After reading p. 9-16 in your text, complete the "before, during, and after" reading posts. You can format this blog in three sections:
Section 1: your prior thoughts on what is a civilization and
Section 2: how similar/different are your thoughts compared to the author.
Section 3: what are the important points you need to know to succeed
Think about what I have been teaching you concerning the interactions with the text. Section 1 would concern the "Before" reading, section 2 would concern "During" reading, and section 3 would concern the most important information. In fact, you may head each section as "Before" "During," and "After."
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23 comments:
Before reading: to have a good civilization, you need to be somewhat large and organized. You must have similar religion, writing, and organization. Even if the people are divided into warring cities, they can be part of one civilization if they have those three same things.
During reading: the author seemed to have the right idea about the Mesopotamians. They were theocratic (relied on religious leaders to guide them). I think they seemed like hoarders as almost all their writing is inventories.
After Reading: the main ideas are that; civilization basically developed in Mesopotamia. They wrote first, had the first empires (Sargon & Hammurabi), the first laws (Hammurabi code), a truly developed religion and precedents that would shape Greece, Rome, Persia and all other western& near eastern empires for ages to come.
Meg
Before: From my understanding a civilization is a group of people that are unified by religion, government, economy and a common language.
During: The Mesopotamians were led by religious figures. For the most part most of the writing jsources that have been found have been inventories.
After:
After reading, I can gather that civilization as we know it began in Mesopotamia. They created the first empires, were able to communicate and record through writing and they were the first to have a fully developed plan of law and a religion.
Before: What I believe is a strong and lasting civilization would be a large quantity of people who live in harmony. By doing this they must have a set of laws to keep order. A type of writing or language to be able to save and spread information. The civilization must also have a religion to have people have an explanation of what people do not know of.
During: I learned that Mesopotamia was one of the first civilizations. They were led by kings and priests who created laws and kept order in the community. These laws were very harsh though but did their job. The Mesopotamians created their own set of writing through printing their language on clay and letting it dry. The Mesopotamians had a religion that was based upon gods and that humans were the tool for the gods to do chores for them. Even though they had to do work for the gods, they relied on them in situations such as warring campaigns. Whether or not they should fight was up to the gods.
After: To sum it all up I would say that in order to have a powerful civilization you must have a strong set of rules and leaders to enforce them. A religion that allows people to have beliefs. And a written laguage.
Before: From what i know a civilization must have some sort of government, a common religion and language, some sort of currency system, divided labor, and maybe some sort of caste system.
During:The author said that the creators of the mesopatamian civilization were the sumerians, eventually they divided into economic and political city states. Their first "government" was the laws of their god or goddess that owned the city.
After: The important information from pages 9-16 are that civilization began in mesopatamia. The first empire began there, also the code of laws known as the Hammurabi code were the first written laws based on an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. The Hammurabi code i believe influenced later writings such as the bible.
Before Reading: there are many features to a successful civilazation. it must have an important religous basis on which they can celebrate a variety of religions. it must also have water and soil so it can grow crops.
During Reading: the people of Mesopotamia lived between the tigiris and euphrates rivers. they were theocrtic and as opposed to some cultures thought kingship was divine in nature.
After Reading: civilazation as we know it began with the mesopotamians. they celebrated religious beliefs and events, they had a multi-god system or polytheism. they had a written pictographic language that spurred the outburst of the written form. the empire of hammurabi was some of the first evidence of a layered society. Something like King, Priest, Peasants.
Kelly Francisco!
Before Reading
My idea of a civilization is working together. It would be a large group or community working together to enhance their ways of life as well as coming up with better ways or ideas for survival.
During Reading
The Mesopotamians had religious figures. They also had laws about adultury. They were one of the first civilizations and also used tools earlier devoloped.
After Reading
The main ideas or that:
-They had religious figures
-created first empires
-were able to write
-had guidelines & rules
before reading
okay, i know basically nothing about Mesopotamia, in fact i don't even know what it is really. im going to go ahead and say it a civilization, but beyond that i have no idea.
during
wow, Mesopotamia was one of the first civilizations, thats really cool. their laws were created by kings and priests. Mesopotamia was located between the tigiris and Euphrates rivers.
after
they could write
they where ruled by priests and kings
they were civilized
Hammurabi code; first written law
i don't know much about Mesopotamia except for what we learned in class. i know that it was an ancient civilization that was located between two rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris. this gave Mesopotamia fertile soil which gave them leg up when it came to farming. they traded with other civilizations such as ancient Egypt. Before reading.
Before:
Before I read these pages I think Mesopotamia is a very old civilization that created future life styles. I also think they were ruled by some higher power and followed a certain religion.
During:
The Mesopotamian people were located in between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This would result in over flows of the Mesopotamian towns. These floods were sometime catastrophic in there towns. The first Mesopotamian civilization were Sumerians, they started the civilization around 3000 B.C.E. They believed they were agents of the gods. The economy of the Sumerians was primarily agricultural. They wheel was created around 3000B.C.E. Around 2340 B.C.E. Sargon, leader of the Akkadians, ovveran the Sumerian cities and created an empire.
After:
After reading about the Mesopotamian I learned that most of the years of the culture have been spent fighting and over taking Empires much different then what I expected I thought they may have been a peaceful culture that evolved over time. They were in a very difficult regional area. Ferocious floods, heavy downpours, and ripping winds tour the town apart time and time again. The Mesopotamians also were probably created the best writing artifacts we have today. The religion was very closely related to the weather because they believed that a higher power created such a climate.
After reading: i learned that the creators of the first Mesopotamia were Sumerian. their cities were built with a wall around them to protect them. Uruk for example had a 6 mile wall around it with defense towers every 30 to 35 feet. in some cities the homes were made of sun dried brick. the Mesopotamian government was a theocracy. the kings were suppose to be agents of god. Agriculture, commerce and industry were the main economy. there were three major social classes. nobles commoners and slaves. commoners worked for nobles and the slaves worked for nobles and wealthy commoners. one empire was Sargon's empire. that was around 2340 B.C.E. he was leader of the akkadians who overran the Sumerian cities. another was Hammurabi's empire. he had the first actual law which was based on the concept, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. they believed that there was a super natural force controlling the earth. these are the main points of the section and what i learned.
Before Reading:
I honestly know nothing about mesopotamia, except that they were the first people. A civilization is people working together to survive.
Before:I dont know much about Mesopotamia but i heard that they were the first civilzation to start with agriculture and develop writing.
During:The cities/states of Mesopotamia were led by religious leaders and then were passed onto kings. They created their own set of writing through printing their language on clay and letting it dry.
After:
-first civilization beginning in Mesopotamia
-the first to develop writing
-the society of Hammurabi was advanced and had a system of laws which kept the civilization in order
during reading: My thoughts were quite similar than the authors. They do say that they are the first group of humans.The author surely knows more about meopotamians than I do. The author describes everything important in this section. She/he doesnt leave out a detail.
After reading
-Mesopotamia is located between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers
-Sumerians were the firs people there, they surrounded their cities by walls, they used mudbricks for their homes and for temples. Sumerians were first a theocracy, they believed in gods and respected them, priest and preistesses had immense power. The sumerians later passed their ruling power to kings. They thought that the kings got thier power from the gods.
they were very agricultural,mesopotamia produced wollen textiles, pottery adn metalwork. they imported copper, tin adn timber in exchange for dried fish, wool, barley, wheat and metal goods.
there three major social classes were nobles (royal and priestly officials and their families) commoners ( nobles clients, who worked for the palace and temple estates and other free citizens who worked as farmers, merchants, fishers, and craftspeople) and Slaves (belonged to palace officials used for building projects, weaving clothes, adn griding grain. farmers used them in the fields)
-the two empires were Sargons and Hammurabis. hammurabis wa more economically productive. he made a code or set of laws for the civilions. they focused on laws like if anyone has injured a neigbor whatever he has done must be done to him. and they had losts of laws on marriage. they took marriage very seriously.
- there religion was a form of polytheism - a religion where gods and goddesses animate all aspects of the universe
*An - god of the sky, mos important force in the universe
*Enlil- god of wind
*Enki- god of the earth, rivers, wells, canals and crafts.
*Ninhursaga- goddess of soil. mountains, and vegetaton. the mother goddess.
the mesopotamians used divination such as killing an animal and haveing the shape of the organ foretell the future.
the first form of writing was by the sumerians and it was called cuneiform. it was wedge shaped impressions on clay tablets, wheh the tablets dried they were virtually indesructable. there writing form eveoled to stylized signs and then to a phonetic system
writing was important becuaseit enabled a society to keep records, maintain knoledge, it was a form of communicating ideas in new ways.
the sumerians made a number system based on 60
in astronomy the sumerians charted constellations, which helped them to make a calendar based on 12 months, with an extra one added from time to time.
Sarah Kelley- Period 4
Before Reading- Before reading I believed that a civilization was a group of people living in an area together. These people share a common lifestyle with similar customs and goals. Everyone does their part to provide for and protect all members of the community.
During Reading- During the reading I realized that the early people of Mesopotamia believed in and practiced Kingship. In Mesopotamia agriculture and industry produced a working economy.
After Reading- A major point stressed in this section would be the signifigance of religion in Mesopotamia. A spiritual worldview was of fundamental importance of Mesopotamia's culture. Mesopotamian religion was a form of polytheism. The ability to write allowed record keeping, which advanced this society.
Reison Gomez
Before-
I don't really know much about Mesopotamia. I never really learned much about it. But a civilazation is a group of people working together to make best of their society.
During-
It looks probable that Mesopotamia floods often, considering theres water everywhere. The first Mesopotamians were the Sumerian. I learned that their cities were sorrounded by walls. The walls were mudbricks that were first put put out in the the sun until they were hard enough to utilize. Also the fertile crescent provided increasing amounts of water resulting in a satisfactory area to grow and augment crops. The Code of Hammurabi was probably a succesful law code. It shows that the society had control of themselves and organized like Egypt.
After-
The Cuneiform writing system i thought was very unique. That way what they wrote could be very difficult or no way at all to destroy their writings. I thought it was also a good way to preserve them. It makes me think that they did all this on purpose, that way people in the future who would've found the artifact, would know about them and the artifact would be somewhat perfect.
Katelyn Connor- Period 4
Before Reading: Civilization is an organized group of people who cooperate to form a system of living that benefits everyone. Based on environment and available sources for food, people work together to meet basic needs as well as develop systems of laws and government to become a strong community that can solve problems.
During Reading: I was surprised at the important role that priests and priestesses played in the ruling of city-states as well as the focus of the temple as the main building of each city. The wealth spent on the buildings and the thought that the Kings decisions or rules came from God explains the extreme focus on religion. People working with the land and river for irrigation systems made the civilization here possible.
After Reading: Physical environment and the forces of nature with floods, rain, and an oppressive climate made the people think that Gods were in power over their fate. Religion and serving the gods became an important part of culture. Divination (sacrifices) were common practice to predict the future. Writing became important for record keeping as well as communicating ideas, particularly in math and astronomy – developing a lunar calendar. The laws were very tough and the code of justice was there to prove Hammurai’s rule of his society. Control of land and water were reasons for conflict as fighting and war were a large part of this civilization.
B4-I think that a civilazation is a group of people that work toether and each have their own specific task to help make the civilization grow and prosper. Also, a civilization should have a writing system, a complex culture, and a system of government and laws.
During-I learned that the Mesopotamian people were an extremely religous group. Their whole sense of government and law was based on gods and divinity. They believed that by killing and animal and looking at its intestines, one could gaze in to the near future. The Mesopotamian people started with small city state villages, which were extremely succesful for a period of time. Sadly, because there was no means of protection, the Simarians (original people) were overthrown by the Sargon empire, which in turn was overthrown by the Hammurabi Empire which in turn was overthrown again. Laws of life were dictated by "The Cide of Hammurabi". This included mostly marraige and family laws, mostly stating that husbands had more rights and privelges then wives. Along with their culture being based on divinity, they focused and worshiped 4 main gods.
AN was the god of the sky
ENLIL was the god of wind
ENKI was the god od the earth, rivers, wells, and canals as well as inventions and crafts
NINHURSAGA was a godess associated with soil, mountains and vegetation who came to be known and worshiped as "mother of all children" who used her power to give birth to Kingsand conferring the royal insignia on them. Their writing system, the cuneiform, was primarily used for records,but was taught to teach the system of writing. They also created a mathematic system and advanced greatly in the field of astronomy.
My view of a civilization was a group of similar people who banded together for survival. People who simply grew crops ate them waited until the next growing season to occur, then plant grow and eat again. All of this, with the occasional attack from others who are unable provide for themselves.
During- Mesopotamia is one of the oldest civilizations. It was ruled by kings and nobles who acted as the judicial and executive plan of government. They made the laws and enforced them. These laws were not popular among the people but it is clear that the kings new what they were doing to form such a great nation. Their religion consisted of many gods that make humans do what they wish to do without hesitation.
After- the key points are that this was one of the first civilizations and indeed crated some of the first systems of writing. Also their religion suggests that the people were very closely related in their beliefs.
Before: I think civilization is a group of people who can come together and work togeher to provide for everyone needs. As regarding Mesopitamian civilization I got noting.
During: My ideas seem similar to the author's. The author did mention how people woked together buy also how they fought for control of the land.
After: The main point of this chapter is this chapter is Mesopotamia is one of the most fertile places and everyone fought to control it.
Edward Cummins
Before: I don't know much about the Mesopotamia Civilization but I do know that they were not protected by natural barriers unlike China. I know out of all my reading on civilization that a civilization is a society with a form of writing, language, and ways of presenting ideas to better help your society.
During: I had some similarities with how I mentioned about writing and the process of presenting ideas to society, but other than that I really didn't have a lot of knowledge or the same perspective as the author.
After: Located between Tigris and Euphrates River.
Large scale irrigation made possible the expansion of agriculture in this region.
The creators of the first Mesopotamian civilization were the Sumerians.
Sumerians believed that Gods and Goddesses ruled cities, making the state a Theocracy.(Governement by divine authority)
Economy= agriculture(primarily) but commerce and industry were important too.
Hammurabi ruled over-
Amorities and Old Babylonians, a large group of semetic speaking seminomads.
The code of Hammurabi runs under the ideal of an eye for an eye. Injuries committed on a person will be committed on them also as punishment. Most of the 282 laws are dealing with Marriage and children.
Used Cuneiform (Wedge-Shaped) system of writing.
Outstanding achievements involving math and astronomy as well.
Before- Before reading, I knew a few things about the Mesopatanian civilization. For instance, I knew that they were protected by natural barriers and took part in trade with the other civilizations (except China).
During- I learned that the mesopatanian people practiced and were strong believers in religion. I also learned that they had kings as leaders.
After- After reading the section in the book I think that the main ideas to remember were that the mesopatanian people were religious, they were lead by kings, they were located near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, they had laws, and used writing.
Before Reading
My idea of a civilization is a group of people with some sort of government. The civilization works together to keep living and make their lives easier.
During
The Mesopotamians were theocratic and used many tools to keep their civilization going.
After
To have a strong civilization you need the basic necessities. yo also need a good defense, strong government and a godd supply a food.
Before: I really didn't know anything about the Mesopotamians except that they were very into the writing system.
During: The Mesopotamians were very religuis orientated and they relied on the gods to guide them through mmany things.
After: The main ideas in this section were that civilizations all started with the Mesopotamians and they had very large and strong empires. They also had a very sophisticated writing system for the government.
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