Continuing with egypt

Today in western cove we continued to learn about ancient egypt.  We started by discussing their geography because that may have been the most important part of their civilization.. they were based around the Nile River and the fertile silt that it brought down.  In ancient  Egypt the people loved at most 1 mile from the river.  This is because that is where the fertility of the soil abruptly ended, and it was desolate desert.  Egypt was split into  Two parts, the southern portion was called up peer Egypt because it was at a higher elevation than the northern part called lower Egypt.  Upper Egypt only included the land directly around the Nile, but lower Egypt included the fertile delta at the outlet of the north flowing river.  These two kingdoms were unified under one all powerful god king in 3150 bc

The Test and egypt.

Today we took the quiz that we spent the last two days preparing for.  I knew the information well and because of that, I got 100% on the quiz.  We also started to read about the Egyptians who lived on the banks of the Nile, using the rich silt that was brought down every July by the regular flooding to farm their wheat and barley.  Although this flooding of the Nile was far more regular than the flooding of the tigeris and Euphrates there were still struggles with the river regarding the amount that it flooded.  If it didn't flood enough there would not be enough silt brought down then there would not be enough to farm with, and thousands of people would starve.  If the river flooded too much then it would destroy houses and the granaries that stored the grain to be planted in October of that year.

Reviewing for tomorrows quiz

Today in western civ we continued to prepare for the quiz tomorrow by watching the Mr. Nickey video, the EUphrates river.  I have seen this video before when we studied ancient civilizations in middle school.  though this video is a little goofy, it is useful to study and get stuck in your head so that you can remember it for the test.  I will continue to go over the PowerPoint and study tonight so that I can be ready for the quiz tomorrow.  I think that I should do fairly well on this test so that I can start the semester off with an A.  I hope that my grades in western civ will end up being as good as the a that I kept in human geo.  I will continue to study and do well in my social studies class in order to keep my grade up.

Preparing for the test

We spent class today preparing for the quiz that we will take on Wednesday.  We went over questions that will be part of the quiz.  two new questions were added in the time that we were in class.  these questions were, How did people learn about Hammurabi's codes?, It was posted on stone tablets all around the kingdom, and What is the soil that was left behind after a flood? Silt.  Another question that We had that I was unsure of was what was the name of the new era set aside by the beginning of farming, the answer was the neolithic era or the new stone age.  then the era before this where farming was not used to have a surplus of food was the period called the paleolithic era.  This evening I will continue to study for the test by going over the notes I took from the book and PowerPoint, and the PowerPoint itself.  Overall except for a few questions I feel like I will do well on this test.

Ziggurats and Hammurabi's code

Today in western civ we continued to study Mesopotamia.  We first took a look at the Ziggurats which qualified as the advanced technology.  These massive structures offered a place of worship as well as a massive place to offer sacrifices.  then we began to look at Hammurabi's code and some of the wild laws that were part of the code.  This code was made by King Hammurabi of Babylon who was not only a king but an accomplished military leader. these codes covered all aspects of life, including marriage and divorce, and all of the punishments for rich and poor, and men and women.   Also, Sumer was taken over by the Akkadians in 2350bc. Overall the laws that were made by Hammurabi were very interesting to go over with how specific some of them are, and it makes a person wonder how many times did all of these things that are written as if... then happened.

Hammurabi's code

The code was made up of 282 specific laws and codes that came together to cover all aspects of life in Sumeria.  these aspects include family relations, crime, and business conduct.  These laws were also applicable to men, women, rich, and poor.  Also, the Sumerians learned to do the math that helped them in architecture, and time with the   60 min hour, ect.  the Sumerians were also polytheistic and constructed large ziggurats to be used as places of worship.

Western Civ intro and the land of the two rivers

Fertile Cresent - The crescent-shaped fertile land that is facing the Mediterranian sea where the fist main civilization began, often called the cradle of civilization.
Mesopotamia- from Greek, meaning "the land between two rivers" refers to the fertile crescent and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers which flood and bring the fertile mud to the crescent.
City-state- The city and all of the land surrounding it which came together to make the city-state allowing it to make large surplusses of grain and allow the state to grow.
Cultural Diffusion- The movent of ideas from one area to another that allowed places to gain new technologies and Ideas.
Polytheism - the belief in many gods, typically had one assigned to each force of nature.
empire - instead of all the small city-states, they are all united into one central empire together under one ruler
Hammurabi - A lawmaker from ancient Sumeriathat came up with Hammurabi's code where an eye for an eye originated.

3 environmental threats that the Sumerians face were the fact of unexpected floods that could come at any time, and then periods of little to no rain.  there was also the fact that their villages had little to no protection from outside forces.  Also, they have very little natural resources and few building supplies.

Watching Jeopardy

Today in honors human geo we watched jeopardy and saw our test scores.  When we watched Jeopardy the first episode that we watched was one of the teen tournaments with three contestants, one of which being Nick and he lost everything because he got all of the daily doubles.  All of the question involving the US history, and US wars because I like to study US history.  Then the part of the second that we watched was a bit more interesting because of the contestants that were a bit strange, the one got yelled qat for speaking Spanish, and another was far too over-expressive.  overall today's class was very interesting. I am looking forward to western civ in the second semester because I find history courses more interesting than geography courses.  I am hoping that I can keep my grades up in western civ as I did in human geo.

Test on guns germs and steel

Today we had a test on the video guns germs and steel.  overall I feel like I did fairly well on this test.  Thew video was easy to understand and I studied for the test, therefore I believe that I did well on it.  The test was only 26 questions of multiple-choice scantron, therefore it did not take the entire class.  The video of guns germs and steel was very interesting to me therefore, all of the information was easy to remember.  Also, I feel that the test was very easy because of how I prepared for it.  I hope I did as well as I feel like I did so then that way my grade will stay where I want it for the end of the semester, boosting my GPA. I'm looking forward to beginning western civ in this next week as we move into the second semester.  I hope that I do as well in Western civ as I am doing in human geo.

20 min of class

Today I was in class for 20 minutes because I had to leave at 2:00 for a wrestling match.  In the little bit of time that I was there we arched a small amount of guns germs and still.  In this portion of the video it was shown how the Middle East dried up and was no longer useful for agriculture.  This was because of the excessive farming the area experienced during thousands of years.  After this the people began to move East and west of where they started out in the Middle East.  The people that moved east and west were still largely successful because the climate on the same latitude is similar allowing the people to have the same animals and crops. The people that moved north and south were not as successful because of their location.  Along the same latitude sprang up some of the greatest civilizations such as Rome and Greece and Egypt.  This is because they had the tools necessary from the Middle East.  Then these things were brought to the US that helped to expand its economy.  The US has nearly 100,000,000 cattle now.

Geographic luck, Animals included

Today we continued to watch Guns Germs and Steel.  In this portion of the video, another part of the geographic luck that places experienced is the animals that are present in their area.   More specifically the main animals that can help to grow the civilization of a place that is herbivores that are mammals over 100 lbs.  Over 10,000 years of civilization only 14 different types of animals were domesticated.  These species include several bovine species, camelids, horses, and pigs, among other species.  These species are extremely useful in order to prepare the land for planting.  Examples of this are plowing using horses, and oxen.   This also played into Geographic luck because the people in places like New Guinea do not have these animals to offer all of their resources, and free up time to do other things that are necessary for civilization. These animals also helped to make a place successful like the crops that were grown.

Geographic luck

Today in honors human geo we continued to watch guns germs and steel.  In this portion of the video, Diamond went into further detail of the places in the world that could farm other than the middle east.  These places include north, central, and South America, where they grew corn, beans, and squash, China, where they grew rice, and Africa where they grew Sorghum, Millet, and yams.  Another place that has been farming almost as long as the middle east is the highlanders of Papua new guinea although their civilization has not taken off like the civilization in other parts of the world has.  This is because the crops that they grow here are not nearly as productive as things like wheat, corn or any other crops.  Their crops spoil easily and are not very nutritious, this meant that they could not build up a food surplus in order to advance their civilization.  This meansthat most of the reason that Civilization took off in some places is because of geographic luck.

Guns Germs and Steel Continued

Today in honors human geo we continued to watch the video Guns Germs and Steel.  In this portion of the video, the writer went into further detail about the people that are still hunter-gatherers in Papua New Guinea.  This lifestyle is very difficult because there is no time to do anything other than hunt and search for food.  this means instead of having time to advance in civilization the people must spend all of their time looking for food to be able to survive another day.  Not only that, but the people must consume as much of the food that they harvest as they can because there is no way for them to store it. Then after this point in the video, it went into detail about an 11,500-year-old village that began to meet the requirements for civilization. It had a larger population, and they began to farm, and store grain.  They also began to domesticate plants by picking the biggest and best plants.

Exam Grade and Guns,Germs, and Steel

Today in honors human geo Mr. Schick showed us how we got our grades on the exam with the curve and extra credit.  I was the only person in the class to get 99.5% which then rounded up to 100%.  This exam grade should help to bring my exam average up. Then once we finished going over the exams we began to talk about and watch the video by Gared Diamond.  In this video, Jared diamond Traveled to new guinea for bird watching, but in his time that he has spent in new guinea he has become friends with the local people.  While he was in New Guinea he became friends with the people of New Guinea and one of the people that are friends with him asked him why the white man has som much cargo, or material goods, and why the indigenous people have none.  This then led Diamond to explore to find the answer to this question.