Class of 3/25/11

Today in class we talked about our project. I switched with Amir and I have Greek Philosophers now. I used to have the Hellenic age. We went over a quiz we took a while ago. We talked about mummification and death. We went over the Egyptian pyramids. They had a three dimensional triangular shape. You can go inside the pyramids. They had closed doors so robbers couldn't get in. Its a engineering wonder. They had false paths so confuse the grave robbers. Pharaohs lived in the Pyramids. We finished our review of the quiz and class was over. Now we have spring break!

Class of 3/24/11

In class today we picked our projects, I got the Hellenic Age. And we reviewed our 58 point Greek Quiz. We got to see what we saw. I got an 86 on the quiz.  I'm glad because that brought my grade up. We have to do our project over break. We have 12 days to finish is, so hopefully I will get it done.

Class of 3/23/11

In class today we took our 58 point Greek Quiz.

Class of 3/22/11

Today in class we watched the movie. And took more notes.

• Pericles- wanted to glorify Athens, but he liked Democracy. He was an aristocrat. Kept the democracy going on. 
• Wanted Athens to be the best city in all of history
• Parthenon- most astonishing building in its time. To glorify Athens. Contribute to Athena 
• but a lot of people to work, builders, architects, sculptures, took 15 years to build.
• 40 foot statue of Athena was in the building. 
• Frizez- slab of marble that someone has carved a partial statue out of. Regular people were carved into it. They were getting glorified. 2 1/2 inches thick.
• Pericles divorces his wife
• Aspasia- Pericles companion. Treated her has an equal, had her participate with someone the most important people. Falls in love with her and married her. 
• Worlds first theater on the Ocrapoles. 
• The Greeks invented Drama/ comedy/ tragides. 
• Greeks wrote plays on really good people falling from the heights.
• Oedipus- a guy who was taken from his parents, lived his life, achieved greatness. Became King. Travels this road that are guarded by sphinx. "What walks on four legs in the morning , two legs in the afternoon, and three legs at night." A human. 
• Fortune teller tells him he is going to kill his father and marry his own mother.
• He doesn't know its his father and kills this person who he got in a fight in.
• Falls in love with this older woman, and its his mother. Mother finds out its her son and kills herself, and Oedipus gauges his eyes out. 
• Pericles wanted to make Athens the undisputed leader of the Meddeteranian.
• Hubris- means arrogance and pride.  
• 431 B.C. Pericles take the podium and presents the Athenians with a plan of war with Sparta. 
• Abandon all the land around Athens and go behind the great long walls to Paras. 
• Pericles would use the Navy to supply the city by sea
• Pericles expectation was after 1-2 but not 3 that the Spartans could not win and surrender. 

3/18/11

We watched the video again and took more notes.

3/17/11

Today in class we watched to movie and took notes.

Greeks Crucible of Change Note Taking 2

• 508 B.C. ordinary turn on their rulers.
• Cleisthenes want the regular people to govern themselves.
• Aristocrat- a member of the ruling class
• Cleisthenes was an aristocrat 
• Acropolis- Athens was built around and on this, it's big area of rock.
• Aristocrats owned most of the land, hired people, and payed people whatever they felt like.
• Regular people work long hours and you don't get much in return
• Greece was divided into city-states
• mountains separated the city-states, they spoke the same language, the same god, same experiences, just they didn't get a long.
• Sparta was a big city state
• Women had a fair amount of respect and a bigger responsibility than Athens society.  
• covered 4,000 sq miles
• Cleisthenes was inspired by the stories and myths. 
• Iliad story of the Trojan wars, Odyssey story of Odisious trying to get home after the Trojan war. 
• Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. 
• Tyrant- somebody that comes in a seizes control. 
• Pisistratus- Cleisthenes brother in law, comes in with "The Goddess" 
• Hippias- brother got killed and he got very paranoid and killed lots of people and imprisoning people
• Cleisthenes- 510 B.C. one of the most powerful figures in Greece, fought Hippias and won and took over Athens.
• 40,000 people come and watch the Olympics, travel hundreds of miles
• rich people competed around rich people for glory
• than anyone could compete so anyone could win
• Isagoris- aristocrat, believed power was his right, he turned to outside Athens for support, Sparta. Wants to ceize control from Cleisthenes
• Isagoris ceized control of Athens 
• Cleisthenes had to leave his city along with his family
• the people of athens forced Isagoris to surrender after three days 
• the first time in human history that regular people rose up against their leaders and threw him out 
• 508 B.C. athens first step to empire and glory . ordinary people seized power for themselves. 
• Cleisthenes returned to Athens and formed a democratic government
• Ogora- anyone could up on the rock explain what they wanted to do next
• every 9 days they would met and figure out what to do 
• Pheidippeds- ran 140 miles in just two days to get help against the Persians, but help was refused. 
• the Greeks are people who want freedom.
• the Persians put more emphasize on discipline.
• It was between freedom or slavery.
• every man had to become a soldier in Greece
• Hoplites- a soldier who had their own armor and weapons 
• Athens were a small but determined force
• Athens killed 6,000 Persians in one days, Athens won. 
• Themistocles- fought on the battle field at Marathon.
• Themistocles was one of histories greatest leaders, he was the savior of his city.
• Trireme- ram the enemies ship narrow light and fast weapon. 
• Themistocles wanted to spend the money on trireme. 
• Themistocles convinced his people to build a fleet of 200 men navy
• Persian king died than Xerxes came to power
• Xerxes wanted to burn Athens to the ground
• 483 B.C. the Persian army set out for Greece. 
• Phase two of the Persian war. Darius lost against Greece so Xerxes invaded Greece.
• Athens was Xerxes first target.
• Athens sent someone to the Oracle. 
• Oracles- being able to see in the future, communicate with the gods. Reading the patterns of birds and interpreting what it means. 
• Oracle at Delphi- best communication with god. the most famous, "What could they do to save themselves" answer: "all is ruined, fly to the ends of the earth" you should run. 
• Themistocles plan: avoid conflict on land, fight the Persians at sea.
• First evacuation in history. 
• Salamis and Athenian main land is where Themistocles wants to fight.
• Persians burn the temples, and occupy Athens.
• The Persians navy has 4 times as many ships as the Greeks. 
• Themistocles sent a Greek sailor over to Xerxes to tell him i have inside information, save my life. He said Greeks are fighting against themselves they don't know what to do, they are ready to sail out the other end.  
• The Greeks won. Persian navy lost 200 ships. 
• 540 B.C. Delian League had become Athens Empire 
• Ostracized- Athenians wrote a name on a shard of pottery on who they want out of Athens and who is becoming to powerful
• Themistocles was ostracized 
• Themistocles died in Persia in exile. 

Ancient Greece: Introduction

Today in class we watched a powerpoint and talked about Ancient Greece.

Peloponnesa

• mountainous peninsula
•  mountains cover 3/4 of Greece
• approximately 1,400 island in the Aegean and Ionian Seas
• Location shaped its culture
• skilled sailors
• poor natural resources
• difficult to unite the ancient Greeks because of the terrain; developed small, independent communities. 

Geography

• 20% suitable for farming 
• fertile valleys cover 1/4 peninsula
• consits of grains, grapes, olives
• lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization
• Temperatures range from 48 in the winter to 80 in the summer
• colonized near the ocean

Mycenaeans 

• Began around 2000 B.C.
• Mycenae is located on a rock ridge and protected by a 20 ft. thick wall
• Mycenaean kings dominated Greece from 1600-1200 B.C.
• controlled trade in region
• 1400 B.C. Mycenaeans invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture and language. 

Culture in Decline

• around 1200 b.c. sea people began to invade Mycenae and burnt palace after palace
• the dorians moved into the war-torn region
• far less advanced
• economy collapsed
• write disappeared for 400 years 

Homer and Myths

• only stories were kept and passed on by word of mouth
• Homer lived at the end of the "Greek Dark Ages"
• recorded stories of the Trojan War in The lliad and The Odyssey (written 750-100 B.C.)
• Trojan war was probably one of the last conquests of the Mycenaeans  

Greek Concepts

• Arete- virtue and excellence
• Epics- narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds
• Myths were created to explain creation
• Zeus: leader of the gods
• Hera: Zeus' wife
• Athena: goddess of wisdom 

The Greeks, Crucible of Civilization

• Clystinse was brought up from birth to be a ruler, taught to be an aristocrat. 
• Plyceny was brought up to be a ruler, he set the Greeks on the path to Empire.
• Athen lays in the center of the peninsula, which we now call Greece. 
• reading and writing was a rare skill
• life expectancy was less than 15 years 
• aristocrats ruled Athens
• Aristotle wrote about Greece and how it is turned on its people.
• Greece does not have the physical unity for a really great civilization of the Ancient World.
• Greece was divided into City States
• Sparta was a City State
• Spartans were brought up from birth to be soldiers.
• Sparta conquered 4,000 sq. miles
• Sparta was a threat to all the other city states 
• 6th century Greek had a ruler(tyrant).
• Pysistrases, rode into Athens clamming he had a Goddess named Athena. 
• Pysistrases had to be the ruler of Athens because he had a Goddess. 
• Pysistrases cut taxes and transformed the city.
• Olive tress are a big part of Greece
• Olives were part of Greece economy.
• The vase was the first great artistic
• designs were based on Egyptians and serrian arts. 
• Hypias took over Pysistrases after he died.
• The Athena's soon discovered Tyrant. 
• Hypias put his brothers murderers to death and one of the wives. 
• Hypias became bitter and suspicious of everyone. 
• Pysistrases came to power for a cause, his son did not.
• Plystanese wanted to take power from Hypias.
• Plystanese banished Hypias from Athens forever.
• 776 B.C was when the Olympics were discovered. 
• first it could only be wealthy people, than it soon became anyone. 
• Asigrasas was another aristocrat. and he wanted power.
• he turned to outside Athens for support and won than had to surrender.
• 
  

3/10/11

In class today we talked about Greece and watched a power point on Greece.

Class of 3/9/11

Not in class today.

3/8/11

Today in class we took a test on Egypt. And we sang the Egyptian National Anthem.

Class of 3/4/11

Today in class we look over a powerpoint on Egypt.


Economy:

tourism 

oil, natural gas, manufacturing 

agriculture - making the most of their limited arable land (3%)

• cotton, corn, rice, wheat, fava beans

1970 building of the Aswan High Dam 

the dam controls the flooding of the Nile, and increases the amount of reclaimed land

Demographics

79 million people - biggest population of Middle Eastern nations, 

Cairo: 6.7 million

Official language: Arabic 

90% Muslim

Class of 3/3/11

Today in class we looked over the Prezi and made notes.

Class of 3/2/11

We looked at a Prezi on Egypt.

• Egyptian life is centered around the Nile River. 
• managing the river required technological breakthroughs in irrigation
• Water for drinking, irrigating, bathing 
• Delta- a triangular area that has great soil and marshy land. 
• First people who got a civilization together
• Every July it floods
• The Great Sphinx of Egypt was a statue that was half man half lion
• Hatshepsut was a woman who served as a pharaoh
• Cleopatra VII also served as pharaoh (51-30 BC)
• Pharaoh is the political and religious leader of the Egyptian people, holding the titles: 'Lord of Two Lands' and 'High Priest of Every Temple.'
• As 'Lord of Two Lands' the pharaoh was the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt. He owned all the land, made laws, collected taxes, & defended Egypt against foreigners 
• The slaves helped the wealthy with the children and household duties 
• farmers raised wheat, barley, lentils, onions, they benefited from irrigation of the Nile. 
• Artisans would carve statues and reliefs showing military battles and scenes in the afterlife.
• Merchants used the money barter system- might accept bags of grain for payment- later, coinage came about
• scribes kept records, told stories, wrote poetry described anatomy and medical treatments, they wrote in hieroglyphs and in hieratic
• soldiers used wooden weaponds (bows&arrows, spears) w/ bronze tips and might ride chariots
• upper class known as the "white kilt class" priests , physicians, engineers 

Class of 2/25/11

Today in class we talked to Sarah from Egypt! It was really cool and a lot of fun.

Class of 3/1/11

Today in class we went over our Guns, Germs, and Steel quiz. We also listened to some Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch.