Jackson's Blog

Today in Western Civ class I learned that cuneiform was the earliest recorded form of writing.   I also learned that The Fertile Crescent is called the Fertile Crescent because since the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are so close that when they flood they both leave behind a sediment known as silt, silt can be used as a manure that greatly helps the crop in there growth and helps the crops also provide a wealthy harvest.   I learned that a dynasty is when a family that has power passes it on from generation to the next, before I thought that a dynasty was how well a civilization did and how it grew overtime.   The Mesopotamians also believed in multiple gods, what this means is that if you made a sacrifice to the farming god then you would a good farming season, if you made a sacrifice to the fishing god you would have a good fishing season, and so on.  

Today in Western Civ class I learned that to the west of the Fertile Crescent is Africa.   I also learned that the Nile River flows from South to North rather than North to South, another thing I learned about the Nile river is that it is like a clock that has a certain time each year that it will flood were as The Tigris and Euphrates are unpredictable and can flood whenever.   I also learned that when the Nile river overflows that it leaves behind a rich mud that can be identified as silt, silt helps the Egyptian people a lot as it contains many useful nutrients for plants and acts as a manure for them.   In Egypt Kings were considered to be Gods were as in Mesopotamia Kings were considered representatives of Gods.

Yesterday in Western Civ class we started the class with note taking, after a few minutes of this though we stared to discuss the notes we took.   We discussed things such as how Sumerian’s were the first people to have city states.   We also discussed about how when the surrounding river would flood it leave a thing behind known as silt, silt helped out with farming as it was comprised out of the rivers bedding.   The rivers bedding was exceptionally good for farming because it had fish corpse’s that had decomposed into it, this acted as a manure for crops and helped with harvesting as helped create a bountiful harvest from farmers crops.   I also learned about how the Tigris and Euphrates rivers frame Mesopotamia.   Also, Hammurabi’s code was the first set of recorded written down laws, an example of this was if you stole something from another person you would then have to pay them back 30 times the item you stole’s worth.

Today in Western Civ we started class with about half the class asking random things such as asking to get their sweatshirts from their lockers because someone opened the window.   People were also asking to go to the bathroom, asking to go outside, and asking to go home.   After that we took notes on early river civilizations, my notes talk in brief detail about the Tigress and Euphrates rivers, I also took notes on Hammurabi’s Code which was the first set of written down laws that stated that if you stole something you had to pay it back in 30 times what you took.   I also took notes on how the first city states were formed here as well and the surrounding areas took after them.

Today in Western Civ class my class and I learned about the Saint Valentine and how he had performed secret weddings, because the ruler at the time forbid wedding’s, so valentine would commence the wedding in secrecy.   Valentine was found out about though and was then ordered to be beaten to death with clubs and then beheaded in a public place for his treason against the ruler.   I also learned about some of Hammurabi’s laws one of them was if an adopted child said to their adopted parents that they were not their true parents then that child would have his tongue cut off for speaking out and disrespecting his parents.   Another law stated that if a man were to strike another free man and break his bone or kill him then he shall have the same happen to him, this is where the saying an eye for an eye comes from.

Today in Western Civ class we started the class today by studying for 5 minutes before our test.   My class has taken the test already and all the other classes are taking it tomorrow morning or afternoon.   On Wednesday my class is starting a new unit on river civilizations.   The test was easy enough, the part that trumped me the most was the part where you had to name 8 animals that were domesticated, my class was told before the test that we had to only name seven, so I only did seven animals while I was studying.   After the test we started working on our blogs (the one I am doing now).