Thursday, October 7, 2010

New Quarter, New Discoveries


The 2nd qtr. brings new civilizations to explore.
1st qtr. introduced us to the Old Stone and the New Stone Ages. We then learned the stages that need to occur for a group of people to grow into an actual civilization!
The civilizations of the Fertile Crescent was our first destination, next up is Egypt!

The Fertile Crescent civilizations achieved many thing; cuneiform, Phoenician alphabet, monotheism, city-states and sea trade.

Please comment on this question: Which event is the most important, making the biggest difference to your life? Why?

6 comments:

  1. I think cuniform was the biggest accivement. After all, with no way to write, there would be no way to record important events. There even might have been large chunks of time lost because us humans couldn't remember it in time to write it down. With no symbols or types of writing, you wouldn't know if your own Auntie Suzie died of that strange sickness that swept through her far-awawy town. One couldn't know what happened in places too far away to travel. Writing means knowledge means intellegence. Intellegence that may have saved many people from dying from the sickness in Auntie Suzie's town. We have school because we have a form of writing. We have books, essays, history even. After all, history is the WRITTEN and other recorded events of people. Maybe people had pictures, but even pictures aren't as descriptive as writing. I dont think cavemen could very well depict 'famine'.
    So I, Kylie K. of 1st period, think that cuneiform was the most important event.

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  2. Although I agree with Kylie completely, I also think that sea trade was extremely influential on the present day. My reasoning for this is it gave early civilizations a reason to travel. in this way, writing spread and so did other important achievements. People could spread cures for the sickness that may have killed poor Auntie Suzie! :) Also, people could get that desire to explore and learn as they traveled around viewing rich cultures and unimaginable land formations. In this way, humans could learn and begin to understand things better. I think that this definitely rubbed off on our culture. But this is where writing comes into play. The one thing I'll say is that you need to have something to write down before you can write. :)
    Anna N. 1st period

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  3. I agree with Kylie. Writing to me is important to me. I can write to my cousins in other state. I believe that it was the same for the the people who created it. Also people in other cities knew what people across the sea were talking about. But I think the most important was probly transportation of any kind. Like cars, airplanes, horses, boats, and more.

    Kimberly 2nd Period

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  4. I believe that the ability to create fire was the most important achievment. Without that discovery, people wouldn't have been allowed to leave Africa due to colder temperatures in other areas and/or dangerous animals that are scared of fire but would otherwise not fear us and would most likely attack and eat us. Also, without it we wouldn't have been able to cook food and would probably still be eating raw foods today. The fires that warmed us also inspired us to try finding ways to controll that heat and keep it going much longer and with less work required, eventually inspiring the air conditioner and heater, and the ability to cook over a fire inspired the stove, oven, and microwave.

    Michael 1st Period

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  5. I think that the trade was very important to our lives today because we have learned to work with other groups of people.
    Maddie per. 1

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  6. I think that cunieform is the most important to our lives today because without the beginning step, the base, to our alphabet, we wouldn't have anything to build off of. Without writing, we wouldn't be able to document anything, or keep and records. We wouldn't even be able to do this! If we didnt have writing, back then you would have to say everything, and since they didn't have the technology we do now, all record of any early civilization would be lost. I mean even a pot can't tell everything about a civilization. You need the writing to be able to tell what life was really like back then.
    Sammy Per. 1

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