Greece

Barbarians- a person living outside north of the Roman empire; meaning "anyone who is not Greek"; a fierce, brutal, insenstive, uncultured,and cruel person; pretty much anyone who didnt live in Greece

Ionia- the ancient regionof central coastal Anatolia in present day Turkey; the city of Ionia was founded by colonist from the other side of the Aegean sea; a larger part of the area was covered in mountains; none of the mountains were larger then 4,00 feet; it has three extremely fertile valleys that rivers ran through; very strategic.

Cyrus the Great- means "sun-like" in Greek' Father of the iranian nations; Cyrus founded the first world empire

Darius the Great- he was the kinda of Persia; was known to be one of the greatest ruler of the Persian Dynasty; was known for strengthen the empire and  protect his people; Invaded Greece to punish them

Battle of Marathon- the date may have been August or September 12 490 BC; Greeks left their mainland and ended up in Ionia; Ionia was later taken over by Peria; the Greeks didnt like the way the Persians ruled and they out in battle; important even for the Greek cause it was the first victory in the Persian war

Xerxes- was the king of Persia in 486 BC; when he came into he started to plan to invade Greece;

Leonitdas- one of the first kings to go under spartan training;

Peloponnese

Facts on Egypt

Ancient Eygpt

·         Geography:  Egyptian life is centered around the Nile river

                  It is where 95% of people lived. The source of the Nile River is mountains in Africa. It is used for water for drinking, irrigating, and bathing. It floods every July. Egyptians were the first to have a calendar based off of three reasons: solar day calendar, lunar month calendar, and a solar year calendar. Every October it leaves behind rich soil, the delta is a broad, marshy triangular area of fertile soil. Managing the river required technological breakthroughs in irrigation. They built canals and dams to help with the river.

·         Daily life: slaves and servants, farmers, artisans, merchants, scribes, soldiers, government officials, pharaohs.  Slaves helped the wealthy with household and child raising duties. Farmers raised wheat, barely, lentils, onions- benefited from irrigation of the Nile. Artisans would carve statues, would show military battles, after life (your life after you die), everyday life. Money/ barter system was used – merchants might accept bags of grain for payment – later, coinage came out. Scribes kept records, told stories, wrote poetry, described anatomy and medical treatments. They wrote in hieroglyphs and in hieratic. Soldiers used wooden weapons (bow and arrows, spears) w/ bronze tips and might ride chariots.  Upper class, known as the “white kilt class”- priest, physicians, engineers. Religious and political leader. Pharaohs is the political and religious leader of the Egyptian people, holding the titles: “Lord of the Two Lands” and the “High priest to every Temple”. Pharaoh was the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt. He owend all the land, made laws and collected taxes.  He was considered the chosen one by the gods, so if something bad happened to a lot of people, he was blamed and was not the “chosen one” anymore.

·         Pharaohs: the political and religious leader of the Egyptian people, holding the titles: “Lord of the Two Lands” and the “High priest to every Temple”. Pharaoh was the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt. He owned all the land, made laws and collected taxes.  He was considered the chosen one by the gods, so if something bad happened to a lot of people, he was blamed and was not the “chosen one” anymore. Normally men but Hatshepsut was one women pharaoh, also Cleopatra VII but more for Greece.

·         Pyramids: most famous pyramid is the Great Sphinx of Giza. Built 2555-2532BC. A recumbent lion with a humans head. Oldest monumental statue in the world. 

Egypt today:

·         Econmy: tourism (who wouldn’t want to see the pyramids?) Since the revolution the tourism has been to great

·         Oil, natural gas, manufacturing

·         Agriculture- making the most of their limited arable land (3%)

Cotton, corn, rice, wheat, fava beans

·         The old pattern of dealing with the Nile pere (land emerges from the flood), and shomu (water is short) has been changed since the 1970 building of the Aswan High Dam

·         The dam controls the flooding of the Nile, and increases the amount of reclaimed land

Demographics- 79 million people, biggest population of Middle Eastern nations

            Cairo: 6.7 million

            NYC: 8.3 million

·         Official language: Arabic (English, French, German are also taught to come)

·         Religion: around 90% Muslim, most of the rest Christian, (Coptic), but there are major conflicts (Egypt is 12^th in religious violence, 5^th worst religious freedom

Olitics, government, revolution

1922- end of protectorate with the united Kingdom

1953- Egypt declared a Republic

1954-1970: ruled by Gamal Nasser

·         Nationalizes the Suez Canal

·         Forms allegiance with Soviet Union

1970-1981: ruled by Anwar Sadat

·         Switches allegiance to the United States

·         Attacked Isreal over Sinai Peninsula, but later made peace

·         Isreal grabbed some part of the Peninsula

·         Sadat assassinated in 1981

1981-2011: ruled by Hosni Mubarak

·         Kept alliance with US (helped in the Iraq war)

·         Accused of corruption, political persecution, human rights violations

·         Driven from office following mass demonstrations last month

So whats next?

·         Egypt currently ruled by military junta, but democratic elections scheduled for September 2011

·         Some want Mubarak arrested and tried for embezzling from the government. Our friend Sarah and other Egyptians say he may have stolen $50-70 billion.

·         Revolution is in the air throughout the middle East and northern Africa: Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Libya

·         Libya has been ruled by Muammar Gaddafi since 1969

o   He is violently opposing Libya’s uprising

o   Libya may descend into full civil war

o   The east is controlled by rebels, but he still holds the capital (Tripoli)- so far 

10 things to ask Sarah

1.  Did you ever witness beatings? 

2.  Did you ever have doubts that things would change for the better?

3.  What was the most dangerous strike you were ever on?

4.  Who was beaten more, women or men?

5.  Were you ever in fear of your own life and of others lives?

6.  How mad were you when the shut off the internet?

7.  Did you join the April 6th facebook strike?

8.  Was everyone overwhelmed when the internet was back on?

9.  Do you believe in violent or nonviolent strike tactics?

10.  How do you think this whole revolution happen?

Finally, a reason why we still havent gotten our tests back.

Today in class, Mr. Schick told us what he has been doing for the past two days. His daughter was in the hospital because on Monday she was diagnosed with Limes Disease. The doctor put her on some medicine but it didnt help at all. So Mr. Schick took her back to the doctors and it turns out that she has to go to the hospital to get a spinal tap. When all the test were done she was told that she had meningitis. So she was sent into surgery. After a really detailed and disgusting story about a tube going into her heart, she was taken home. Mr. Schick had a really long 36 hours of no sleep, but now that he is back I am sure he is ready and so happy to grade our tests. (:

2/16/11 today in class

Today in class, Gracie, Taylor, Clark, and I worked on a presentation. Our presentation is on Cats and Pharaohs with a tid bit of pyramids. With the cats we will mostly focus on why they were so worshipped in the Egyptian community and some facts about them in general. For the Pharaohs we will tell you about some of the most famous pharaohs. For the Pyramids we will talk about what types of pyramids are out there, what are in the pyramids, and why they were built. I am really excited to work with my new group, they seem really fun. 

"KOOL" "KATS" of Egypt :)

Cats were useful for limiting vermin in Egyptian crops and harvest. The people in what would later be Upper and Lower Egypt had a religion centering around the worship of animals, including cats. The cat became the symbol of grace and poise because of killing vermin. The cat goddess Bast (also known as Bastet) eventually replaced the cult of Mafdet, and Bast's image softened over time and she became the deity representing protection, fertility, and motherhood. They were worshiped by the Egyptians and given jewelry in hieroglyphics. The two native Egyptian cat species were the Jungle Cat (Felis chaus) and the African Wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica). Domestication was due to two main reasons; breeding within itself, a large population of cats could develop, and would continue doing so at an exponential rate. Familiarity with human society was aided by the association of cats with the goddess Bast - Egyptian temple priests would often keep cats at their temple as a representative of the goddess. Egypt was not always unified; initially, it was a land with many regional tribes and nomes. Many nomes had a totemistic system of religion, centering the worship of an animal as a spiritual symbol. The earliest evidence of cats as deities comes from a 3100BC crystal cup decorated with an image of the lion-headed goddess Mafdet. The goddess Bast was originally depicted as a fiercely protective and warlike lion, but as her image "softened" over time she became more strongly associated with domestic cats. As cats were sacred to Bast, the practice of mummification was extended to them, and the respect that cats received after death mirrored the respect they were treated with in everyday life. Cats were either mummified or there is new evidence that they can be cremated. Also the cat's body was placed in a linen sheet and carried amidst bitter lamentations by the bereaved to a sacred house where it was treated with drugs and spices by an embalmer. Naville found stacks of cat bones in many pits, the walls of which were made up of bricks and clay. Near each pit lay a furnace, its bricks blackened from fire. This discovery causes some problems. The mummification and preservation of the body was intended to make it possible for the deceased's ka to locate its host and subsequently be reborn into the afterlife.

This reverence is in ancient Indian texts, where records of cats involved with human society can be found in two ancient Indian great epics, the Ramayana and Mahābhārata, circa 500BC. Although no one can pinpoint the time exactly, we know that the cat was domesticated in Egypt, probably around 2000 B.C. and that most modern cats are descendants of the cats of ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians took their cats on hunting excursions, especially in the marshes where cats may have been trained to retrieve fowl and fish. Another very common scene in tomb paintings was a cat seated under a woman's chair, showing that the cat had become an integral part of the ancient Egyptian family life. Many Egyptian parents named their children after cats, especially their daughters. Some girls were called Mit or Miut. The mummy of a five-year-old girl named Mirt was found at Deir el-Bahri in King Mentuhotep's temple.  The earliest feline cat goddess recorded was called Mafdet and is described in the Pyramid Texts as killing a serpent with her claws. But the most famous cat goddesses in the world, first revered by the ancient Egyptians were Bastet (also known as Bast, Pasch, Ubasti) and the lion-headed Sekhmet. Bastet was often depicted as having the body of a woman and the head of a domestic cat. She was associated with the Eye of Ra, acting within the sun god's power. The Egyptians loved Bastet so much that she became a household goddess and protector of women, children and domestic cats. She was also the goddess of sunrise, music, dance, pleasure, as well as family, fertility and birth.

Hunter-gatherers to farmers

Before there was a real civilization, all people did was hunt and gather. What I mean by a hunter and gatherer is you would go out, hunt and gather all day, and then at night you would eat what you have collected. This might sound like a really good idea, right? Well it’s not if you think about it. The problem with hunting and gathering is what happens when you run out of animals to hunt and berries to gather? Hunters and gatherers are always on the move trying to find new things to eat. When they are always on the move and always looking for things to eat they don’t have time to do anything else. So the first thing that you have to do is create a crop that is good in protein, easy to take care of, and most importantly a crop that doesn’t go bad quickly.

The people of Draa’, which is located in the Fertile Crescent, have discovered the art of farming. This is such an improvement because if they have crops to farm they don’t have to worry about always finding food and they can discover how to do new things and they did. The village of Draa’ created the first granary which is where they kept their crops. People of the Draa’ were considered to be the first civilization and the first farmers because they could produce a surplus of wheat and barley. This may not seem like a big improvement in civilization but it was because with a surplus of a good crop to grow they were able to do other things, and explore other things, rather than farming.

So overall there are two major steps of becoming a hunter and gatherer to a farmer which is find a good crop that you can plant and then create a surplus of that crop that can provide for your village.