Greece Notes

Today in class we started taking notes on Ancient Greece. Here are my notes for today.

Ancient Greece is the Word

• located on the water
• world's greatest civilization... all located on water (usually rivers)
• Huang He River / China
• Indus River / India
• Nile River / Egypt
• Tigris and Euphrates River / Mesopotamia

Culture of the Mountains and the Sea

• Greece is a mountainous peninsula, mountains cover 3/4 of Greece
• approx. 2000 islands in the Ionian Sea, Aegean Sea
• many skilled sailors/ shipbuilders
• farmers, metalworkers, weavers, potters
•  poor limited natural resources, so they needed to trade, difficult to unite Ancient Greeks due to terrain
• developed small, independent communities (city-states) that's who they were loyal to
• fertile valleys cover 1/4 of the peninsula, 20% is arable (suitable for farming)
• diet - grains, grapes, olives, fish
• lack of resources likely led to Greek colonization
• temp range from the mid-40s (winter) to low 80s (summer), could get hot in the summer, pretty nice weather year-round

Platos: Allegory of the Cave

Today in class we listened and took notes on a story. It is from Plato's time. So here is the idea of the story. There are prisoners in a cave and they can only see shadows on the opposite wall. They are shackled to the wall across from this tall wall. The wall that they are shackled to is low so that light behind it can come across the top of it. People behind them put puppets and statues so there are shadows on the opposite wall. They can maybe some voices and noises and they have been here their whole lives, this is all they have ever known. They decide to free one prisoner and drag him outside, up a rocky, mountain, and into the sunlight. It was so bright he couldn't see the unhidden. First, he would only be able to see shadows and reflections of people in the water. Then he would be able to see people and things first hand. Then he could look at the moonlight, and then the moon and stars. After that, he could look at the sunlight and sun itself. Then he would learn all these things and how the sun has to do with the seasons and years. His eyes would be opened up to what the real world is like, how it really is, and what goes on in it. The person came back to the cave and was shackled. The person couldn't see for a while for it was just darkness until his eyes adjusted. He told the others what it was really like and they didn't like what he said. They thought he was strange for saying this stuff and they didn't like him for coming back. Then he was killed later for this. I think this story is about how he was in the dark and didn't share his ideas and thoughts. Then he finally let out what he thought to the world and shared his ideas. He was in the sunlight for a while when he was spreading what he thought. Then he was put into darkness because his ideas were different and people didn't want to change what they thought. So they eventually killed him for his ideas. That is when in the story he went back to the cave into darkness and was killed. People don't like change so if you try to change something most people will not accept it.

Textbook Questions

Today in class we worked on textbook questions while some kids took a quiz that they missed. I answered the questions in my notebook. Then I put them into my blog and worked on some other homework. Here are the questions we had to answer.

1. define these terms: Mycenaean, Trojan war, Dorian, Homer, epic, myth
I am not going to define all these terms again since they are in my notebook. 

3. what impact did nearness to the sea have on the development of Greece?
The sea provided important transportation routes, connected Greece with other societies, and helped with trade.

4. what aspects of culture did the Mycenaeans adopt from the Minoans?
They adapted the Minoan writing system to the Greek language, decorated vases with Minoan designs, they influenced Greek religious practice, art, politics, and literature.

5. why were the epics of importance to the Greeks of the Dorian period?
They could tell of there history through spoken word, and learn about it, the poems also celebrated heroic deeds. 

Quiz Day and New Topic

Today we took a quiz in class on Ancient Egypt. I thought the quiz was hard and there were things on there that we didn't go over. I didn't do very well, even though I thought I knew the material pretty well. When we were done we started taking notes on the new topic ancient Greece. I took a page of notes before I ran out of time. Here are some of the notes I took in class today.

• Sea, land, and climate were an important environmental influence on Greek civilization.
• 3000 B.C. Minoans lived on large Greek island Crete.
• The Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea, the Black Sea, were important transportation routes for Greek people.
• Greece lacked natural resources: timer, precious metals, and usable farmland. 
• rugged mountains covered 3/4 of ancient Greek
• small parts was suitable for farmland; tiny fertile valleys covered 1/4 of Greece. 
• Couldn't support large populations with little farmland and water
• varied climate 48-80

Review for quiz day

Today in class we reviewed what would be in the quiz. He asked questions and we answered them. We went over some of the slides that would be on the test. Then we watched a mummification process video. It was a little gross but pretty amazing how they mummified a body for this long. It's even cooler that they did this so long ago and then they figured out how to do it. The process seems pretty simple but it probably takes a long time. We also watched a music video called King Tut on SNL. Here are some things on the quiz:

• delta
• Nile- how long 4,100 miles
• Upper and Lower- how it's separated- snow makes Upper Egypt higher than lower even though upper Egypt is below Lower Egypt
• Natural barriers - desert
• Narmer- the first king to rule over unified Egypt
• Pharoah
• theocracy
• pyramid - tombs
• mummification - to be preserved for the afterlife
• Ka - afterlife
• translated the Rosetta Stone - Jean Francois
• 3 languages - simple hieroglyphs, Greek language
• figured out in 1892 in greek
• papyrus
• matt- harmony, and balance

Another Catch up day

Today in class we let Nick take his quiz on Mesopotamia. He is the last honors kid  to make it up. So while he was taking it I will type some notes into this blog for today.

•  the pyramid for class ranking in Egypt had different levels. The point was king, queen, royal family. The second level from the top is Upper class which is wealthy landowners, gov. officials, priests, army commanders. The third level down is middle class which is merchants and artisans. The last level is the lower class which is peasants, farmers, and laborers. That is the largest class of the pyramid. 
• Egyptians could gain higher status by marriage or success in a job.
• you had to be able to read and write to be in the upper classes.
• women held same rights as men, they could own and trade property, propose marriage, or seek divorce. If a divorce happens she gets a 1/3 of the couples property for her own. 

Catch up day

Today in class we didn't do much. It was a class so that all the kids who were absent could catch up on the stuff they missed. They could finish notes in the textbook, take a quiz, or catch up on notes from the PowerPoint. I finished taking notes on the PowerPoint so here they are.

• the earliest writing formed 3100 B.C, small pictures known as hieroglyphics

• script was written in ink on papyrus, made from mashed Nile reeds.
  
• papyrus, precursor to paper, stored in scrolls, books of ancient Egypt
• created calendar with 12 months and 365 days to make sense of seasonal cycles.
• due to knowledge of human anatomy, Egyptian doctor wrote extensively on health issues and created potions and cures for a number of common ailments
• wooden sailboats made to increase transportation ability on Nile.
• pyramids were massive stone tombs, originally covered in marble, later stripped off during Muslim conquest
• Temple of Amon at Karnak is the largest religious building in the world, made out of huge stone blocks
• stone sculpture and interior painting depited humans/gods in series of regulated poses, in high profile with perspetcive, higjly effective.