Egypt! /_\ (pyramid)

Today in class two people had to take the pop quiz they took. I got an 80% on the quiz. The class average was by far the lowest out of all three sections. Our class average was I believe a 52%. Only one person in our entire class got a 100% which happened to be Kelley. The notes we took in class included the geography of Egypt, the pyramids, and part of the daily life. The geography of Egypt was centered around the Nile. It was used for drinking, cleaning, transportation, and irrigation  Every July the river would flood. When the water receded in October, it would leave behind great soil for fertile lands. A delta is a broad, marshy triangular land of fertile silt. Because of the Nile being so close, the Egyptians learned technological breakthroughs to help with irrigation and transportation. The Great Sphinx of Giza was built between 2555-2532 BC and is the oldest monumental statue in the world. It is a recumbent lion with a human head. At the head of society was pharaohs, then government officials, next was soldiers  followed by scribes, next came merchants, then artisans, after that was farmers, and at the lowest of society was servers/slaves.

Reading & Notes

Mr. Schick wasn't in class today so we had a sub. We went to a different classroom. We read about Egypt and the Pharaohs and took notes on the nine pages in that section. Today's class we short because of it being grandparents day. Luckily, I got my reading with notes done in class so I don't have to do it for homework. Some of the notes I have include the Egyptian civilization was more stable than Mesopotamia. Egypt was divided into two sections, the Upper and Lower. The Upper part was narrow, fertile, 500 miles in length, and 12 miles, at most, wide. The Lower part was a fan shaped pattern of waterways/deltas formed by the Nile. The Pharaoh was a man given power by the Gods, used maats vs the forces of chaos and confusion, had many wives, once believed to be immortal, and were buried in pyramids with personal belongings to take to the after life. Hatshepsut was one of the most successful female Pharaohs.

Snow

When we first got into class, we began by taking a pop quiz. It had 5 questions on it and I got an 80%. I showed Mr.Schick that I did my friday blog last weekend on Sunday, so it was late but my grade didn't change but it's okay because there are only two grades in right now. We took notes on Mestpotamia especially Sumer. They were the first people to create a calender based on the moon phases, created the time measurements, and a writting system. Mesoptamia is located between the Tigris and Euphrates river. Mesopotamia is located in current day Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They made the announcement that we were getting out two hours early because of the snow while I was in that class.

Mesopotamia

today in class we watched the video again and took notes on it. We also discussed a lot about the movies. Indianapolis is the largest city not located near water. Thankfully, Mr Schick let Holly, Kelley, Julia, and I get our jackets during class because the classroom was so cold. For homework we are supposed to read the first half of the section of the book based on Mesopotania and take notes. So that's what I'm going to do and here are my notes: lasted for more than 3,000 years, located between the Tirgris and the Euphrates river, "Sumer" was the land of rivers and little rainfall and irrigation was key, 3500 bc- climate change (easier irrigation, new villages), landscape then began to dry, new problems = new solutions, system of ranks, there were personal gods, gods and humans could interbreed, many traditions, and developed one of the first writing systems

Assigned Seats

Today in class we got assigned seats. I don't really like where I sit except I'm near Julia and Savanna so it's not too bad. But Mr. Schick split the majority of the talkative people apart because I guess he did not want us talking the entire class. But hopefully we won't have assigned seats anymore, like last semester. But we watched a video and took notes of the video. The author in the video was some writer that I never heard of, but I did recognize some of the books he wrote. Some of the notes I have are 200000 years ago the first humans arrived in SW Africa. The Agriculture Revolution (Neloithic Revolution) was the big revolution where population grew, women status went down, there were more inventions, and villages started to believe in gods. 14000 years ago was the first time there was a worldwide human race.

Was Jared Diamond on track with his theory of "geographic luck"?

            Was Jared Diamond on track with his theory of “geographic luck”? Yes, Jared Diamond was on track with his theory of “geographic luck”. It is a known fact that all civilizations began as a hunter-gather society, but after that, geographic luck occurred more often in some places. Jared Diamond said the Fertile Crescent was one of the main reasons why the people their succeeded. Southwestern Asia and Northeast Africa has sections located in the Fertile Crescent. Ever since the beginning of the very first advancement in technology, stronger stone weapons, occurred in Southwestern Asia and Northeast Africa. The Fertile Crescent produced great farming land and land for raising livestock. As the book says, Southwestern Asia became covered with fertile soil, a mild climate, and good water supplies, all of these things are necessary of growth of animals and crops. Tropical Asia (location of Papua New Guinea) would have had a tropical climate, not as many plants would grow, the soil in Papua New Guinea is hilly which is bad for growing plants and raising animals. As Jared Diamonds theory suggests, because of all of the new animals and crops, civilizations were allowed to prosper. More babies were born (bigger villages and more jobs to be created), families own wealth and status developed within the communities, and there was an increase of food. The increase of food was important because if an ice age or some other catastrophe occurred, the villages would be able to live. Lastly, as the book states, Western civilizations directly descended from Southwest Asia and Northeast Africa, home of the Fertile Crescent.

First Class

This blog was supposed to be made yesturday by midnight, but I forgot so I thought I would just do it now. We didn't have class Thursday, so Friday was our first day. We made a new blog and went over things I already knew since I had Mr. Schick last semester, but not everyone else did. In our class, there are a bunch of quiet people, which I guess is good for Mr. Schick. But there are some really loud, talkative people in our class so it evens out. I did get yelled at for talking to Kelley a few times in the class, so I'll try not to talk to her as much. I think the rest of this semester is going to be good.