History Before 1500s Section 02 Class Notes

• What Are Ancient Foundations?
• The Four Ancient River Civilizations 
• China
• India
• Egypt
• Mesopotamia 
• What Were Class Thoughts on the Reading?
• The Egyptians treated women fairly.
• Mesopotamian and Egyptians are polytheistic.
• Egyptians used papyrus to record many thoughts and ideas, but due to papyrus breaking down, many of those records are lost.
• Nepotism
• Appointing your family members into important positions, in order to control power.
• Egyptians would marry into their family, even their sisters, in order to keep royal blood in power.
• Over time religious beliefs transform.
• When Did People Settle Down And Start Farming?
• 10,000 B.C.E
• Where Does Chocolate Come From?
• South America
• Where Are Peanuts From...Maybe?
• Africa
• What People Ate Before the New World Was Discovered, Was Determined by What?
• What grows in your geographical location, or what can be found in nearby geographical locations to consume.
• What Percentage of the population in pre-modern time, were farmers?
• 80%
• Did pre-modern civilizations eat mainly crops or meat?
• Crops, animals that modern people use for meat, were mainly used for secondary products.
• Why Are Beans Grown With Wheat?
• Beans provide nitrogen to the soil to help increase the production of wheat.
• What Animals Were Located in The Fertile Crescent?
• Why Does Settling Down In A City in the Ancient World, Cause Individuals to Have Poorer Health and Other Issues?
• More sick people grouped with one another, with little to no advancement in stopping the spread of illnesses.
• Poor waste disposal, and the location of waste near by cities.
• Resources now are being shared, and resources are now limited to settlement.
• When people settle they begin to establish property, and laws to help protect the property of the wealthy.
• Hunting and gathering is easier than working the land.
• What are common issues that everyone faces?
• Relationships
• Collecting Resources
• Managing Resources
• Managing Health
• Managing Security
• Many ancient civilizations developed distinct and in some cases lasting solutions to the common issues that everyone faces.
• Mesopotamia was a very pressed civilization, while Egypt was much more calm.
• Who had the earliest civilizations?
• China, many believe Mesopotamia, but they do so wrongly.
• Why Is This So?
• Many people from 1880-1920 were making these discoveries and wanted people to believe that white people were the earliest civilized people..which doesn't make sense.
• What is the significance of the fertile crescent?
• It contains much fertile soil, so it is great for growing crops.
• What is the significance of Mesopotamia?
• Cuneiform
• Laws
• Cities
• Who were scribes?
• Priests
• Controlled most of the wealth
• Merchants
• Property Records for the Rich and the Powerful
• Less than 5% of the population knew how to read or write
• Because only so few could read and write, is that they can control the people because they had information that could be openly lied about to 95% of the population.
• Taxation Records
• How Do The Tigris and Euphrates Flood?
• Catastrophically and Unexpectedly
• Why was irrigation so important in the Middle East?
• There isn't a lot of water in the middle east.
• Historically what kind of population does the middle east have?
• Mixed, as many individuals can come in from multiple surrounding destinations.
• How well can the Tigris and the Euphrates be Navigated?
• Not very well.. at all.
• What is Irrigation?
• To direct water to the crops, and preventing massive floods from harming the city.
• What is Corvee Labor?
• Labor represents your taxes.
• Most Ancient Civilizations Use Corvee Labor
• What Are The Benefits of the Tigris and Euphrates Flooding?
• When it floods it leaves heavily fertile soil for farming.
• What Were Many Problems Faced By Mesopotamia?
• Dust Storms
• Locust Swarms
• Scorching Winds
• Flooding
• Why Would Mesopotamian Wear Demon Amulets?
• You would wear a demon amulet to ward away the demon that the amulet represented.
• Mesopotamian Ziggurats and Gods
• Different city-states have different ziggurats
• Different ziggurats are represented by different Gods
• What Common Gods Do All Ancient Societies Have?
• War
• Death
• Storm
• Sun
• What is the significance of proverbs from ancient civilizations?
• It teaches you how the civilizations think, based on their proverbs.
• Ideas Based On Mesopotamia Proverbs
• Protect Your Property
• Treat Your Enemies Gently
• Don't bully the bullied
• Poverty is abundant, wealth is rare.
• What is the Significance of The City-State of Eridu?
• Mesopotamians believed it to be the place of life's origin
• They believed that cities made them civilized.
• 80% of them lived in cities
• Why
• Security
• Eridu wasn't just a city-state, it held mythological significance.
• They believed that city-states taught them how to take on the civilized art of kingship.
• What are some of the arts of civilization?
• Kingship
• Speech
• War
• Clothing
• Bathing
• Sex
• Beer
• What is the Worst Put-Down In Mesopatamian Society?
• You aren't from the City