Tom Chen western civilization blog

1.Some of the people who settled on the Greek mainland around 2000 B.C. were later known as Mycenaeans. 2.For many years, historians thought that the legendary stories told of the Trojan War were totally fictional. However, excavations conducted in northwestern Turkey during the 1870s by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann sug- gested that the stories of the Trojan War might have been based on real cities, people, and events. 3.Not long after the Trojan War, Mycenaean civilization collapsed. Around 1200 B.C. sea raiders attacked and burned many Mycenaean cities. According to tradition, a new group of people, the Dorians , moved into the war-torn countryside. The Dorians spoke a dialect of Greek and may have been distant relatives of the Bronze Age Greeks. 4.5.Epics of Homer Lacking writing, the Greeks of this time learned about their history through the spoken word. According to tradition, the greatest storyteller was a blind man named Homer. Little is known of his personal lif...

1.Prehistory  is the period that begins with the appearance of the human being, about five million years ago, and finishes with the invention of writing, about 6,000 years ago. It is a long period divided into three stages: the Palaeolithic Age, the NeolithicAge and the Metal Age. 2.The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic or Palæolithic also called the Old Stone Age, is a period in human prehistory distinguished by the original development of stone tools that covers 99% of the time period of human technological prehistory .It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins  3.3 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene  11,650 cal BP.  3.The Fertile Crescent is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq together with the southeastern fringe of Turkey and the western fringes of Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Egypt. Some authors also include Cyprus. The region has been called the "cradle of civilization"...

LO1 :To identify the Greeks as the first European civilization. LO2: Define 3 periods of Greek history.

Lo3: Identify the cultural and technological achievements of the Egyptians.  1. What role do you   think the Nile River played in Egypt’s prosperity? Do you think ancient Egypt could have become  a majestic civilization without the Nile? Consistent water source, food, transportation, fertile soil The desert isolated and protected Egyptians No, consistent food and water is necessary for civilization 2. What were some of the ways Egyptians harnessed the power of the Nile? What was the  primary route of transportation they developed, and what were the techniques ancient Egyptians used to develop them? Used it for irrigation and transportation Sail upstream (south), float downstream (north) Built Canals for east/west travel 3. How would you describe the power structure of ancient Egypt? What does it mean to describe Egyptian kings and queens as “divine”? What powers did they believ...

LO1: Define Hammurabi , Hammurabi's code LO2: Describe the histrical significance of the code of Hammurabi a Babylonian legal code of the 18th century b.c. or earlier, instituted by Hammurabi and dealing with criminal and civil matters. The Code of Hammurabi was one of the earliest and most complete written legal codes and was proclaimed by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, who reigned from 1792 to 1750 B.C. Hammurabi expanded the city-state of Babylon along the Euphrates River to unite all of southern Mesopotamia. Unlike earlier Sumerian law codes, such as the Code of Ur-Nammu, which had focused on compensating the victim of the crime, the Law of Hammurabi was one of the first law codes to place greater emphasis on the physical punishment of the perpetrator. It prescribed specific penalties for each crime and is among the first codes to establish the presumption of innocence. Although its penalties are extremely harsh by modern standards, they were intended to limit what a ...

LO1: Describe the geography of Egypt LO2: Discuss the role of Pharoah in Egyptian society LO3: Identify the cultural +technological achievements of the Egyptians The geography of Egypt relates to two regions: North Africa and Southwest Asia. Egypt has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea, the River Nile, and the Red Sea. Egypt borders Libya to the west, the Gaza Strip to the northeast, and Sudan to the south. As 'Lord of the Two Lands' the pharaoh was the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt. He owned all of the land, made laws, collected taxes, and defended Egypt against foreigners. As 'High Priest of Every Temple', the pharaoh represented the gods on Earth. He performed rituals and built temples to honour the gods. Egyptian Writing As in Mesopotamia, the development of writing was one of the keys to the growth of Egyptian civilization. Practical needs led to many Egyptian inventions. For example, the Egyptians developed a calendar to help them keep track of the time...

1.The region’s curved shape and the richness of its land led scholars to call it the Fertile Crescent. 2.Fertile Crescent includes the lands facing the Mediterranean Sea and a plain that became known as Mesopotamia 3.Each city and the surrounding land it controlled formed a city-state. 4.Such a series of rulers from a single family is called a dynasty. 5.This process in which a new idea or a product spreads from one culture to another is called cultural diffusion. 6.The belief in more than one god is called polytheism. 7.By taking control of both northern and southern Mesopotamia, Sargon create the world’s first empire. 8.The Babylonian Empire reached its peak during the reign of Hammurabi, from 1792 B.C. 2.With flooding of the rivers unpredictable, how could farmers water their fields during the dry summer months? To provide water, they dug irrigation ditches that carried river water to their fields and allowed them to produce a surplus of crops. 3. What were the three en...

1.What is Western Civilization? Western civilization is a term used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems and specific artifacts and technologies that have some origin or association with Europe. Many parts of the Eastern Roman Empire are considered Western today but were Eastern in the past. Geographically, the "West" of today would include Europe. Since the West is more closely associated with certain characteristics of people and places rather than possessing a geographic location, it is easier to identify Western countries and peoples based on those associative traits. 1.Liberal democracy: is a liberal political ideology and a form of government in which representative democracy operates under the principles of classical liberalism. 2.Economic liberalism: is a political ideology based on organizing the economy on lines of individual freedom. 3.Christianity: is an Abrahamic mono...

1.Nomads were highly mobile people who moved from place to place foraging, or searching, for new sources of food. 2.Nomadic Groups whose food supply depends on hunting animals and collecting plant foods are called hunter-gatherers. 3.This discovery would usher in the Neolithic Revolution, or the agricultural revolution—the far-reaching changes in human life resulting from the beginnings of farming. 4.Early Farming Methods Some groups practiced slash-and-burn farming, in which they cut trees or grasses and burned them to clear a field. 5.Meanwhile, hunters’ expert knowledge of wild animals likely played a key role in the domestication, or taming, of animals. They tamed horses, dogs, goats, and pigs. Like farming, domestication of animals came slowly. 2.The agricultural revolution has had the most significant impact on agricultural development The Beginnings of Agriculture. For thousands upon thousands of years, humans survived by hunting game and gathering edible plants. They li...