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: