Mesopotamia

Sumer

- Pantheon: A display of the best of things

- They had a pantheon of gods and goddesses which represented nature

- The oldest story every told was called "The Epic of Gilgamesh". It was about a flood and demonstrated what could happen if you upset the gods

- Sumeritans were one of the first to organize time (hour is 60 minutes, minutes are 60 seconds, a calander based on moon cycles) 

- Ziggurat- Semeritan temple

Civilization in Mesopotamia 

- Began domesticating animals 

- King Hammurabi of Babylon created the first big set of laws called "Hammurabi's Code" 

- It included "an eye for and eye" 

- Regulations for marriage and divorce

- Punishments for crimes 

Here are a few laws:

- If a man has accused another of laying a nertu [death spell?] upon him, but has not proved it, he shall be put to death. 

-  If a man has accused another of laying a kispu [spell] upon him, but has not proved it, the accused shall go to the sacred river, he shall plunge into the sacred river, and if the river shall conquer him, he that accused him shall take possession of his house. If the sacred river shall show his innocence and he is saved, his accuser shall be put to death. He that plunged into the sacred river shall appropriate the house of him that accused.   

- If a man's wife be caught lying with another, they shall be strangled and cast into the water. If the wife's husband would save his wife, the king can save his servant.

From Prehistory to Civilization

Prehistoric- anything that comes before  people knew how to write things down.
Paleolithic age- earliest prehistoric age (old stone age)
Neolithic age- was marked by advanced tool making and the beginning of agriculture (new stone age)
People originated and hunters and gatherers.
Agricultural revolution- the shift from hunters and gatherers to having permanent settlements centered on agriculture.
-populations began to rise due to better care for babies
-hierarchies appeared in villages- some jobs were deemed more valuable than others
-women were confined to domestic duties

The wheel and plow were the great technological advances- people could grow and store more food giving people more opportunities to do different tasks other than worrying about where the next meal is coming from.

Villagers began believing in gods- they were polytheists (nature, human and animal gods)  

First Day !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was our first day in Western Civilization class. I met the Pope and a bunch of new people. I MISS GRACE. All we really talked about was what this class is all about and requirements. Mr Schick explained the blog and threw my composition notebook on the floor. We all just sat where we wanted which was pretty cool. Arri somehow screwed up his blog and his shoulder hurts. There is a foreign exchange student in our class which is UBBER cool. We had to email our new blogs for Western Civ to Mr. Schick and mine wouldn't work)): But yeah that was about it. We will probably start like learning next class.