January 30

Today in class, we took our test on Prehistory to Mesopotamia. We got to use our blog, but I have been sick for a couple days, so I did not have a lot of the power point. Luckily, last night I did the questions and defined the vocab on Mr. Schick's blog. The questions helped a lot for this test, and the vocab helped me understand what the words mean. Some of the blanks were hard to figure out, and I thought of the best answer. One of the written questions I wasn't sure about, but hopefully I did alright. I hope I did well on this test, so it doesn't bring my grade down.

January 29 Test Review

When and where did humans beings first emerge?
Human species began to emerge in Southwestern Africa 200,000 years ago.

Why did the period known as "prehistory" end?
Ended around 3200 BC

What made the rise of civilization possible?
Wandering nomads drove herds of domesticated animals in many areas, especially to the south of Sumer in Arabia

Name some early technological innovations.
Wheel and plow

How did hunter/gatherers live?
Hunt for food, women would take care of children and store food

Who was King Hummurabi, and why was he important?
He created a series of laws known as "Hummurabi's Code"- laws that included "an eye for an eye" and regulations of marriage, divorce, and punishments for all sorts of crimes.



prehistory- human history, in the period before record events
Paleolithic Age- second part of the Stone Age beginning about 75,000 to 500,000 years BC
Neolithic Age- "New Stone Age" a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 10,200 BC
Agricultural Revolution- a period of transition from the pre-agricultural period characterized by a Paleolithic diet
cuneiform- earliest system of writing
ziggurat- a Sumerian temple built on top of a "mountain" of earth
Indo-Europeans- people from the grasslands of the Russian steppe who introduced the horse the the Near East

January 29

I was sick today, and was not in class.

January 28

I was home sick today, and was not in class.

January 23

Today in class, we went over a power point on civilization. We learned a lot about The Prehistoric Era and Mesopotamia such as:

Paleolithic age- earliest prehistoric age
-14,000 years ago- worldwide human race (Stone Age)
Neolithic Age- marked by advanced tool (New Stone Age), marking and the beginnings of agriculture
-migratory groups- hunted, fished, gathered plants for food
The Prehistoric Era was also known as "Neolithic Revolution"
-populations rose due to increased ability to care for young children
-invention of the wheel and plow made it possible to produce enough food for storage
-villagers were polytheists, worshiped multiple nature, human and animal gods
Mesopotamia- district known as Sumer-occupied between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
-Cities and towns were founded, 40,000 inhabitants
-better food storage allowed for diversity in professions: priests, tradesmen, artisans, politicians, farmers
- Sumerians invented-earliest form of writing called "cuneiform"
-Kings emerges, as did family dynasties and the concept of the "city-state"

January 20

Today in class, I entered the classroom and there were some new students in our class this semester. I was excited to see some of my friends I've already known, because I have no other classes with them. We went over the blog and explained it to the new students. Mr. Schick got a new blog called "the west civ blog" instead of "our human geo." I had to make a new blog for West Civ because we didn't need our human geo blogs anymore. We explained that if you didn't do your blog every night, your grade is going to drop by a lot of points. My goal is to do my blog every day and not worrying about my grade dropping. I think we have a really good West Civ class this semester and I'm excited to learn more from Mr. Schick!