
• Someone's place in Egyptian hierarchy was not set in stone.
• One could gain higher status though a better work position or marriage.
• For that, the subject would need to be literate.
• Men and women are thought of as equals.

Mesopotamia-Notes #6

So, apparently, we didn't take any notes before while I was gone on Friday, and nobody noticed we were responsible for slides one through nine. But I just did.

Civilization in Mesopotamia

• Wandering nomads drove herds of domesticated animals, especially to Arabia (on the south of Sumer).
• Later, Sumer was conquered by the Akkadians (circa 2350 BC). 
• Akkadian gods took place over Sumerian gods and all people were to worship them.
• Then, king Hammurabi of Babylon created "Hammurabi's Code"--a series of laws which included "an eye for an eye" and regulations that accounted for marriage, divorce, and punishments for all sorts of crimes.

The Expansion of Mesopotamian Civilization

• Indo-Europeans: people from the grasslands of the Russian steppe
• They are responsible for the horse's introduction to the Middle East.
• A war-like Indo-European tribe that was known as the Hittites settled in Asia Minor.
• The Hittites had a lucrative trade in metals, conquering nearly all of their neighbors (even including threatening Egypt).

B-Notes #5

Although I was not in class today, I will get the notes and transfer them onto this blog post. Hopefully, before midnight tomorrow (Saturday). I will edit and update this blog when I get the notes. Au revoir till then.

B-Notes #4

Hammurabi's Code

Most people are forced to get their hands cut off when found guilty.

Unlike now, when charged of a crime, one is innocent until proven guilty. If the person who accuses someone of being guilty does not have enough evidence to prove the other party is guilty, the accuser is always sentenced to death.

When a father is guilty of incest with his daughter, the charges are less severe than when mother and son are guilty of incest. With the father and the daughter, the father is exiled, but in the other case, both are burned.

209.  If a man strikes a free-born woman so that she loses her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss.
211. If a woman of the free class loses her child by a blow, he shall pay five shekels in money.
Those two go against each other.
As well as the three below:
215. If a physician performs eye surgery and saves the eye, he shall receive ten shekels in money.
216. If the patient be a freed man, he receives five shekels.
217. If he be the slave of some one, his owner shall give the physician two shekels.

B-Notes #3

From Prehistory to Civilization: Hunter/ Gatherers, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Egypt.

Prehistoric Era
Origins and Ages of Human Beings

• 200,000 years ago, the human species (homosapiens) emerged in Southwestern Africa.
• 14,000 years ago, worldwide human race existed.
• The earliest prehistoric age is the Paleolithic Age (also known as the Old Stone Age).
• The Neolithic Age (aka New Stone Age) had advanced tool making and beginnings of agriculture.
• Initially, humans were part of migratory groups that hunted, fished, and gathered plants to serve as food.

Agricultural Revolution

• (Also called the Neolithic Revolution) was the name for the shift in human lifestyle from hunting to permanent settlements.
• The population rose due to the increased ability to produce food surplus, thus feeding and caring for young children.
• Hierarchies appeared, as the status of women lessened due to the confinement toward more domestic duties.
• The wheel and plow made enough food for storage possible.
• The villagers in early communities were polytheists (meaning that they worshiped multiple nature, human, and animal gods.

B-Notes #2

Here are my notes:

5 characteristics that set Sumerian civilization apart from others:
1. Advanced cities
2. Specialized workers
3. Complex institutions
4. Record keeping
5. Improved technology

City-state: functions as an independent country in the modern world.
Some cities include: Uruk, Kish, Lagash, Umma, and Ur.

Dynasty is a series of rulers that descend from the same line of family.
After 2500 BC, many Sumerian city-states were ruled under dynasties.

Cultural diffusion is the process in which a new idea or product spreads from one culture to another.

Polytheism is the belief in many gods' existence.

Sumerian Science and Technology
Arithmetic and geometry: to erect city walls and buildings, plan irrigation systems, and survey flooded fields, Sumerians developed a number system in base of 60 (60 seconds in a minute, a 360 degree circle, etc.)
Architecture: created arches, columns, ramps, and pyramids.
Cuneiform writing (distinguished by wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets).

Sargon of Akkad created the world's first empire (circa 2350 BC). An empire brings several people, nations, or previously independent states together under the control of one ruler.

The Babylonian empire reached its peak during the reign of Hammurabi (1792 - 1750 BC). His most enduring legacy is his code of laws (282 specific laws dealing with everything affecting the community, especially property; earliest examples of innocent until proven guilty).

Development, rise, and fall is a constant issue moving towards the west, along with the Nile river.

Sumerian hierarchy:
Highest - kings, landholders, and some priests
Still high - wealthy merchants
Normal - ordinary hand workers in fields and workshops
Low - slaves (captured and sold)

B-Notes #1

Here are the notes I took:


Key terms:
1. What rivers helped sustain the four river valley civilization?
2. In which empire and river valley area was the first code of laws discovered?
3. Which river valley civilization was the most isolated? What factors contributed to that isolation?

The law of the Babylonian Empire is the Hammurabi's Code--which holds people responsible for their actions. (e.g. someone who steals should repay thirty times the cost of the stolen item; otherwise, sentenced to death).

What should be the main purpose of laws: to promote good behavior or to punish bad behavior?

Mesopotamia is Greek for "land between the rivers" (Tigris and Euphrates) that is also in the Fertile Crescent. At least once a year, the rivers Tigris and Euphrates flooded Mesopotamia, leaving behind a thick bed of mud called silt. Silt was used to farm grains because it was very rich soil. The good soil attracted settlers. However, there were disadvantages, such as unpredictable flooding accompanied by little to no rainfall.

Problem-solving took organization, cooperation, and leadership. These leaders and laws were the start of organized government, later resulting in civilization.

5 February, 2019 Class

Well, this is one out of many blogs that I have written the day after. I do not know why this has been happening to me. I mean, I am supposed to be an HONORS Student. As I am writing this, I have my honors sticker on. That's a lot of irony in a day. Anyway, yesterday we took our first test in Honors Western Civilization, which was really stressing. Especially since I had previously had two tests in the same day and did not study at all. Really, I just trusted myself into thinking I did not need to study for any test. It had not worked in the past. But, thankfully, it did work today. After classes, I checked all of my multiple choice answers with the answer key that Mr. Schick had. And, I got all of them right, plus the animal ones, and one of the extra ones. So, I got all of the multiple choice questions right, the twelve animal fill in the blank, and an extra point. It all lies on my essay whether I get a low A or a high A, near a hundred percent--which is what I am hoping for.

4 February, 2019 Class

Today in class we finally finished "Germs, Guns and Steel". Below are the notes I took:

Two thousand, five hundred years after Dhra (first time people started living together in a community), humans got together again in Gwer (which was 9,000 years ago).
Unlike in the modern world, pyramids remained the tallest structures in the world for centuries.
Even though not native to the United States, there are a hundred million cows in the United States (one cow per every three people; 1:3 scale). Wheat is also something not native to the United States. Even though not native to the United States, there are currently twenty million tons of wheat being produced per year.
According to Mr. Diamond, certain races of people are not less smart or resourceful. They are not far behind because of being less smart or resourceful. Instead, their falling behind is due to bad geographical luck. They are unable to turn their life around due to lack of resources nearby.

1 February, 2019 Class

I don't think I really have to write this blog. I'll just do it because.

Also, here's a picture I took last night for art class: