More notes and Hammurabi's Code

The notes we took today:

• Pantheon- collection of "greats" (like the Hall of Fame)
• Pantheon of Sumerian gods and goddesses emerged, with many of the deities representing the natural elements.
• Christianity- gods and goddesses - God the father, God the son (Jesus Christ), and God the spirit.
• The world's first (surviving) epic was the Sumerian "Epic of Gilgamesh", which told of the great flood.
• Sumerians first divided the hour into sixty minutes, and a minute into sixty seconds; they also organized a calendar based on moon cycles.
• 1st people really marking the time.
• Realized the sun moves in a distinct pattern.
• The Ziggurat - was a Sumerian temple built on top of a "mountain" of earth.
• Ziggurat - a wide building
• CIVILIZATION IN MESOPOTAMIA
• Wandering nomads drove herds of domesticated animals in many areas, especially to the south of Sumer in Arabia.
• King Hammurabi of Babylon created a series of laws known as "Hammurabi's Code."

3 LAWS IN THE HAMMURABI'S CODE:

1. "If any one take a male or female slave of the court, or a male or female slave of a freed man, outside the city gates, he shall be put to death."

This makes a little sense to me, because no one should be put into slavery, and whoever has a slave against the law should be punished.

2.      "If any one take a male or female slave of the court, or a male or female slave of a freed man, outside the city gates, he shall be put to death."

This makes a little sense to me, because no one should be put into slavery, and whoever has a slave against the law should be punished.

First Day of Notes

Today we started to take notes, and we got our textbooks for the class.  They're only three years old, but look older, but that's perfectly fine with me because at least we have them.  The notes we took today started the first chapter called: 

BEFORE CIVILIZATION: THE PREHISTORIC ERA

*prehistory: before anything was written down

*humans were just another species of animal

*paleolithic- stone age

*no tools, villages, written languages, etc.

*Neolithic- when people started using tools

*even back then, there were people all around the world; on every continent.

*humans were part of migratory groups; hunting, fishing, and gathering plants for survival.

^Agricultural Revolution:

*AKA the neolithic revolution, this was a shift from itinerant hunting/gathering to more permanent settlements centered on agriculture (beginning in southwestern Asia).

*babies- not like a horse, a horse can walk within a few minutes, whereas a baby can't walk until a little over a year.

*having a home, it's easier to take care of babies.

*hierarchies appeared in village life; the status of women was lowered as women were confined more to domestic duties.

*wheel and plow made it possible to produce enough food for storage.

^earliest cities: Mesopotamia

*Sumer occupied the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers

*The population increased drastically due to new irrigation techniques

*cities and towns were founded, some with as many as 40,000 people.

*more adequate food storage allowed for diversity in professions: priests, tradesmen, artisans, politicians, and farmers.

*kings emerged, as did family dynastic and the concept of the "city-state".

*Sumerians invented the earliest form of writing, known as "cuneiform".

2nd semester

Today we started the second semester for Western Civ. in Mr. Schick's class, and we have some new people, including the pope... Just kidding... Anyway, we made a new blog that this blog is on now and everyone coming back to this class sat in their old seats. Mr. Schick made a joke about it saying that it's our territory. I still like sitting here, and i don't know why. i sit behind Andrew and he annoys the crap out of me. I don't know.