6/2

Today in class we took a quiz what I thought that I would pass, but I failed it. Now that has brought my grade down to a seventy and I really have to get an A on my exam for this class and I hope to God that I did well on my report.

5/18

Today in class we continued going over the power point so that we will be ready for the test tomorrow. I am going to study for this test because I am determined to pass this test. At the end of class today we were also forced to go into the hall way because of a tornado warning and we ended up staying after school for an extra hour which sucks.

Rome Becoming An Empire

Octavian is the first emperor in the Roman empire
A great invention of the time was the aqua ducks which could transport water into the cities for everyone to use.
Jesus was born a Roman citizen
When Jesus would say words like "My Kingdom will inherit the Earth" made the Romans really worried

Top Six most Influential People in the History of Mankind:
1)Muhammad  2)Sir Isaac Newton  3)Jesus  4)Buddha  5)Confucius  6)St. Paul of Tarsus

When Claudius was leader, he was born with some sort of a mental condition

5/10

Today in class we went over our test's. We went over the ancient Greek test that I took a few weeks ago and I got a 77 on it which is a lot worse than I thought that I would do. We also went over the Rome quiz that I took last week. I got a 62 on it and that is definitely a lot worse than I thought that I would do on it. I am going to try to study harder and prepare more for my test's in this class and I am going to remember to post about what we did in the class that day so that doesn't make my grade plummet before school ends because I don't want to go to summer school and I am trying to get honors this quarter. I am going start cracking down on myself now that we are almost at the end of school because I don't want to bomb my classes in the home stretch.

Presentation Notes

The Latins first settled in Rome, than the Greeks, than the Atruscrians.
The consul was the highest elected office of Rome.
A democracy is a form of government in which all citizens have a say on what they want their government to do.
A monarchy is a form of government rules like a king and it is hereditary
The Punic wars were wars between Carthage and Rome
The Latifundias were plantations were ran by slave owners and they let the rich get richer and the poor get poorer
The Gracchus brothers wanted to help the people who were having their land taken
When they were killed by the rich, it started a 100 year war
The Rubicon is a river that Julius Caesar crossed because he was on his way back from the war of Gual
The decision he made for that started a fall for his country
Octavian ruled with Mark Anthony and was the adopted son of Julius Caesar.
Eventually a war broke out between Octavian and Mark

Rome Pictures

    
   
 

Rome notes continued

consul - the two officials of Rome
veto - An overrule of one's consul
senate - the aristocratic branch
assembly - is another thing that has to do with the government
dictator - a leader who had absolute power to make and command the army
mercenary - a guy who gets paid to do business for the military or gets paid by someone to do a mission

1a) Because they didn't have a chance to decide what the government was doing.
1b) Because they were able to outsmart the government.
1c) They let the people finally vote and decide what changes and things that they wanted the government to do.
2) Because the citizens were able to make to make decisions as well as the government could.
3) Because they let the people continue what they were doing before they conquered them.
4a) Because they had a greater navy.
4b) Because they had better tactics than them.
5) Because it was one of the first wars that Romans won.
6a) They first welcomed the Roman armies because they seemed friendly.
6b) The Greek attitude changed because they were trying to boss them around.

4/28

Today in class we took a quiz on the thing that we read about the Roman empire. I think that I did bad on the quiz. We also wen over the quiz today which confirmed that I did do bad on it. That is all we did in class today and we had homework in which we had to take notes on.

Rome

Republic - a political untit that is not ruled by a monarch and in which citizens with the right to vote chose their leaders
Gravitas - A person with weightiness or seriousness.
Pater familias - The oldest man in the families
Toga - A form of Roman clothing
Patrician - The upper class families
Plebeian - The common farmers, artisans, and merchants
Legion - Learning to fight Roman - style meant being part of a massive military unit
Century - a period of 100 years

1) The geography of Rome helped Rome because of the many rivers and access to the Mediterranean which let them get goods in and out of the country easily.
2) The Latins, Greeks, and Etruscans were important part of the Roman development because the Latins were the first people to colonize the Roman regions and than came the Greeks, than finally the Etruscans.
3) The values of early Roman society were to be powerful and had great elegance at the same time.
4) The roman household was organized by the women being in charge of it daily. The freedoms that the women had in the family and in society were to be in charge of the families while the guys went out and did all of the dirty works.
5) The army was linked into the Roman society because all male citizens were made to join it.

Tarquin was the last Roman monarch/king

Test Question Review

What were the different columns used in Greek architecture? - Doric, Corinthian, and Ionic.
What was the year when people first revolted against their leaders? - 508 B.C.
What were the ancient Greek sculpture made of? Marble Bronze and limestone
What are the five forms ancient Greek art are in? Architecture, sculptural, painting, pottery
Who were the three big philosophers? Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
What happened to Socrates? He was charged with corrupting the youth of Athens and impiety and was sentenced to death.
Who was Plato? He was Socrates students and he had a political philosophy.
Who was Aristotle? He was Plato's student and founded the logical theory.
What are the three main drama categories? Comedy, Tragedy, and Satirs
Where were the plays played? They were played in theaters

Alexander the Great

Beucifilis was his horses name. Areosotle is Alexanders tutor as a child. He was teaching him that the Greeks are destined to rule. His parents did not get along well as well as he and his dad and he did not get along well. As a child he was taught about poetry and peace yet he was a great military mastermind. He was a captain in his fathers army at age 16 and he was the leader of one of the greatest empire by the age 30. His mother told him that he was the descendant of a God. Arostotle taught about Alexander and after his father was killed, he was the leader of Macedonia. Gaugamela was a battle that was a battle of Alexander the Great and he was outnumbered severely. They had an army of 40,000 against 250,000. He had a great strategy that was to allow him to kill their leader. He got close to killing Darius but than he retreated in fear. He eventually defeats the Persian army but than he decided to invade India. The battle of Hydaspes was the last great battle of Alexander's career.

Today in class 4/12

We continued to present out projects. We watched the one movie about Greece again for the hundredth time. We took notes on Socrates. I presented my project today. I did my project on Greek wars and the Greek army. Two other people presented before me today. Two more people still need to present. There was three people absent in class today.

Presentation Notes

Breakthroughs in Math + Science:  97%

• The Greeks produced many theories in math and science that are still used today.
• They came up with the theory of pi and they came up with geometry but they hated using algebra
• They figured how to measure the circumference of the earth
• The Greeks were able to predict an eclipse and they came up with the Pythagorean theory

Why didn't the Greeks like algebra?

How were the Greeks able to predict the circumference of the Earth?

How did they come to the conclusion that the sun is not a god?

Homer:  89%

• He was born around 8 and 9 century b.c.
• He was a blind man who told stories such as the Iliad and the Odyssey
• When Homer was born they were just inventing a form of the Greek alphabet
• Homer got other people to write down the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey

Was Homer real?

Was his name lower case and capital sometimes?

How did homer write the stories when he was blind?

Greek Philosophy:  99%

• Some philosophers believed in reincarnation
• Socrates asked people if they didn't understand some questions and theories.
• Allegory of the cave shadow of the real world 
• Aristotle found logical theory
• Epicureans believed in making a happy life for yourself.
• Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living

Were many of these philosophers theories rejected by society?

Hellenic Age:  99%

• The age started when Alexander the Great died.
• Alexander the Great wanted to mix cultures together.
• During the Hellenic Age the Great Wall of China started its construction
• The toga was the most common clothing during that age.
• Alexander the Great's death marked the beginning of the age
• When he died he passed on his empire to 4 different people

All of my notes today 4/8 that I took in class were deleted.

History of Ancient Greek Art: 100%

• Not a lot of Greek art is left for people to study today
• There was many periods of Greek art
• There was also many types of art like painting and sculpting
• Myron was a Greek sculptor
• Another sculptor was Phidias
• Phidias was acknowledged as the greatest sculptor of Greece
• One more sculptor was Lysippus
• Polyclitus was another Greek sculptor
• Polyclitus was considered one of the best sculptors in Greece
• Praxiteles was another sculptor
• Scopas was a sculptor 

Was the greek sculptors really respected in society?

What tools did they use to sculpt?

Did they sculpt actual people, or just people in their heads?

Greek Drama: 100%

• It is the theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece
• The Greek drama was taken seriously and was a big part of their society
• Comedy plays was an important part of ancient Greece
• Comedy was defined as fiction and so was tragics
• Tragics weren't necessary tragic
• Satyr plays were short plays performed between the acts of tragedies and made fun of
• Theaters were carved into the sides of rocks
• The actors were usually all men

Alexander's Conquest: 99%

• He was born in Pella, capital of Macedonia
• He was son of Phillip II
• He first attacked Asia Minor on his conquest and than he went on to capture the Persian empire and he attacked Egypt, but he attacked India and was forced to retreat. 
• He died in Babylon in 323 B.C.
• The reasons why the countries that he conquered liked him was because he like to mix the cultures.
• He died at age 32

How old was Alexander when he had his first battle?

What country did he first invade?

How old was he when he died?

3/23

Today in class we took  a test. The test was about what we had watched so far in the movie and I think that I did well on it. The test had twenty nine questions on it. I also got candy in today's class. The test was really easy and I think I did very good on it. The test had many different names of many people on it and it had also many important places and things.

3/22

Today in class we continued watching the movie. Perciles than took over reigns of Athens. The first thing he did when he was leader was to make a monument on the Acropolis. The monument took 15 years to make. He also made a major mistake. He wanted to wage war with Sparta. He proposed the idea to the Athenians whom agreed to the war. He came up with the idea that he should not attack on the land because the Spartans armies were more powerful on land so he chose to fight them at sea.

3/18

Today in class we continued to watch the movie on Greeks. We got to a part where the greeks invented a very effective type of ship that would ram the enemies boats. We also got to the part where the Persians invaded Greeks again. The had to leave Athens and the Persians burned Athens to the ground. The Greeks won the battle and they were able to extend their empire.

3/17

Today in class we continued watching more of the movie on Greeks. We talked about how Clestanies came to power. He over threw a tyrant than he later found out people were going to try to over throw him. The person that did over throw him was called Pysistratis. He did so by getting help from the Spartans and then he forced Clestanies into exile. The people of Athens than got mad and the over threw Pysistratis and told Clestanies to come back and help them form a new type of government. He did so and formed a democracy. The Persians realized how powerful Athens was becoming and how rich they were becoming because of there government so Persia invaded Athens. The Athens were able to defeat the Persian onslaught and then the Athenians went back to Athens feeling glad that they defended their democracy and celebrated.

Continued Notes on the Greeks Crucibles of Change

• In 508 B.C. ordinary people turn on rulers
• Clestanies thought that regular people should be able to govern themselves.
• Aristocrat - member of a ruling class (which Clestanies belonged to)
• Acropolis - a big area of rock that was build around a town
• Life in ancient Greece was really tough
• The lower classes were slaves to the higher classes
• Greece was an unlikely land to hold home to a great civilization because the region is very mountainous.
• Greece was divided into tiny nations called city - states.
• Sparta was one of the biggest city states were the people there were raised to be warriors
• The Spartans had no luxuries and comforts in there lives which made them so willing to die.
• The state of Athens was only the third greatest in Greece
• The Greeks stories inspired Clestanies
• The Iliad and the Odyssey were the greatest of the Greek stories. 
• Clestanies was interested in the heroes that belonged in these stories which than made Clestanies want to be a real - life hero
• The women in Sparta had a lot more of a role in the Spartan society rather than in the Athenian society.
• Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey
• Tyrant - someone who comes in and seizes control
• Pysistratus was Clestanies brother in law and takes over Athens and he was a tyrant but was a good tyrant
• Hippias is also a very important person of this time. His brother was killed and he became paranoid and thought that everyone was a enemy
• When this happened and all this confusion was taking place, Clestanies rose up against him and took leader of Athens
• Clestanies was one of the most powerful figures in Athens
• In olympia, there was  a the Olympic games were people competed for bragging rights. This is were anyone could race anyone no matter how much money you had.
• 40000 Greeks would go and watch the Olympics
• This was the first step for the Greeks to make a democratic culture.
• When Clestanies gained power, he found that others were conspiring against him. Isagoris was one of the main people.
• He turned to the Spartans to help take over the power of Clestanies
• He wanted to turn Athens into a subject state of Sparta
• The first targets of the new tyrant were the Aristocrats
• Over 700 households were cast out of Athens
• The people of Athens became angry and attacked the Tyrant and then he was forced to give up his position and when the Athenians over took him, they told Clestanies to come back and form an advanced government. This is the first time in history in which regular people over threw their own leader. The Athenians fought Isagoris for 2 days and nights and on the morning on the third day, they had won.
• So what Clestanies did when he got back he developed a democracy
• He made it so that the average person could contribute to the decisions that the government.
• They had a meeting place in which they discussed what the people wanted the government to do called the Agora. Everyone both poor and rich could discuss there feelings of what is going on and make there suggestions for how to fix or make better of what is going on in there civilization.
• The  people would gather there every nine days to discuss everything that was going on. 
• The thing that they voted with was white and black stones.
• Everyone except women could vote and make suggestions at the Agora.
• When Clestanies died, a new generation of Athenians took up his legacay. They were put up with many struggles and would have to defend there nation from other enemies.
• Pheidippedes made on of the most astonishing athletic achievements because he was running to Athens to say that they were being attacked by the Persian Empire.
• The Hoplites were the main people that defended the city from the Persians which landed in Marathon.
• The average person also went to defend Athens and they grabbed whatever they could use as weapons. They were out numbered by 2 to run
• Pheidippedes ran for help from Athens to Sparta 140 miles in just to days but when he got there, help was refused.
• However Athenians had won the battle.
• The Athenians killed over 6000 Persians in one day.
• They had defended their democracy.
• The Athenians returned to there city to celebrate their victory.
• Phemistocles was a Athenian General that helped them win the war
• Phemistocles was a man who had risen to power because of democracy
• Phemistocles had learned the skills of leader ship in Athens and he was now going to be one histories greatest leaders. 
• He realized that if the Persians came again, they were going to be sure that they weren't going to go on land
• Trireme was than invented because they would attack from sea. It was lightweight and it was made to ram and than sink the ship and 125 + men would be at the oars
• He wanted to make a Athenian navy but that would be really expensive and he was able to make the navy because they found in the year of 483 B.C. a whole lot of silver
• He was able to make 200 of those ships 
• The Persian king Darius died in 483 B.C.
• Xerxes took his position and he said that he would not rest until he took Athens and burnt it to the ground.
• His army numbered at over 2 million men
• 483 B.C. Xerxes set out to Greece
• The army consisted of many nations including Egypt
• The Athenians knew they were going to be the first target and so they turned to the gods by first sending a message to the Oracle to see how this would turn out for them
• The Oracle of Delphi was supposedly the best Oracle
• The question the Greeks asked was What could they do to save themselves.
• He said that the ships he had made are going to be a key to winning this war and he ordered the evacuation of Athens
• Salamis is an important island off of the coast of Athens
• The Persians burned the acropolis to the ground.
• The Persians now occupy Athens
• The Persians had a fleet 4 times the size of the Greeks forces 
• Phemistocles plan was to defeat the Persians at sea and he chose to fight them at the straights of Salamis
• Phemistocles sent a person to Xerxes to say to him that now is the time to strike which was a trap
• The Persians moved into the Straight over night and were supprized when they awoke they realized what trap they had fallen into
• They had moved so far up the straight that they had no room to move.
• They Triremes tore down on the Persians and they destroyed the Persian fleet
• By the end of the battle, the Persians had lost over 200 ships
• The Greeks had won the battle
• This forced the Persians to run back to their homeland because those ships also were the Persians supply ships
• The Athenians were now able to make a great empire of there own
• Throughout the next several decades in Athens, were probably the best years in Greece's history.
• 450 B.C. the Delian League had become all of Athens empire and they were keeping an eye on Persia
• Athens was now becoming one of the greatest supper powers in the world.
• It also became a great economical power because thats were a lot of traders would go and they had so many different goods from so many different countries
• The Athenians became a very rich country
• The rise to all of these powers came so fast in less than a few decades
• All of this was because of the democracy that the Athenians had
• The democracy was greatly protected and because of it they were able to form the great nation they had become.
• The Athenians also expelled anyone that had become to powerful because of the threat that the Athenians loosing their democracy.
• The Athenians had then ostracized Phemistocles
• He died in exile in Persia.
• Pericles wanted to glorify Athens even though he liked democracy
• He wanted Athens to be the most amazing city on the entire planet in all of history
• He wanted to do something to the Acropolis is Athens and wanted to reconstruct it 
• He wanted to build a Parthenon in the center of the Acropolis
• It was the most beautiful building ever built and it was built to show off Athens
• The total budget of building it was more than a billion dollars in modern day terms
• 20000 tones of marble was used to make the building
• The Acropolis is the most glorious thing of the Athenian empire
• When you walked in the door there was a 30 foot tall statue of Athena which had all gold and jewels over
• Frieze was on the wall going around the temple and were pictures of regular people doing their regular day thing
• The monument still stands on the Acropolis today
• It took 15 years to build the monument
• Aspasia was Pericles wife who is not even from Athens and she is very smart
• This relationship caused a scandle throughout Athens because he treated her as an individual
• The worlds first theater was in Athens
• The favored tales of the Greeks days were the tragedies
• One of the great Greek tragedies was Oedipus was a guy who was taken away from his parents and he than married his mom and had kids with her. He than gouged his eyes out.
• Pericles brought upon his own destruction
• He wanted to make Athens the undisputed leader on the Mediteranian
• Hubris was used to describe Pericles
• 431 BC Pericles was to wage war with the city state of Sparta
• The Athenians lost the Peleponnessian war
• Because they lost they were looking for someone to blame that lowered the moral of the city, they were looking for Socrates. 
• Socrates was arrested and than put to death
• He was put  to death by Hemlock poisoning

Introduction to Greece

Geography:
Only 20% of Greece was suitable for farming
The year round temperatures in Greece ranged from 48 - 80 degrees
The lack of resources in Greece lead to the Greek colonies

Mycenaeans:
Began around 2000B.C.
Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge and protected by a 20ft which wall
They lead for 400 years
They controlled the trade lanes
They also invaded Crete


Culture in Decline:
Around 1200B.C. sea people began to invade Mycenae and burnt palace after palace
The Dorians moved into the war-torn region
- They are far less advanced
- Economy Collapsed
- Writing disappeared for 400 years

Homer and Myths:
Only stories were kept and passed on were by words of the mouth
Homer lived at the end of the "Greek Dark Age"
He told about the story of the Trojan War and The Iliad and The Odyssey
The Trojan war was probably one of the last conquests of the Mycenaeans

Arete:
- virtue and excellence of you to do the best you can in your talents
Epics:
- narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds
Myths were created to explain creation:
- Zeus: leader of the gods
- Hera: Zeus' wife
- Athena: goddess of wisdom

Today in class 3/11...

We started watching a video about  ancient Greece. We also had a sub and we were required to take notes on the movie. Most of the notes that we took today was notes on Athens. We got notes about some of there rulers. We also learned that one of the great inventions that came from Athens was the modern day vase. Another thing that changed the world forever that was invented in Athens was a type of government. The type of government that was invented in Athens was the government that we now know as a democracy.

The Greeks Crucible of Civilization

• Greeks saw the creation of arts and architecture. 
• The Greeks had many great people in their civilization.
• Clestanies realized that the people of Greece should have a chance for freedom, a chance to rule themselves.
• Clestanies was born around 570 b.c.
• He was born at Athens. 
• When Clestanies was a kid, Greece was not yet an empire.
• Reading and writing for the Athenians was very little. 
• The life expectancy for them was 15 years
• The great civilizations of Clestanies days were around Egypt and Persia.
• Greece is an odd great civilization because it had no great rivers and every other civilization that was  great had some great river. 
• Greece was made up of city states.
• The city state of Sparta was the greatest city state that could have taken over all of Greece. 
• The kids in Sparta were brought up as warriors and also to deal with anything and lived life without many pleasures.
• By Clestanies time the Spartans had conquered around 4000 miles of Greece.
• One thing that inspired him was the stories that the people of Greece told. 
• Their stories influenced and shaped him from his earliest days.
• Heroes of the stories influenced him very much and images of these heroes can be found over many of Greeks art.
• His goal was to become a real life hero which was able to accomplish
• Pysistrotis was a great leader of Athens because he lowered taxes and issued loans which  allowed the Athenians to make bigger farms, which than allowed the nation to become very advanced and had a great civilization.
• Greece was surrounded by many great empires. 
• Greece was also the great market place of the world, which allowed the country to become very advanced. 
• There was a great invention that came from Athens. The vase.
• The artists that made the vases, were the lowest of the low in the society.
• Ahtenian pottery had become very complicated because they actually painted the vase and made many different designs on it and made great art which is still used to make vases today.
• The reason of this was because the potters wanted to compete with each other and tried to make greater art than one another.
• Clestanies watched his homeland go from a modest settlement into  a big economic power.
• When Prysistrotis died his son Hypiot took over which the Athenians hated.
• When his brother died he got really mad and killed the murderers and tortured their wives also. 
• He became bitter and suspicious of everyone and started executing and banishing random people.
• Clestanies knew that something had to be done about Hypiot. 
• The first thing of his heroism was than created because he was able to over throw Hypiot whom was captured and banished forever.
• Clestanies was now the greatest power in Athens. He was now a living hero.
• The olympic games were invented by the Greeks to show great power over everyone else for whoever won. There was no physical prise, but the prise was fame all over Greece.
• When Clestanies was in power he soon realized that people were conspiring against him so that meant that Cleastanies had to fight for his life. 
• One of the men that wanted him dead called the Spartans to help him take over the reigns of Athens.
• he was able to over throw Clestanies and now the new rules was able to train Spartans in Athens.
• When Clestanies was exiled, Athens under went an extraordinarily event, the people of Athens rose up to a revolution.
• The common Athenians were able to over throw the new leader and the Spartans guarding him in only 2 days.
• This was Athens first step to and Empire.
• This was the first time in history when the people rose up against one of their own leaders.
• Clestanies was than called back from exile and was asked to form a government.
• He had to design a revolutionary government system. 
• A government in which the people of the society had a say in what the government did and they could also elect the leaders.
• A system of government which we now know as democracy. 
• This system of government set up some of the greatest bases that which the world has never seen.

Today in Class 3/4....

We looked a presentation about Egypt. We were subbed the first mod and half of the second than Mr. Schick came in because he was in the play. Once he came in he than went over the power point. We also figured out that we are going to have a test on Tuesday on Egypt. I think I will do good on the test but I need to study in order to pass it.

Egypt Power Point

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0AdUU_awE1hVjZGNidHAyamtfMTM5ZGpoN2tjY3Y&hl=en&pli=1

More Notes on Egypt

Artisans would carve statues and reliefs showing military battles and scenes of the after life
Money/barter system was used - merchants might accept bags of grain for payment - later, coinage came about
Scribes kept records, told stories, wrote poetry, and described anatomy and medical treatments
They wrote hieroglyphs and in hieratic
Soldiers used wooden weapons (bows and arrows, spears) with bronze tips and they might ride on chariots
The upper class of society back than was known as the "white kilt class" - this class consisted of priests, physicians, and engineers
Hatshepsut was a woman who served as a pharaoh

Prezi On Ancient Egypt

ancient Egypt on Prezi

Ancient Egypt

Egypt is centered around the Nile.

The Nile empties into the Mediterarian Sea and empties out through a Delta.

The Nile supported water for drinking, for irrigating, for bathing, and for transportation.

Every July in Egypt it floods.

Every October it leaves behind rich soil

They are the first people to figure out a solar based day and a lunar based year.

The delta is a broad, marshy triangular area of silt.

The river flow from south to north

Managing the river required technological breakthroughs for their time. 

Pyramids:

Great Sphinx of Giza

It was a lion with a human's head

It was built from 2555 - 2532 BC

Oldest monumental statue in the world

The greatest amount of people back then were the greatest amount of people in the Egyptian society.

Today 2/24

Today in class we continued talking about egypt. We we watched helped our teacher plan it so that we can talk to a girl who lives in egypt. We then tested out how skype worked so we called her up and she answered. We said high and stuff and we were asked to make questions to ask her for homework.
Here are my questions:
1) What was it like during the protests?
2) How did you feel about the protests?
3) Did your family agree on you participating in the protests?
4) How did you join the protests?
5) What were you following on facebook to join the protests?
6) How do you think your country will be with a new leader?

Egypt Rap

Egypt is a awesome place.
It has a river
Which looks like a shoe lace
Called the Nile
Which was used by many ships
Probably not to race
But to deliver hips
Also known as people


It also has pyramids
That are just all space
There are triangles all over the place
But mainly that are in the desert
But they just do not weather
The pyramids are just like fears
They've been round for thousands of years
When they were made the people were drinking beers

And mummies
That's another subject
The Egyptians they just loved to dissect dead Pharaohs
They'd take their guts out
Than they would wrap them all round
Put in a casket
Than into the ground

The Egyptians also worshiped gods
There was a variety
Many odd
They made statues of them
There was more than ten
They wanted to ascend
Into heaven
When they died they wanted to be with them
They are very unique

Egyptian Pyramids

The Pyramids in Egypt were made to shelter and guard the kings bodies and to keep their treasures safe.
Before Pyramids the Egyptians made tombs out of rocks to bury their kings.
Pyramids are very intricate and some people today cannot figure out how they made the structures.
An estimated 20,000 - 30,000 people built the Pyramids.
The pyramids have different chambers in it.
The Egyptians also made a tomb under the pyramid to fool tomb robbers.
No body knows how the Egyptians were able to build the pyramids.
The Great Pyramid is the biggest and is 146 meters tall.

Today in class on 2/10 we...

Took a test about the movie called Guns, Germs, and Steel. In the test we were asked important questions on the movie and on our notes. We also had to write  an essay too. I wrote my essay about how hunting and gathering went to farming. I compared the two and explained the transition from hunting and gathering to farming. I feel like I got an A on the  test.

Essay A for Western Civilization Test

In ancient civilizations there was few ways to get food. One way was that you hunted for it. Another way was that you gather food from the plants around you. People than realized that you could farm plants. Than after that they realized you could farm animals. Farming was much more productive than hunting and gathering and people realized that.

Once people realized they could farm, life was a lot more productive and less tiring. Before people could farm they had to hunt animals and follow them wherever they went. They would also have to make a temporary shelter so they could move from place to place. All of that moving took a lot of energy out of you and farming doesn't. People first figured out that you could farm plants. They realized that you could take the seeds from the plants, plow the ground, throw the seeds on the plowed ground, then water them and keep repeating that process so you would have an endless supply of food for your people. People also had realized you could then start farming animals too. They realized you could breed them so you could have more meat to feed people. They realized they could use their poop to fertilize their crops. Farming also allowed the people to make a permanent home. Farming also allowed them to produce more of a food surplus, which means that more people can focus on other things other than farming or hunting animals. This meant that people could start inventing things to.

Once people discovered farming, they were able to develop advanced civilizations. People could make homes to live in because of farming and people could also start developing advanced weapons. Farming was much more productive than hunting and gathering too which is another reason why it is better. Once people started farming, they were moving in the next era of the human civilization. An era of developing weapons, advanced technology and architecture, and an era of focusing on developing nations.

Today 2/8 we...

Started a group project. What we did was take notes on Papua New Guinea and how they are trying to catch up with the rest of the world. We also took notes on their economy and the people that lives in it. Some of the notes we took were on their religion and on their languages. Some of the notes I took were on the types of technology they have developed in their country. Some of the technology in they have developed are cell phones. They have even developed their own television net work. And also Mr. Schick was out today.

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is trying to catch up with the rest of the world. One way they are catching up with the rest of the world is they have developed internet. 125,000 people in the country use it. They also have cell phones. One more way thing they have developed was a TV broadcasting network, which has 2 channels and they have cable and satellite to support it. They have 3 radio networks. They also have some airports. The country has 28 cargo ships.  (CIA Fact book).

Even More Notes on Guns Germs and Steel

In continuing the notes on Guns Germs and Steel, Jerrod Diamond continued talking about domesticating animals. People got the domesticated animals came from Asia and the Middle East. People in New Guinea could not have a surplus. No domesticated animals were native of New Guinea. There is an area in the middle east called the fertile crescent which was used a few thousand years ago to help out early civilizations. People in the fertile crescent was able to build very good homes that you could live in and people even had some primitive air conditioning. Sine the villages started getting bigger people could do more things and do more different jobs and which left people with opportunities to discover new technology. Places like new Guinea have never developed advanced technology. People there were still using stone tools in the 1960's. Because the food surplus was not well people couldn't make steel and people used too much time and money to feed themselves. Yet for all of its advantages the fertile crescent is not good for the modern world. Most of the villages in the fertile crescent the villages were abandoned. The people who lived there used up all the crops the environment had given them. They ran out of water and they were forced to move villages at a time. When them moved they moved to the east and west of the fertile crescent. Crops and animals that thrived around the fertile crescent were able to survive in the same latitudes. Once the animals reached Egypt the population exploded. The same thing happen in the European civilizations. In the 1600 the same crops and animals were taken to the new worlds. There was never wheat or cows in the New Americas before the Europeans brought them over. Diamond said that his years in new Guinea had their own types of smarts and they have learned to live in their environment in order for them to survive. The only types of agriculture that was taken to New Guinea were pigs. The towns in New Guinea are trying to developed with the rest of the world. The answer to the question he was asked was that their people would have developed better if their geography was the same as the Europeans and Asians.

What we did in the class of 2/3

Today in class we continued watching the movie called Guns Germs and Steel. However we didn't get very far today in class because we came in 2 hours late because of ice. What we did watch in the movie though was about people domesticating animals. The people in the middle east first figured out the uses they could have for domesticating animals. He also figured out the animals that have successfully become domesticated. Their are 14.  The types of animals are goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, camels, water buffalo, llamas, reindeer, yaks, myth ans, and tali.

More notes on Guns Germs and Steel

About 9000 years ago there was a remarkable transformation between the interaction between humans and animals. We begin to see animal domestication. Instead of having to go out to hunt they can get meat in their village. They can use their hair and skins to make clothes and can use the animals to make shelter. The animals and the crops made a good combination because the people could use the animal's droppings for fertilizers. They could also keep breeding them so they would have an everlasting supply of meat. Goats and sheep are the first animals that were domesticated. They could also get milk from the goats. Then came pigs and cows. The invention of the plow they could use strong animals to plow the fields and they could use animals to do help do everyday chores for the necessities of humans. A horse or ox could help farmers grow more food and feed more people. People in New Guinea never used plows because they never had the animals that could move plows to help make farms. However they had deer which was used for meet and pigs were flown in which are also used for meat. Almost all of the farm work in New Guinea are done by man. Domesticated animals were some birds and fish but the best to farm are plant eating animals and humans tried to domesticate practically all of them. In south Asia some elephants are used as work animals for example and doesn't make sense to farm an animal that has to wait 15 years before it can start breeding. Domestic animals have to get along with humans to. A zebra could be ideal but because of Africa's predators they run and they have a fighting personality that humans could not tame. Their are 14 animals that can be domesticated are goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, camels, water buffalo, llamas, reindeer, yaks, myth ans, and tali.

Today in class we continued watching GGS

Today in class we continued watching Guns Germs and Steel. On it today Jared Diamond went back into ancient civilizations to answer the question he was asked. He discussed how the New Guineans weren't dumber than everyone else. They were very smart and they don't have a lot of very farm able food to live with and they have to live a very old life style. He also found out that after the first ice age, the middle east was a very habitable place. He also figured out that middle eastern people had first figured out that  they could farm food. One more thing that Diamond found out was that  the countries that found out they could farm on there own were the countries that became great super powers in the modern world and over time.

Continued Notes on Guns Germs and Steel

Continuing guns germs and steel, he realized that the question was a always asked and you could look in history and ask that question yourself. To understand where inequality came from he had to see how people lived before inequality existed 13000 years ago. People back than lived like people every where. One of the few places on earth where it is still possible to see people hunting and gathering is Papua New Guinea. You have to be smart to be an hunter because you have to know how to stalk and where to find the food. Because hunting is so unpredictable traditional societies is done by gathering. Gathering is a more productive way to provide food than hunting. In the middle east there was very different plants to gather barley and wheat. These simple grasses had a large impact. A drought from an ice age lasted for more than a thousand years. This changed the survivability of the middle east. People had to build very different homes to survive. It was a big adjustment to be made. People where able to feed villages with these buildings they made that they could store grain that insects and water couldn't reach. The grains being stored were primarily wheat and barely. People eventually made towns near water supplies and would plant seeds and grow farms. Before this people would follow herds of animals to hunt. Before this, they would also make a temporary structure so they could keep following the animals. The stone age people in the middle east became the first farmers in the world. The way crops are changed by humans is domestication. This is the same process farmers were doing thousands of years ago in the middle east. There are only a few parts in the ancient world where people began farming on their own. Most places where farming emerged meant a great civilization was following it. Archeologists believe that Yalli's people where one of the earliest farmers in the world. New Guinna crops are low in protein and they can't be stored. They are also hard to plant because they have to be planted individually. In order for them to get protein they sometimes need to eat giant spiders. The people that had the better crops became the more advanced civilization.

First Class in Western Civilizations 1/25

We began western civilization today in class we set up our blog for this class. We also started watching a movie called Guns Germs and Steel. Guns Germs and Steel is about guy named Jared who is a bird watcher, in fact one of the best in the world, was brought up with a question "Why do you white folks have more trade than us?". It made him think because the people on the poorer island that dont have a good civilization and aren't advanced is really just because they are not smart.

Guns Germs and Steel

Guns Germs and Steel is a movie we began watching today in class. It is about a guy named Jared Diamond. Spanish lead the way to the western hemisphere. When they came to the western hemisphere they brought guns germs and steel. His quest began in Papua New Guinea located in the pacific away from all the trade routes and everything else. Jared's passion is studying birds and he says he loves studying birds in Papua New Guinea and he first went there when he was twenty. People have lived in Papua New Guinea for more than forty thousand years. A guy asked him thirty years ago on the beach, "Why do you white men have so much cargo and we have so little?", and it made Jared think why is that because he thought the question would be so simple to answer. He wants to figure out why these people aren't building intricate cities because they are smart people.  He says that we can't survive if we were put in a woods and was told to survive.