2/25

Today in class e reviewed for our test tomorrow. We got off track and started talking about Mr. Schick's career in movie productions. I had o leave in the middle of class for club photos, so I am a little bit confused about some of the things we reviewed. I am probably going to fail this test, but it will be okay. I do not want to fail, so I am going to study for the test, but there is no telling what will happen. I just want to go home, but I still have one more class left. I do not feel like going to it, but I have too. I am so tired and I really want to go to sleep. I am also very hungry and want something to eat really badly.

2/22

• Egypt first developed on the Nile River as a single Kingdom and later divided into Upper and Lower Egypt
•  Nile floods yearly leaving a black substance called silt
• Nile was worshiped as a god
• Water transport was common
• Because elevation was higher in south Egypt it was called Upper egypt
• Nile promoted trade
•  Each village had its own rituals and gods
• 31 dynasties developed
• Egyptian kings were considered gods
• they were called pharaohs 
• the religion is called theocracy
• it was the pharaoh's duty to provide truth and justice
• believed king ruled even after death-lived in their afterlife in their pyramids
• they're polytheistic--believing in many gods
• built huge temples to worship these gods
• believed in the after life
• woman held most of the same rights as men

2/19

Today in class we got into groups of two and discussed the punishments of each crime as if we were the judges. It was cool to see how each person thought of a different consequence for each criminal. Some were a little over the top and some gave almost no punishment at all. After we discussed the punishments for modern day times, we looked at what the punishment would be thousands of years ago. Some of the punishments would never be thought of now. If we were to attempt to punish someone the way they did back then, we would be arrested for life and possibly killed by super angry people.

2/15

• The district Summer is the land between Tigris and Euphrates
• Population increased due to irrigation techniques
• cities and town founded, some had 40,000 inhabitants 
• better food storage for diversity in professions-priests, tradesmen, artisans, politicians, farmers
• kings emerged as did family dynasties and the concept of the "city-state"
• Sumerians invented the earliest form of writing known as "cuneiform" 
• a pantheon of Sumerian gods and goddesses emerged with many of the deities representing the natural elements of the world
• world's first epic was 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

2/13

From Prehistory to Civilization
Hunter/Gatherers Mesopotamia, and Ancient Egypt
The Origins and "ages" of Human Beings

• 200,000 yrs ago a human species emerged in southwestern Africa
• 14,000 yrs ago, 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 beginning of agriculture
• Initially humans were part of migratory groups which hunted, fish and gathered plants for food
• The agricultural Revolution =Neolithic Age

Early River Valley Civilizations

Early River Valley Civilizations 3500 B.C.- 450 B.C.

• What rivers helped sustain the four river valley civilizations?

                                    -Euphrates

                                    - Tigris

                                    - Nile

                                    - Indus

                                    - Yellow

                                   - Yangtze 

• The Hammurabi's Code holds people responsible for their actions

City-States in Mesopotamia

• Fertile Crescent- curved shape and rich land
• Mesopotamia- land between rivers
• rivers farming Mesopotamia- Tigris and Euphrates. They flow southeast to the Persian Gulf
• The rivers flooded Mesopotamia at least once a year
• After the flood the mud called silt was used for farming
• they planted grain and results would be of large quantities of wheat and barley at harvest time which allowed villages to grow
• challenges
• unpredictable flooding- land became like a desert 
• no natural barriers for protection- Sumerian- nearly defenseless
• natural resources of Sumer were limited- building materials and other necessary items were scarce 
• Solving problem through organization
• providing water- dig irrigation ditches that carried river water to their fields and allowed them to produce a surplus of crops
• defense- built city walls with mud bricks
• trade- grain, cloth, and crafted tools for stone, wood, and metal
• They need leaders, organization, and cooperation... projects need someone to plan and watch over the building process, someone to settle disputes over land and water distribution. These leaders eventually became the first organized government
• Sumerians Create City-States
• Sumerians- one of the first groups of people to form a civilization
• By 3000 B.C. the Sumerians had built a number of cities, each surrounded by fields of barley

1/5

Today we took a test and I feel pretty good about it. I think I did really well on the short answer portion of the test and I think I did even better on the extra credit. The multiple choice could go either way, I think I did well, but I am not entirely sure if  I nailed it. It will be alright though because I have time to fix it if I need to. I think I may have only gotten a few questions wrong, but everything else I feel pretty good about. Thankfully this chapter was rather easy for me. I did study, but only right before the test. I did not study over the weekend or at all last week, but I do not think that had an effect on my grade that I will be getting, over all I am pretty content with how I did.