Wednesday's Blog 2/26/14

Acropolis - The high fortified citadel and religious center of an ancient Greek town.
Hoplite - A heavily armed and armored citizen-soldier of ancient Greece.
Phalanx - A unit of several hundred hoplites, who closed ranks by joining shields when approaching the enemy.
Monarchy - A state in which supreme power is held by a single, usually heredity ruler.
Oligarchy - In this form the minority of the citizens dominated government.
Democracy - Government decisions are were made by the majority of male citizens.
Tyranny - A self proclaimed dictatorship
Helots - Descendants of the earlier Greek immigrants who were bound to the land by the Spartan state and compelled to work for the landholding citizens.

Tuesday's Class 2/25/14

      Today in class we talked a little bit more about the culture of the ancient Greeks.  We especially got on the topic of the author of The Trojan War and The Odyssey.  The author was an old blind poet who wrote two stories in poem form which added up to about 12,110 lines in total!  It's crazy how this book was passed down by oral tradition too.  The Odyssey especially interests me because it just seems like a huge adventure story.  The Odyssey takes place by a man who is done fighting The Trojan War and upsets the god Poseiden and he trys to get Odysian killed many times throughout the story and make sure he never returns home.

Friday's Class 2/21/14

     The greeks invented Democracy.  Barbarian is a term used to describe the distinctive way of life based on farming.  Megaliths: Massive rough-cut stones used to construct monuments and tombs.  Over three thousand years up to the time of the Persian Empire, civilization had spread from its Sumerian and Egyptian homelands right across southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa.  Why the Greeks rocked.  They had a lot of new ideas.  They had incredible art forms.  They had Democratic government with citizen participation.  They had many innovators in warfare.

4000 B.C. - Farming life, village life, communities, small cities, this kind of life spreaded from Egypt and Sumer.

3500 B.C. - They had the ability to make megaliths these are stones that they made into massive sculptures and art.

2500 B.C. - Their language was Greek and Latin.  Their lives centered around strength and courage, comradship and loyalty, contests and battle.

They were barbarian (from the Greek word barbaros non-Greek).  The distinctive civilization the Greeks developed is the first that counts as defidently "Western."

Geography of Greece:
Mountainous peninsula
- Mountains cover 3/4
Approximately 1,400 islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas
Location shaped its culture
Skilled Sailors
Poor natural resources
Difficult to unite the ancient Greeks because of the terrain; developed small, independent communities
Approximately 20% of their land was suitable for farming
Fertile valleys cover 1/4 of a peninsula
Because of geography the Greek diet consists of grains, grapes, and olives
Lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization
Temperatures range from 48 in the winter to 80 in the summer

Thursday's Class 2/20/14

     Today in class we got our tests back.  Like usual i didn't get a ding.  Not a ding not even a half din or any ding.  This is probably because I was not well prepared for the test.  I was not well prepared because I only had one night to study.  I didn't realize we were having a test in Western Civ until Sunday Night when it was almost too late.  I still some how managed to get a 50% on the test not that that's an accomplishment or anything.  Anyway when we got our test back after all the dinging we went over the test.  I made a lot of stupid mistakes that I shouldn't have made.  I guess I just wasn't thinking or something.  Well anyway I hope to do better on the next one Mr. Schick.

Wednesday 2/19/14

      Today in class we played a game called pyramid challenge.  I was partners with Zack and we were one of two groups to actually finish the game.  Mr. Schick gave us an 18 out of 20.

Tuesday 2/18/14

     Barbarian - A term used to describe the distinctive way of life based on farming, warfare, and tribal organization that became widespread in Europe begging around 2500 B.C.
     Megaliths - Massive rough-cut stones used to construct monuments and tombs.
     Tribe - A social and political unit consisting of a group of communities held together by communities held together by common interests, traditions, and real or mythical ties of kinship.
     Chronology:
     3500 B.C. - Megalithic structures constructed in Europe
     2500 B.C. - Indo-European nomads from the steppes migrate into European; European barbarian way of life evolves
     2200 B.C. - Minoan civilization takes root in Crete; Greeks arrive in southeastern Europe
     1600 B.C. - Greek fortified settlements along the Aegean develop Mycenaean civilization
     1400 B.C. - Destruction of Minoan towns
     1200 B.C. - Mycenaean civilization falls; begging of "Dark Ages" of Greek History
      800  B.C. - Recovery in the Aegean; Greek city states from
494-445 B.C. - Persian Wars
460-430 B.C. - Golden Age of Athens

Friday's Blog 2/15/14

     The pyramid was a huge technological invention it is described as a monumental structure with a square or triangular base and sloping sides that meet in a point at the top, esp. one built of stone as a royal tomb in ancient Egypt.  They also had the first ox-drawn plow to farm.  They were the first civilization to really have organized labor too.

     In a pyramid there was always a maze of different channel’s and dead ends to prevent it from being robbed easily.  They all usually had a series of traps too.  A lot of pyramids had a square base.

Thursday's Blog 2/13/14

          The social hierarchy of ancient Egypt was used to rank people into social classes.  The Pharaoh was on the top of the hierarchical pyramid and political, jurisdictional, military, administrative and religious power was considered divine.   Egyptian pharaohs ruled by themselves without consulting with nobility or people who were despots, while the form of government was despotism. Pharaohs were viewed as divine or semi-divine and were worshiped like gods. Sometimes they married their sisters to protect the purity of royal family.

     Pharaoh’s orders were carried out by hierarchically organized administration on top of which were the viziers. Viziers were often pharaohs’ sons or members of the royal families who gave direct orders to the head of royal offices for the army, construction, navigation, trade, medicine, foreign relations, frontiers, tax collecting, crop supply, animals, and fields.

     Everything depended on the river in ancient times as it still does today to a large extent. It is quite simply Egypt's lifeblood. Even with all the modern progress attributed to today, Egypt's settlement pattern mirrors closely that of older times, in as far as viable habitation is, and was only possible within the Nile's floodplain; a narrow strip of land, limited to several miles each side of the riverHabitation was only possible within the Nile's floodplain, where all agrarian activity took place and where much depended on the river's behavior and the regularity of its inundation.

Wednesday 2/12/14

      Today in class we talked about whats happening with the snow and how we are going to have a cyber day and take all of our stuff home for the snow. I don't think all this cyber day stuff is going to work out.  But who am I to talk?  Anyway we watched a video today by some guy name John Green.  He explained ancient Egypt very well and I learned a lot more today about Egyptian life today.  He wen't into great detail about pyramid's which was interesting.  He was talking about King Tut and basically explained why he was never even important.  He made a mistake though because the Nile river flows south to north and not north to south.

Tuseday's Class 2/11/14

     Today in class we talked all about pyramids and the pyramid of life in ancient Egypt.  One particular thing about Egypt that stood out to me was that the slaves were nothing like american slaves and they actually lived good lives.  I like at them as butlers and maids that were forced to work because they did get treated well and they had a nice place to sleep.  The houses the slaves were living in also weren't exactly small.  Well with the social pyramid it goes like 

Fridays Class 2/7/14

     I was out sick on Friday so I was not in Friday's class.  I will read the the text of this chapter and get any notes that I missed from someone else in the class.  Thank you for understanding Mr. Schick.

Tuesday 2/4/14 LO3 Egypt

     The Narmer Palette:  This pallette was used for grinding make up for divine images in an Upper Egyptian temple about 3100 B.C.  The intertwined necks of two tethered beasts around the grinding area are believed to symbolize the union of the Two Lands.  Above them, a king wears the crown of Upper Egypt; in front of him, some of the earliest known heiroglyphs give his name-Narmer-an army parades, and beheaded corpses are lined up.  Evidently unification was not a peaceful process.  Pharaohs the rulers of ancient Egypt.

Friday's Blog 1/31/14

      Prehistory - The period before history was recorded through written documents.  "If we reduce the time since the first human-like species appeared (about 2.5 million years ago) to the period of a twenty-four-hour day, the five-thousand-year era of civilization takes up less than the last three minutes!"  Cave Paintings: These images of wild beasts were painted about 25,000 years ago deep in  a cave in southern France.  Nearer the entrance, people had their dwellings.  To judge from animal bones found in their garbage piles, they did not hunt these beasts; instead, perhaps they worshiped them.