Notes on Ancient Egypt

• Geography

• Egyptian life is centered around the Nile River

• water for drinking, for irrigating, for bathing, and for transportation

• Every July it floods

• Every October it leaves behind rich soil 

• the delta is a broad, marshy triangular area of fertile silt

• managing the river required technological breakthroughs in irrigation

• Pyramids

• The Great Sphinx of Giza

• built 2555 - 2532 BC

• a recumbent lion with a human's head

• oldest monumental statue in the world

• Daily Life
• Pharaoh
• government officials - Nobles, Priests
• Soldiers
• Scribes 
• Merchants
• Artisans
• Farmers
• Slaves and Servants

• Slaves/servants helped the wealthy with household and child raising duties

• raised wheat, barley, lentils, onions - benefitted from irrigation of the Nile 

• artisans would carve statues and reliefs showing military battles and scenes in the afterlife

• money/barter system was used - merchants might accept bags of grain for payment - later, coinage came about

• scribes kept records, told stores, wrote poetry described anatomy and medical treatments

• they wrote in hieroglyphs and in hieratic 

• Religious and Political Leader

• soldiers used wooden weapons (bow and arrows, spears) with bronze tips and might ride chariots

• upper class known as the "white kilt class" - priests, physicians, engineers

• Pharaohs

• the political and religious leader of the Egyptian people, holding the titles 'Lord of the Two Lands' and 'High Priest of Every Temple'

• as 'Lord of the Two Lands' the pharaoh was the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt.  He owned all land, made laws, collected taxes and defended Egypt from all foreigners

• Hatshepsut was a woman who served as a pharaoh 

• Cleopatra VII also served as a pharaoh, but much later (51-30 BC) more on her when we study Greece

• Goddesses And gods 

• over 2000 gods and Goddesses

• they "controlled" the lives of humans

Test Check Thursday

Today in class we went over our first test and some of our second test.  We get to keep our tests so that way we can look over them at the end of the year for our exams.  I like that we get to keep our tests for review, that is a lot of help.  It was a pretty easy day in class because all we did was look over our tests.  That's all we did in class today so not much to talk about there.  On the bright side we have off tomorrow and have a four day weekend because of President's Day.

Test Day

In class today we had a test on the video we watched over the past week or so, called Guns, Germs, and Steel.  It was a 25 question scantron test.  I prefer scantron tests over fill in the blanks because you get to see all the answers and have a better chance, in my opinion, to get the right answer.  Of course if you studied.  I think I did fairly well, maybe an A but probably a B.  It was a good test and I feel like I did pretty good... but we will have to see once Mr. Schick grades them.  

Friday's class

In class on Friday a couple of the groups presented their power points.  The first group who presented talked about all the animals that helped uprise the people of the ancient world.  The other group that did their power point talked about the types of bad diseases people could often get back then, especially smallpox.  Mr Schick also finally graded our tests, it took him a while... but he did it.  I wasn't too thrilled with my grade but I wasn't very upset with it.  This coming Tuesday we are having a test on the Guns, Germs, and Steel video that we watched and took notes on.

Group Project

In class today I had a shadow, his name is Ben.  He seemed a little bored in class today because we started a presentation project in groups.  We didn't do any note taking which was a refresher.  Though we still had to make a powerpoint and present it.  The people in my group are Parker, Jeremiah, Steven, and Adam.  We got a good amount of work done on our powerpoint and should be ready to present it tomorrow.

Guns, Germs, and Steel summary

In class today we finished watching the Guns, Germs, and Steel video.  We saw the people that began to build homes in Jordan, not just for sleeping but for living and doing things in.  We saw how they made plaster and used it inside their homes as an insulation.
We saw the conclusion of Jared Diamond's visit to Papuanewguinea.
There wasn't much to the end except that most likely the Newguineans in the highland will keep living the way they live now and the people more in the city are starting to become more civilized and modern.
This video was a good video, it taught me a lot about the history of our earth.  It taught me how the people back then survived and how they formed us to be the people we are today.  And
I learend all the essentials that we need to live, now and back then.

Guns, Germs, and Steel video part 2

Today in class we watched the rest of the Guns, Germs, and Steel video.  We learned from the notes that it took that the reason why Papuanewguinea is still so far behind in the modern world is because of a couple things.  One: they don't have a great food supply to be able to live somewhere permanently instead of being hunter/gatherers.  Another reason that they aren't very civilized to the modern world is that they don't have the animals to collect and use for more than just eating.
The reason why all the people in the Middle East became more civilized is because they had the right food supply, such as, wheat.  Wheat and grains was their main food supply and it was a great food supply because wheat was very easy to store for long periods of time.  The other reason that the Middle East developed so quickly was because a lot of the animals that are native there are very useful to living in big tribes.  Such as sheep, and lambs.  They are great for making clothes and giving off good meat.
Plants that emerged over the world are: rice, corn, squash, beans, sorghum, millet, and yams.
Rice came from China.
Corn, squash, and beans came from America.
Sorghum, millet, and yams, came from Africa.

Dr.  Jared Diamond researched as many animals as possible, and he found 148.  He only found 14 animals out of 148 are domesticated, which means that those 14 animals can work for people and help them out.
The 14 animals are: goat, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, backtrain camels, arabian camels, water buffalos, llama, reindeer, yack, mithans, and bali cattle.

The llama came from South Africa.
The rest of the animals came from Asia, and North Africa.
Cows, pigs, sheep, and goats came from the Middle East.