Class of 2/26/14 Notes

Today in class we reviewed our notes. I took some more notes so they are in this blog.

• Athens had a really strong Navy. One weapon they had that made them one of the most feared people were the ramming ships. They were called triremes.  
• Athenians would take prisoners from other places and make them slaves
• Sparta had an army
• Athens traded with a lot and had a bigger population than the Spartans. 
• Sparta trained their army very well because they didn't have a lot of people. 
• Spartans would have a big row with shields and throw spears called the phalanx
• Athens had a free way of life called a democracy 
• Women had workouts that would make them strong 
• Women couldn't vote or hold office in Sparta or Athens 
• The only people that had the right to vote were free native or landowning adult males. 
• aristocrats were rich, powerful, and owned land 
• Golden Age- after the dark ages 460-430 B.C 
• Aliens were people that came from other parts of the land around Greece, they weren't citizens of that area and couldn't vote. 
• acropolis- a citadel or fortified part of an ancient Greek city 
• Sparta was more strict 
• Surrounding Athens were the Adriatic Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean Sea 
• Peloponneses peninsula connected Sparta to Athens 

2/25/14 class

Today in class we talked about the Greeks. They grew olives, grain, and grapes. They were very famous for making wine. I learned that the Greeks came up with the Olympics. They were very competitive people. I liked talking about The Odyssey. It is a 12,000 line poem that contained many stories within it. Some people believe that a blind man wrote the poem while others think it is a myth. I think it was really cool when we talked about all the temptations inside of the story and how Poseidon, the god of the sea, was causing all of them. Greeks are very good at telling stories and believing in myths about gods and goddesses. The Greeks are interesting tot learn about because they were more advanced and very strong willed people. They fought battles with other cultures and also traded with other people. Depending on the where you are in Greece, you can get very fertile soil. They summers were hot and the winters were not to hot but more cool. Greece is great place to learn about.

Notes on Lo3 pg 51-59

Citizens and Communities: The Greek City-State 

•  With the recovery of Greek civilization, the tribal communities of the Dark Ages began to develop city-states. 
• Greek city-states were small places, generally consisting of no more than a town and a few square miles of surrounding countryside. 
• Athens and Sparta, each about the same size as a couple of U.S. counties, were giants among city-states 
• The population of both town and country ordinarily numbered only a few thousand, though Athens may have reached as many as 250,000. 
• acropolis- The high fortified citadel and religious center of ancient Greek town. 
• Both fortresses and temples were vitally important to the Greek city-states 
• They were fiercely competitive communities that continually fought one another, and their single most important civic activity was the worship of the god or goddess on whom each community was thought to depend
• Athens, for example, was the city of the goddess Athena, and from the Athenian acropolis her temple, the Parthenon, or "Place of the Maiden", overlooked the whole city. 
• Greeks city-states were very much the same as those of the Sumerians or Phoenicians, but they differed in on important respect: for the Greeks, the city-state was a community in which all were entitled to participate to a greater or lesser extent.
• City States and Citizens
• Greek city-states first developed at exactly the time that the Assyrians were reaching for power westward from Mesopotamia, but Greece was protected by many miles of land and sea. 
• city-states were free to struggle among themselves because they didn't have an empire.
• they occupied a land that was far less wealthy than Mesopotamia or Phoenicia. 
• In their conflicts with one another, they could not afford professional soldiers or large cavalry forces. 
• hoplite- a heavy armed and armored citizen- soldier of ancient Greece. 
• phalanx- a unit of several hundred hoplities, who closed ranks by joining shields when approaching the enemy
• Monarchy, Oligarchy, Tyranny, Democracy
• the communities that would become city-states were ruled by kings 
• monarchy- a state in which supreme power is held by a single, usually hereditary ruler (a monarch)
• oligarchy- a state in which supreme power is held by a small group 
• triremes- massive fighting vessels with three banks of oars, used to ram or board enemy ships. 
• democracy- in ancient Greece, a form of government in which all adult male citizens were entitled to take part in decision making. 
• Greek city-states were in many ways narrow and exclusive 
• Woman generally participates in the community's affair on a much more limited basis than men, immigrants were almost never awarded citizenship, and slavery was widespread.
• When a city-state sent some of its citizens overseas to found a colony, the new settlement became a separate, independent state. 
• And when one conquered another, it extended its control but not its citizenship. 
• Sparta: The Military Ideal 
• Spartans were the descendants of Greeks who had conquered part of the southern mainland, the territory of Laconia. 
• helots- noncitizens forced to work for landholders in the ancient city-state of Sparta. 
• citizens devoted themselves to the one calling that was permitted to them by law: that of full time hoplite warriors. Boys were taken from their families by the state at the age of seven; they were taught manly behavior and reading and writing and were started on a lifelong routine of physical toughening and military training. 
• They were permitted to marry after age 20--- in fact, bachelors were punished--- and the state encouraged the mating of the best human specimens. 
• Athens: Freedom and Power 
• To the Athenians, the Spartan life was not worth living. 
• Athens was also a warlike community--- and exactly because it had wider horizons than Sparta, it was more ambitious for conquest 
• Athenian democracy not only brought freedom for ordinary citizens and stimulation for artists, writers, and thinkers; for a time, it also brought exceptional power for the city-state in its struggles with its rivals. 
• aristocrats- members of prominent and long-established Athenian families. 
• Athenian aristocrats prided themselves on being exceptionally excellent human beings 
• some aristocratic girls also got an education, particularly if they were sent off to live for a few years before marriage with one of the groups of young woman who served in the temples of various gods. 
• The Persians Wars 
• In the sixth century B.C, the Persians conquered a realm that stretched from the border of India to the Nile and the Aegean. 
• The leader of democratic Athens after the victory over Persia was another aristocrat 
• The Workings of Democracy: The Assembly 
• ultimate government power rested in the Assembly of adult male citizens. 
• debates in the Assembly were often spirited. 
• The Workings of Democracy: Officials and Courts 
• As an additional check on aristocratic power, the Council of Five Hundred and the roughly one thousand public officials that it supervised---tax collectors, building inspectors, and the like--- were nearly all chosen annually by lot
• ostracism- banishment for ten years by majority vote of the Athenian Assembly 
• The Athenians also trusted to chance---or the will of the gods, as expressed by the drawing of lots----in the administration of justice. 
• Woman in Athens 
• Most of what us known of the life of Athenian citizen women comes from surviving law court speeches composed by famous orators

Friday's class

On Friday, our class was pretty easy. Apparently Mrs. Markel is going to be our substitute. She is also my math teacher so I already know her. All we did in class was go over our notes and have auditions for our class on Monday. I was going to present my notes but I decided not to at the last minute. I felt like I didn't know the information, so how would I teach something that I don't know? I learned a lot that class because we went over the same notes about five times so the information was out into my head. It was a good class because Fridays are hard to focus during because the weekend is coming up. Our class was fun and I hope we have more classes like that.

Class 2/19/14

Today in Western Civilization class we went over our first test. I got an 85%, which is a B. I am very happy about my score but I know I can do better. I thought some of the questions were sort of hard but overall I should have been able to get the ones that I missed. The two, three paragraph essays were a little challenging but I think I did fine. The three sentence short answer questions were easy and I did well on those too. I am happy that I got the first test out of the way because now I know what to expect and can do better on the next test. I am very happy that we get to keep our test. It will be a great study guide to use for our exam at the end of the year. Overall I did well and plan on improving throughout the rest of the year.

Pyramid Game

Today in class we played the pyramid game. It was probably the most stressful class ever. I really do not like that game at all and do not look forward to playing it again. It took me such a long time to figure out. The workers were always unhappy with their living conditions, which to me were pretty good. They were very high maintenance, which was very annoying. If I were a pyramid worker I would suck it up and do what was told. Here is a picture to show that I completed the game. I am really proud of my achievement.

   

Greeks

The First European Civilization: The Greeks, 2200-400 B.C.

·         Barbarian- a term used to describe the distinctive way of life based on farming, warfare, and tribal organization that became the widespread in Europe beginning around 2500 B.C.

·         Began to migrate into Europe’s southeastern region, within easy reach of the peopled of Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Egypt.

·         Emerged as “classical” Greek civilization about 800 B.C.

The European Barbarians

·         Over 3000 years up to the time of the Persian Empire, civilization had spread from its Sumerian and Egyptian homelands right across southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa, and other regions of civilization had also arisen in India, China, and the Western Hemisphere.

The Earliest Europeans.

·         By 4000 B.C, farming and village life had spread throughout the continent.

·         By 3500 B.C. there were peoples in Western Europe who were numerous and well organized enough to construct ceremonial monuments.

·         Megaliths- massive rough-cut stones used to construct monuments and tombs

·         The most impressive single early European Achievement was Stonehenge, a huge monument built by a prosperous farming and trading people in the west of England, probably as a religious center.

·         Was repeatedly rebuilt over a period of several hundred years, until it reached its final form about 2000 B.C.

The Barbarian Way of Life

·         From about 2500 B.C. onward, Indo-European peoples moved into Europe just as they did into Asia Minor and Persia

·         Instead of their earlier tongues, the peoples of the region began to speak languages of Indo- European origin that were the distant ancestors of Greek and Latin, as well as most European languages today.

·         When a leading warrior dies, his horse and chariot, his bronze swords, and daggers, and his gold and silver drinking cups would all go to the grave with him probably so that he could go on riding, fighting, and drinking as a comrade of the gods in the afterlife.

·         Next to the warrior would lie his wife, with her jewelry and her fine textiles and utensils, so that she, too, could go on fulfilling her role in the afterlife

·         Tribes- a social and political unit consisting of a group of communities held together by common interests, traditions, and real or mythical ties of kinship.

·         Would meet from time to time to conduct its business.  

·         Formed loose alliances under warrior kings or queens of exceptionally powerful tribes, together with their battle comrades.

·         Over a period of 3000 years form 2000 B.C. right down to A.D. 1000, the European barbarian peoples came into contact with civilization 

Short Answers

Short Answer A

Three technological advantages of Ancient Egypt are bricks for houses, the wheel and plow, and bread. Bricks were important to make shelter for the Egyptians to live in and stay save from storms. The wheel and plow was used to farm and harvest crops. Bread was very important because it was a base for food and people could use their crops to make it.

Short Answer B

The pyramids were mainly resting places for Pharaohs. They were very well made because they are still standing after thousands of years. Egyptians coated them with marble which as warn off after many years. The pyramids blocks used for building weighed about 5,000 pounds each.

Essays

Describe the social hierarchy of the ancient Egyptians. 

            Hierarchies were valued people. They were mostly men. Women had more domestic duties, such as taking care of the children. People looked up to hierarchies to make decisions for the land. The biggest hierarchy were pharaohs. They were considered partly god. People thought they could communicate with the other gods to make the land safe and beneficial for them.

           At the bottoms of the social hierarchy were slaves and servants. They helped the rich people with the children and household jobs. Farmers were second from the bottom. They raised wheat, barley, lentils, and onion. They benefited from the Nile. Artisans were next. They would carve statues and reliefs. Then came Merchants. Merchants would use the barter system. They would accepts bags of grain and food for payment. Scribes were very important back then. They kept record of everything that was happening. They would right about medical treatments. They wrote in hieroglyphs. Soldiers were third from the top. They used weapons made of wood. Government officials or priest and nobles were second in importance. They were know as the "white kilt class." Pharaohs were at the top. They were religious and political leaders. They owned all the land. They made laws and collected taxes.

          Throughout the land, people followed these hierarchies. Woman were servants to some men. If the pharaohs were married to more than one women, they would have multiple people to help them out. The woman aren't listed but I think they would be part of the servants because they did a lot of work and had to take care of the men. I think the social hierarchy is where a lot of our world came from today because people in other countries still follow these rules.


Discuss the importance of the Nile River in the lives of Egyptians.

           The Nile River was very important to the people of Egypt. It flowed from south to north, which is very unusual. Every July, the Nile would flood, and every October it left behind rich soil. People considered the Nile a god. They would worship it because it gave them many great things that they needed to live. Egypt is centered around the Nile. 


          The Nile was water for drinking, irrigating, bathing and transportation. When it left behind the rich soil, Egyptians would plant seed there and have their cattle step on it to get the seeds in the ground. Upper Egypt was a 500 mile strip of of fertile land that was along the Nile River. Lower Egypt was the wide land of the Nile delta. It emptied into the Mediterranean Sea. Without the Nile, people wouldn't have lived or been able to thrive. The Nile was definitely the center of their life.

        If the Egyptians back thousands of years ago didn't have the Nile, our love would have been affected to. They were the first to live on the Earth and they set a base down for all life. They created a calender with 365 days and months. They new when the Nile would flood and progressed every year. They learned how to live and learn. The Nile was very important and created a lifestyle for everyone on Earth.

2/11/14

Hi Mr. Schick. How's it going? You weren't in class today, but all we really did was study for our test. The class room was so quiet it was weird. I worked on some homework for the night and studied a little. It is kind of hard to study with other people in the room because I can't focus as well. Apparently you are at meeting or something so that is why you are not present in class. Tomorrow will be our first Wednesday of the second semester because of all the snow days. I am not complaining because I happen to hate Wednesdays. The only good thing is that I have art first and your class of course. Our test is going to be on Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, and The Nile River, or at least that is what the sub said. Well, hopefully your test will not be to hard tomorrow and I hope that I do well.

2/10/14

Today in class, we reviewed what was going to be on our test. We talked about pyramids, daily life, gods and goddesses, and the Nile River. I learned that during the mummification process, the dead body is wrapped with layers of glue and cloth. I thought this was interesting because the bodies are still identifiable even after thousands of years of being dead. The priests and engineers were second from the top in Egypt. The engineers were important because they were in charge of building the pyramids. The pyramids are still standing today. The pyramids had many passageways and hallways that led to certain rooms. Explorers still to this day do not know everything about pyramids. They thought they were only used as graveyards for the pharaohs but the other bodies inside proved them wrong. Our test has now been moved to Wednesday, which I am kind of happy about because I have another day to study but all my other teacher moved their tests to Wednesday too. I will just have to work hard this week.

Friday Class

On Friday, we reviewed a lot of things we had already gone over because of all the snow days. We talked about what the school is going to do about all of the days we have off and that the school is going to have to get creative because we aren't adding on to summer or taking off of spring break. The things we learned were more about Ancient Egypt and the evolution of their time. Mummification was one topic that really interested me. The Egyptians built pyramids made of marble that were beautiful. They were burial places for pharaohs and important people. Pharaohs were basically the rulers of the land that were considered partly a god. They were looked up to by the people. We learned that the Nile River flows south to north. That is very unusual for a river to flow in that direction. The Nile was important to the people because it provided water and transportation. Our test is on Tuesday so I have to study more of Ancient Egypt in order to do well.

2/4/14 class

In class today, we reviewed what we read in class the day before. We learned about the progression in Egypt and how we became the people we are today. We talked about how the Pharaohs were able to have more than one wife and the pyramids that the Egyptians made. We discussed mummifying people that were important. I thought it was gross how the Egyptians would take out the major organs and out them in a jar that would be placed next to them. It's weird that they got the brain out through the nose of the person. I learned that pharaohs are considered partially god. The people think that they control the weather and important things in the land. In class, Hanna Frey got yelled at and then I kind of got yelled at I am not really sure. I am still kind of confused but it's okay. Overall the class was fun and very informational.

LO3

Land of the Pharaohs: Egypt

• During Neolithic age, people of the Nile had moved toward civilization in response to the same influences that gave rise to the cities of Sumer, but Egyptian civilization was more stable than that of Mesopotamia. 
• Egypt stretches along the lower reaches of the Nile's four-thousand-mile course from Central Africa to the Mediterranean Sea. 
• Country is divided into 2 sections, called by ancient Egyptians the "Two Lands" Upper Egypt is a narrow strip of fertile land, 500 miles in length and averaging no more than 12 miles in width, that stretches alongside the river as it flows across the North African desert. 
• Lower Egypt is a fan-shaped pattern of waterways, or delta, formed by the Nile in the last hindered mile before it reaches the sea. 
•  Nile played a similar role as the Euphrates and Tigris in Mesopotamia
• "gift of Nile" provided the wealth for the earliest Egyptian civilization 
• About the same time that the Sumerian city-states arose, Egypt witnessed the consolidation of increasingly wealthy communities, scattered along the river, into 2 kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt 
• Around 3100 B.C. the 2 lands were unified under a single king, seemingly in brutal warfare
• pharaohs- the rulers of ancient Egypt 

Government by a God

• Egyptians took polytheism a lot farther than the Mesopotamia people
• For Egyptians, the pharaoh was to be obeyed as a man given power by the gods and venerated as a as a god who dwelt among men 

Tending the "Cattle of God"

• pharaohs were identified in different ways
• By birth, he was the son of the sun-god Re, the king of all the other gods and goddesses 
• At his succession, he became the incarnation (living embodiment) of Horus, the falcon- headed ruler of the sky 
• When he died, he became one with Osiris, who reigned as pharaoh pf the underworld 
• Pharaohs' human nature was just as important as their divine nature. 
• "Well tended are the men, the cattle of god," King Khety III told his son and heir Merikare in a document of advice written about 2200 B.C.; "...he made for them rulers in the egg, leaders to raise the backs of the weak."

Men and Women Under the Pharaohs 

• women who were closest to the pharaoh, the King's Mother and the Kings Principle Wife, also had a touch of divinity, for it was a god who made them pregnant and a god to whom they gave birth 
• pharaohs had many wives 
• most successful ruler was King Hatshepsut that resigned shortly after 1500 B.C. 
• Daughters inherited property equally with sons, and wives could divorce their husbands. 
• men were expected to respect the women in their families. 

Gods, Humans, and Everlasting Life

• believed in immortality 
• hope of immortality strengthened ethical ideas in Egyptian Religion 

The Writing of the Words of God

• hieroglyphs- The earliest Egyptian writing, in which pictures stood for whole words of separate sounds of words 
• hieratic script came after hieroglyphs and were not only used by priests but also general literacy and record-keeping purposes 
• Around 700 B.C. an even faster shorthand the demotic script came into use 
• much of the Egyptian literacy writing served religious purposes

Calendars and Sailboats

• astronomers created a calender with 12 equal months of thirty days and five "free" days at the end to make up the 365 days of the solar year 
• Egyptians were good with medicine 
• they understood nothing of germs or infections and believed sickness was caused by demons entering the body 
• They were eager to improve the transportation along the Nile 
• They built larger boats then the canoes 
• To propel these heavy craft upstream, b y 3100 B.C. they equipped them with masts and sails to catch the wind, which in the Nile Valley usually blows against the current of the river 

Pyramids and Temples 

• pyramids- A massive structure with sloping sides that met at an apex, used as a royal tomb in ancient Egypt 
• great pyramid was built by order of King Khafu who ruled about 2650 B.C. 
• measures 476 feet in height and 760 feet on each side of its base
• this mountain of stone consists of some 2.3 million cut blocks each weighing about 5,000 pounds 
• the sides were originally coated with polished marble, but that was stripped away by Muslim rulers in the Middle Ages 
• pyramid building faded and temples came in 
• The temple of Amon at Karnak was begun about 1530 B.C. and completed about 1300 B.C, 
• The largest religious building ever constructed, it covered about 400 by 110 yards or 10 acres, large enough to cover 4 of the Gothic Cathedrals that were built more than 2,500 years later in Egypt 

The Rhythm of Egypt's History 

• 2200 B.C. a series of weak Pharaohs allowed local officials to gain independent hereditary power in the regions that they controlled 

Chapter 1 LO1

From Prehistory to Civilization: 3000-1200 B.C

LO1- Trace the key developments of prehistory, from the emergence of our human ancestors to the beginnings of village life.

• Language, Religion, Art, Technology, Farming Life, and Village Communities- All these basic features of human existence originated in Prehistoric Times. 
• prehistory- The period before history was recorded through written documents. 
• earliest development; 3000 years ago- first civilization: Mesopotamia and Egypt 
• economic structures, government, religious beliefs, scientific and technical achievements, literary and artistic styles influenced many later civilizations, both Western and non- Western
• 1200 B.C.- international existence came into existence
• human-like species appeared 2.5 million years ago. 
• era ended with the rise of civilized societies producing permanent written records
• prehistory has no worldwide ending date
• earliest human-like species probably appeared in East Africa 
• Humans began to walk on 2 legs, releasing their hands to make and use tools and weapons; body hair thinned out, digestions weakened, clothing, cooking, and fire, brains grew larger, making possible language and abstract thought, complex manual and physical skills. 
• 200,000 years ago, probably in Southwestern Africa, that possessed these features. 
• human spread beyond Africa into Europe and Asia then made its way across a "land bridge" that linked the eastern tip of Asia with Alaska 
• 14,000 years ago, worldwide human race of the present day. 
• tools mainly chipped from durable stone 
• Paleolithic age- earliest and longest period of prehistory, when human used simple stone 
• 8000 B.C. people advanced so far in southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa, including neighboring regions like Europe called the neolithic age. 
• Neolithic Age- The period of human history characterized by advances in stone tool-making and the beginnings of agriculture 
• Paleolithic age, all human beings lived as migratory (wandering) hunters, fishers, and gatherers. 
• Agricultural Revolutions- shift from hunting and gathering food to a more settled way of life and based on farming and herding that occurred gradually between 8000 and 4000 BC in much of western Asia, northern Africa, and Europe, separately in other parts of the world
• 6000 BC the first agricultural villages appeared in southwestern Asia
• polytheism- the belief in many gods and goddesses.