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1. What was the most interesting/important thing we talked about this semester?

1. I think that the most interesting thing was the Greeks and how their society began, mostly because they differentiated from one another. And their gods and everything were supper interesting and pretty weird.

2. How does the topic covered this course connect with the modern world?

1. I think that this course helps us to understand why things are the way they are in the modern world by showing us how things worked in ancient times. It's also important so we can have intelligent conversations.

3. Why is this study important?

1. I think it's important because we can apply the things that we learned to the things we do from day to day. And it gives us a general understanding of specific things in government and stuff like that.

4. What questions do you still have?

1. I'm still slightly curious about how medicine worked in the other civilizations.

5.  What would you like to see changed for future classes?

1. Nothing. Maybe adding in a bit more about the chinese civilizations because I'm really interested in those, but other than that I thought the curriculum was good.

6. What was your favorite civilization to study and why?

1.  I think that my favorite civilization was the Greeks. They were just super interesting to me because of how many different Polis they were and how much they differentiated from one another. I also liked learning about their militaries and war. I thought that the phalanx was a really cool idea, and the Spartans are really interesting. Mostly because of how hardcore they were about their military. And the 300, even though the movie is highly in accurate is a really interesting historical battle.

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December 14th 2018

This week we learned more about Rome. Specifically we learned about the Punic and civil wars, and Caesar and how the republic ended.

The Punic Wars were fought between Carthage and Rome. Carthage was one of the main powers in the mediterranean. Basically there were 3 fights but Rome ended up winning and they annihilated Carthage. (And salted the earth (probably not but it's dramatic)).

The civil wars were fun because of Hannibal and his war elephants and his not-smart idea to trek up a mountain. I think that the most interesting thing about this lesson is the war elephants. Mostly because the idea of an angry drunk elephant charging at people is slightly hilarious.

We also talked about Caesar and how he was killed on the senate floor. We also talked about the importance of the Colosseum and how that helped some consuls be a bit more liked by the people which gave them more political power.

I'm still a bit curious about all of the different tactics that the army used. Other than the war elephants and everything.

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December 6th, 2018

This week we talked about the Romans. The Romans were founded by two etruscan boys, Romulus and Remus. They built their kingdoms on hills ({Palatine and Aventine) and eventually Romulus killed his brother and fully established Rome. There are two mountain ranges that split them from Italy, the Alps and Appinene. However, the Tiber River gave a good source for transportation and trade.

We also talked about how the Etruscans ruled for a long time. They had some sketchy art about the things that they had done. But eventually,this one girl was raped and she killed herself and the Etruscans were taken over and the people swore they would never have another king (Rex). So they had two consuls that ruled the kingdom and checked each others' ambition and had a Senate of 100 (at first, but it drew later on.)

We talked about their military too. That they were organized in very difficult to understand ways. Their armies were groups of 6,000-7,000 men  and they were called Legions which were led by Legates. They were split up into the Legionaries (roman citizens) and Auxiliaries (non roman citizens that were basically mercenaries). They also had a bunch of steps they had to follow before they declared war, which was called the Fetial Laws. They also had a war called a Pyrric War, which now means a war that was a waste of effort and supplies.

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November 16th, 2018

This week we learned about the Greek Military, Athens, and Sparta.

We learned that the Greeks all fought similarly when it came to their militaries. They had three different classes, the calvary, hoplites, and peltasts. They fought in a phalanx formation so they could protect each other while they were fighting and because that meant they had to work together. They also used siege and naval tactics to their advantage.

I think that the most interesting thing about this section is the differences between Athens and Sparta. Athens was a trading city, they focused on the arts rather than military, while the Spartans were the exact opposite. Spartans were all about their military and took many steps to be the best military in Greece.

I think the Spartan treatment of their sons was really interesting because they got rid of babies that weren't to their standards and started training them brutally when they were only seven. But I think that it was awesome how the women were treated because they had more power than women did in other civilizations so far.

I think that this is an interesting section because we are seeing militaries getting better and making more impacts on the world. And soon it will affect Persia.

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November 9, 2018

This week we talked about Greek art and architecture and about the Greek government in the Polis.

Most of the art that we have from the Greek is their pottery. They started with geometric patterns, and then expanded ot people and orientalized art on their pottery. They also made statues, lots of statues. Which usually had the person facing forward with their left foot forward.

The architecture that we talked about was mostly their temples. They had very standard temples with no steps and they built columns. The columns were made out of stone drums that they stacked with dowels in between to support them. The Doric style was very simple, the Ionic style had a little twist on both sides, and the Corinthian styles were very fancy.

Their government was split between different Polis (city states). They all were from Hellas, but they identifies with their Polis as well. They also let commoners be in the armies because the equipment wasn't as expensive.

There was a rise of Tyrants to take over the Polis. They gained power from rebellion. They also built colonies overseas, and gained support from them.

The colonies were established after the leader asked about building a new colony, and then the colonies had people go over. Then the colonies built a temple, a wall, and then their housing. And after 5 to 7 years they either succeeded, and were considered their own Polis, or they failed.

Overall, it was pretty interesting the people of Greece governed themselves. I also thought it was interesting how their main priorities were the gods.

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November 2, 2018
This week we talked about the Ancient Greeks. We talked about the basics of their culture and talked a bit about their religion.

I think that the Greeks are a very interesting group of people because they came up with many new ideas. For example, the gyms and bath houses including indoor plumbing. I think that the main three groups of people that we were talking about were interesting too. The Minoans, Mycenaeans, and the Dorians. I thought that the Minoans from Crete were the most interesting because of the cultural differences they had. Specifically, I thought the bull jumping was really interesting.

I think that their religion was really interesting too. Mostly because of their cults. I mostly wish that we had gone more in depth on the Gods that they believed and the stories behind all of that. But I think that it's interesting that all of the ancient civilizations this far have had ties to the gods.

I wonder if everyone in Greece believe in the gods at that time.

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October 4th, 2018
In this section we obviously learned about the ancient Egyptians.

I think that the most interesting part for me is the religion section. I think that its very interesting that they have influences from Mesopotamia but they have a completely different belief system. They worshiped so many different elaborate gods, and an elaborate story for how all of them work together in the world. I also thought that mummification, while gross, was very interesting.

I also thought that it was interesting that they thought that north was south and south was north because of how the Nile flows. I hadn't thought that they could be confused by things in nature like that.

I truly wonder how these gods began to be thought of and believed in. Do you think that they tried different preserving ideas before they started learning to mummify?

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September 25, 2018
This module we learned a lot about the beginnings of civilization.

I think that the most interesting thing that we learned in this module was the way that the ancient civilizations in the Neolithic area and Mesopotamia viewed their gods and the ways that they cared for other people. I also thought that the venuses were really interesting because I didn't think that they would have been that advanced with fertility.

I think that all of these topics are important to all of us in the modern world because it is an explanation for where we as humans have come from. I also think that it is important to learn so we don't sound like neanderthals. (Jokes)

I think that it is important in general because it is something that is really interesting to learn about. There are so many differences between the world we live in now and how they lived. It's really interesting that humankind grew as quickly as they did and learned to build effective shelters and make fire and then moving on to make the huge temples. It is all just really cool.

I'm still kinda wondering how they learned about fertility, because that doesn't seem like something that would be easily figured out and they had it down to a precise science. So I really just wonder how they came up with that. I'm also curious about how all of the buildings from the Neolithic time period were made and how they made all of the ziggurats in Mesopotamia.

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September 20, 2018
This week we learned about the fertile crescent, which contains Mesopotamia and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. We also learned about two major civilizations of the time period, which are Sumer and Babylon.

Sumer was a very interesting place to learn about because they harnessed the rivers for their benefit. They learned to irrigate their plants,which made the flooding less deteremental and they learned to store the water for the dry periods, which I found really cool. They also began to write uning cuneiform (wedge shaped) writing which is significant because it was one of the first written languages.

Sumer was also a city of a lot of firsts, like children going to school, first times that bible sounding stories are mentioned and they also made aquariums. But I think that the most interesting first is the idea of time. From the amount of seconds to months in a year, it's just really interesting.

Babylon was another interesting civilization that was made in the fertile crescent. Their sixth king, Hammurabi, made one of the first code of laws for the people to follow. He told the people that the laws came from the sun god, Anu. The laws were very harsh and follow the eye-for-an-eye mindset.

I think that one of the most interesting things that was brought up is their views of their gods. It's just odd that they felt like they were slaves, rather than that their gods cared for them and helped. I just hadn't thought that their views would be so negative.

I wondered about a lot of their gods, since we didn't really go into them as much. Were they gods of the same things of other civilizations or did they focus on the negative when referring to them?

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September 14th 2018
This week we learned about the civilizations in the Neolithic Era.

We learned about the plaster skulls in Jericho that could have been to worship their ancestors.

We also learned that in Catal Huyuk they kept their dead family members under the platforms in their houses(after they cut off their skin and muscle and bleached their bones). We also learned that they started specializing and trading goods. We also learned that they kept their houses very clean, because the city was constantly building on top of old houses to make the city better.

We also watched a video about Otzi the Iceman which I thought was really interesting. I'm still just amazed that the forensic scientists behind his examinations had ignored so many things prior to this investigation. I thought that the study of arrowheads was a really cool part of the movie because it was a key point that I hadn't thought about.

We also talked about Stonehenge, which is still an interesting topic because it's hard to tell what the story of it is. I thought that the most interesting theory was the female genitalia theory because it's just a really odd thought. I think that a cemetery for the more important people makes the most sense.

I also thought it was really interesting that the civilizations were growing this well. I wonder if they had a lot of difficulty between building and living in a city. I'm also still kinda behind on the whole Jericho thing, which I'm kinda sad that I missed.

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September 6th 2018
This week we learned about the Paleolithic Era. This is the era which is also known as the stone age. We mostly studied about our beliefs about Homo Sapiens in this time period. I found it really interesting that at this point we could see them working together in clans to survive. The venuses were really cool to learn about, it was a really good opening to the lesson and really got me to think about the different things they made in that time period.

It was also really interesting how they viewed women and incorporated them into their religion. I never really thought they would have known that much about fertility and how a woman's cycle worked. I would have never guessed that their society was run by women (matriarchy).

I thought the sympathetic magic was an interesting concept, because I think that is something that we coincidentally do now, since we have models showing ideal shapes and things like that. Which I think could be an interesting idea of why we compare ourselves to other things, maybe it's just something we've always done.

The art was the coolest part of this section for me, because I love seeing the concepts that they applied then that we still use today. It's interesting that we know the art was important to them because they painted in hard to reach places and made statues small enough to take with them.

Although I kind of wondered if they had to go certain places to find the materials to make their art, especially the paintings. What did they use for the paintings since they didn't have acrylic like we do today?

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August 29th 2018
This week I learned about Anthropology which is the study of mankind. I found it interesting that there are different ways that people study anthropology, that it isn't all the same type of study. Some people may study the language (linguistic), or the fossils from civilizations (archaeology), or from our culture today (cultural), or from studying us as another species (physical). We can also learn about humans through carbon dating, but that isn't as useful because it only works for things under 50,000 years old.

This is a great topic, because we all wonder where we come from and how we came to be. Anthropology is just another way of explaining how we came to be. This is through our growth from Australopithecus to HomoHabilis, to HomoSapiens; which are the HomoSapien Sapiens and the Neanderthals.

This topic is important because we need a basis for all of our history. All stories have a beginning and anthropology is another way to start off our story.

The only question that I would have to ask about is:
Did the HomoSapien Sapiens have the same qualities as the Neanderthals other than physical attributes? Did they still bury their dead and have the beginnings of religions, or was that only the Neanderthals?