Sick

I’m sick

test day

Today we had our first Western Civ test. Overall it was easy and I think I did really good on it. The only thing I know I got wrong was the spelling of ziggurat because I spelled it as ziggarat. We also had ten minutes before class to study for the test. After we took the test, we started to take notes on chapter 2. It’s about Egypt and it’s environment. The part I took notes on is about how the Nile was the reason Egypt was able to be civilized in the first place, because it fertilized a small part of the desert land for them to live. It gave the silt to grow crops on and allowed them to irrigate the crops during the fall and winter. The Nile also had some disadvantages like how if it flooded a few inches less then usual, then less crops could grow and thousands of people would starve. If the Nile flooded a few inches more than usual, then it could destroy houses and granaries. It also only provided a thin strip of fertile land and it was surrounded by desert so they could really talk to or communicate with other places.

test tomorrow

Today in class we watched a video on Sumer and Mesopotamia. The class was not very cool about it like Mr. Shick said, but I think we were just processing it. We also watched a few other videos like what the old broadcasting elective used to do, and a John Carroll student on American Idol. I don’t know why they change it to sports broadcasting but if it was normal broadcasting, then I might do it. I know they changed it to sports broadcasting to advertise the school sports but the normal broadcasting elective sounded a lot more fun. The test tomorrow is the 75 point test and I think I will do good on it. I am just skeptical of the fill in the blank questions but I just I’m going to look over the PowerPoint on the blog. I will also try to use Dans quizlet that Mr.Schick approved of.

test in two days

Today I found out that we have a test in two days. Yay. We just did some matching terms and her are the one that he went over:

• Epic of Gilgamesh - worlds first surviving story about creation and great floods
• Cultural Diffusion - process in which a new idea or a product spreads from one culture to another
• Fertile Crescent -regions curved shape & richness of its land
• Mesopotamia - Greek meaning "land between rivers"
• Polytheism - belief in many gods
• Irrigation - he supply of water to land or crops to help growth, typically by means of channels
• Cuneiform - first system of writing known
• Dynasty - series of rulers from a single family
• Zigarrat - Sumerian temple built on a big hill
• Countries in Fertile C - iran,iraq,syria,turkey
• Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) - Marked by advanced tool making and agriculture
• Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age) - Earliest prehistoric age
• City-State - a city & its surrounding lands functioning as an independent political unit
• Hammurabi's code - 282 laws and distributed in stone plaques across the empire
• Silt - soil left behind when flood water receed

hammurabis code

Today in class we took more notes on the PowerPoint, and we are now talking about the different laws in Hammurabi's code. An example of one I found is " Any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser." I think it is interesting how they judge these punishments and how many different crimes they have in it. The notes from yesterday were about how Sumer was one of the first known civilizations and how htye had large populations in their city-states, had a well organized workforce of jobs like priests and kings< made an empire< and had very advanced technologies. Some of the notes are:

A MESS O' MESOPOTAMIA

• Wondering nomads drove herds of domesticated animals in many areas especially Africa
• Sumer was conquered by the Akkadians in 2350 B.C.
• The Akkadians forced the Sumerians to worship their gods
• King Hammurabi of Babylon created "Hammurabi's Code" - laws that included "an eye for an eye" and regulations of marriage, divorce, and punishments for crimes

pg. 34 question 5

      What areas of life did Hammurabi's Code cover?


   5.  Hammurabi's code covers 282 specific laws about things like family relations, business     conduct, and crime.  The laws set different punishments for the rich & poor and men & women, and it protects women and children. The laws tell us about the Mesopotamians beliefs and what they valued. These laws included "an eye for an eye" and regulations of marriage, divorce, and punishments for all sorts of crimes.

We also started to take notes on the PowerPoint:

• 200,000 years ago a human species emerged in equatorial Africa
• 14,000 years ago, a "worldwide" human race existed
• Earliest prehistoric age is the Paleolithic Age (Old stone age)
• Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) was marked by advanced tool making and agriculture
• initially humans were parts of migrating groups
  

first western civ class

Today was my first western civilization class. We had to do pg.34 questions 1 & 3

1.

• Fertile Crescent - Regions curved shape and the richness of its land
• Mesopotamia - Greek meaning “land between rivers” / region between the Tigris and Euphrates 
• City-state - A city and it’s surrounding lands functioning as an independent political unit
•  Dynasty - Series of rulers from a single family
• Cultural Diffusion - Process in which a new idea or a product spreads from one culture or another
• Polytheism - Belief in more than one god

• Empire - An extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority

• Hammurabi - Hammurabi was the sixth king of the First Babylonian dynasty of the Amorite tribe reigning from c. 1792 BC to c. 1750 BC

3.

                   The three things the Sumerians suffered with were:

1. Unpredictable flooding  combined with periods of little to no rain
2. Natural resources of Sumer were limited, and building materials and other items were scarce 
3. No natural barrier for protection