LO3 (Ancient Egypt)

Today we had a pop-quiz on prehistory and the Paleolithic and Neolithic Eras. It was only 5 questions and it turned out to be very easy. I ended getting an 80 % on the quiz which I don't mind.
Below will contain some notes from pages 20-29 of the WCIV Book

The Egyptian Empire stretched along the Nile River from Central Africa to Mediterranean Sea. The Egyptians depended on the Nile River to help support life and the Empire itself. The Empire was split into two parts. Lower Egypt was a strip of fertile land with many deltas connected to the Nile River, and Upper Egypt ran across the Nile River into the Saharan Desert. The country's ruler was known as the Pharaoh, and was thought of as a god by the Egyptians. The Egyptians were also very polytheistic, and believed in many gods. The Pharaoh had all the rule in the Empire, and his position took on great responsibility.
The Egyptians also had there own style of writing, which was hieroglyphics. This writing method consisted of different pictures which symbolized different things. The Egyptians also built many temples and pyramids to honor the gods and the Pharaohs.

Harmony and balance of universe was called maat.
Pharaohs had multiple wives, and woman were able
to divorce and inherit money and land. They were rarely
ever in political power though.

The Gods of ancient Egypt were usually humans with a head of an animal. Egyptians believed in the afterlife, and prepared the dead for the afterlife by mummifying them. The deceased soul would be judged, and either go to a paradise, or the jaws of a monster.

Hieroglyphics represented religious words or parts of words and were usually used in temples, and Hieratic  was normal wording used in documents and other things.
Egyptians invented the Papyrus and the sailboat.

Winter Camping

Since Harford County Public Schools are concerned about the weather of later today, we were able to get out of school early before the snow would come, which means that I didn't have Western Civ. today. This weekend I am going to go camping with the Boy Scouts. We do a Winter Camping trip every year, and I am excited because this is my first time going in 3 years. At the camporee, we will be competing against other troops to see who has the most skill, enthusiasm, and knowledge of the  Boy Scouts. During the last troop meeting, we had an election to see who would become the next boy scout to be a member of the Order of the Arrow. The Order of the Arrow is kind of the boy scout "honor society". It demonstrates scouts who go above and beyond those of the others. I was one of the nominees to be elected into the Society, and I am really hoping that I get elected in. I think I am going to have a great time this weekend.

The Agriculture Revolution

In today's class we learned more about the agriculture revolution by watching a video that explained life in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Eras. In the video it explained how agriculture was brought up to the human race, and how it has affected history. Before we domesticated crops and animals, we foraged and hunted for food. In the video, it said that fishing was the easiest and most abundant way to obtain food, hence, why we originally lived by the shores and still do today. Now, it is so much easier to obtain food by growing it yourself. Some advantages of agriculture is a stable food supply to support people in droughts, floods, or whatever the case may be. A disadvantage is that you may have to radically change the environment around you. Another advantage is that you can create a food surplus, so you can have enough food to allow the population to grow, by having more food than the population needs, this allows room for more people in the population. Another disadvantage is that farming can be difficult and requires lots of physical labor to do.

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

Today we discussed more on the Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages in human history, or in other words, the "old stone age" and the "new stone age". We also discussed a bit about the essays we had to write last night. Mr. Schick told us that some of us are a bit behind on out blogs, and that we should catch up before some of us get a bad grade starting the second semester. During the class period, we learned about the Agricultural Revolution, also known as the Neolithic Revolution. During this time, people first started to learn how to grow their own food, and started more permanent settlements and villages. During this time, the populations rose dramatically and new tools and skills were developed. The wheel and the plow were first invented during this time, and people started to make use of fire. Back then, the men usually did the hunting, and the woman usually did the gathering. As a result of more hardworking and laborious jobs for the men, it was considered that the men were stronger and more dominant than the woman. This idea had been passed on from the generations, and the idea still exists in some parts of the world today.

Was Jared Diamond's Theory Correct?

     Since the beginning of prehistory, people of European Origin have dominated the globe. Some believe that guns, germs, and steel was what led them to their success. But how did the Europeans develop these advantages in the first place? For more than thirty years, Jared Diamond has been trying to solve the question of why some civilizations developed advantages over the other. Jared Diamond believes that "geographical luck" was what led to a civilizations success or failure.
     Jared believes that the people of the Middle East and Europe had geographical advantages over the rest of the world, because they were located near the Fertile Crescent. This area was filled with lots of food and natural resources for the people to use. People living in the Fertile Crescent learned how to farm their own crops, which made getting food much easier for them. The people learned how to domesticate the plants and the animals around them. Jared Diamond was able to total up 148 different kinds of domesticated animals that weighed over 100 pounds. However, of those 148, only 14 of those animals were successfully domesticated for any length of time. 13 of those 14 animals were native to North Africa, Asia, and Europe. The people of the Fertile Crescent had advantages apart from the rest of the world due to the large surplus of food. People could also support large populations with the availability of food, and with more people came a larger work force. With the development of domestication, people could now focus more on advancing in their society and culture rather than just focusing on hunting and gathering.
     Not only was the food an advantage to the people of the Fertile Crescent, but the climate and temperature also played an important role in the development of the Ancient Civilizations. As stated on page 9 in the Western Civilization Textbook, the planet was warming and the ice that gathered in the Northern Hemisphere started to melt. Southwestern Asia and the area around it became a region where the climate and temperature was ideal enough to grow crops and establish communities. The good weather and climate allowed for advancement in technology as well.
Thanks to the large amount of food available, the ideal climate and temperature, and the geographical features, the people of the Fertile Crescent had many advantages to the other people located around the world. So, in conclusion, Jared Diamond's theory about geographical luck is correct.

First Day of Learning

Today in class, we learned about prehistory, which is the millions of years in which human beings appeared on the earth and where history was not recorded. We started off by reading the introduction to the the new textbook. We learned that as people interact with each other, the spread of civilization doesn't seem to end. Language, religion, art, technology, farming, family life, and village communities are all basic features of human existence, and each of those had originated in prehistoric times.
We had found out that humans have been on the earth for 2.5 million years. If that length of time was converted into a 24 hour day, That would mean that humans have only been civilized for 3 minutes! Also, The first human-like species appeared in East Africa, and by 1200 B.C, there came into existence an international region of civilization with many local versions of Mesopotamian and Egyptian traditions.

First Day of Class

Today, we have officially started the second semester. I am now in a new class with Mr. Schick and am learning about Western Civilization. Today was mostly spent on getting accustomed to the new changes. Mr. Schick explained the blog process to those who were not in his class during the first semester, and we spent the class setting up the new blog. Another major change for the semester is textbooks for our class. In the first semester in Human Geo, we did not have any textbooks. I'm interested to see how we will be using the textbooks throughout the year. Unfortunately, when I got mine, the cover was a bit ripped in the front, but oh well. Anyway, I am glad that I have Mr. Schick in the second semester, and I can't wait to learn more interesting things this year.