Cyrus the Great and the Persian Empire

Minutes 1-24 (stop when they mention the Greeks).

How does Cyrus describe himself below?  How does the Hebrew Bible describe him?

Primary Source from class on Cyrus the Great's decree freeing the Jews that Nebuchadnezzar took captive. 

Here is an interesting news article, Ancient Tablets Reveal Life of Jews in Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon.

Monday's Final Test (Map and Short Response Sections)

On Monday, you will have a test with two parts, a map quiz and a short response. Please see the "assigned work" page for the short response question, for which you may use the sources given (lecture, packet, and Judaism book excerpts).  On the map section, you will have to identify (1) the Nile Delta; (2) Upper Egypt; (3) Lower Egypt; (4) Giza (the location of Old Kingdom pyramids); (5) Memphis; (6) Amarna; (7) Thebes; (8) the First Cataract; (9) the Red Sea; (10) Canaan; (11) the Levant; (12) Sinai Desert; (13) Syria; (14) and the extent of the Assyria Empire; and (15) the Mediterrenean Sea.

Monday's class

Israelites and Judaism begins

National Geographic: Inside the Torah 

And our primary source "The Ten Plagues" (adapted), in Exodus: Jewish Virtual Library Version, 7-12.

EMAIL MS. GERST TO CONFIRM YOUR TICKET BY END OF THE DAY FRIDAY.  LEARN WHAT EXPERTS THINK ABOUT SYRIA AND THE GLOBAL REFUGEE CRISIS. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs has invited us to attend a panel discussion that will bring together Lina Sergie Attar, CEO of the Karram Foundation, Cameron Hudson, Director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide (United States Holocaust Memorial Foundation), Gregory Maniatis, Advisor to the United Nations Special Representative for Migration, and Professor Robert Pape of the University of Chicago on Tuesday, December 8th from 6:00-7:15 p.m. at the Standard Club in downtown Chicago.   As usual, a bus will pick us up in front of Blaine Hall at 5:00 p.m. and return us to school after the program.  You may also travel to and from the program on your own.  See Ms. Shapiro (UH 105), Ms. Gerst, (UH 106) or Ms. Martonffy (S222) immediately for further information and to receive a permission form.

New Kingdom

We are closing in on the end of our Egypt unit.  Today, we will look at the religious revolution wrought by Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti during the New Kingdom.  Our sources are below:

Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Three Daughters.

And our primary source side-by-side comparison of the Hymn to Aten and Psalm 104 is attached here.

Will they soon discover Nefertiti's tomb?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/28/africa/possible-clue-nefertiti-tomb-egypt/index.html

Justify your Opinion Prompt: Should they let her lie undisturbed or excavate it?

And our last pharaoh: King Tut.

Reminder: thesis due Monday

You asked for a concrete example of a specific, debatable thesis based on the Narmer Palette. Here you go:

Although commonly interpreted to represent the unification of Egypt under pharaoh Menes, the Narmer Palette would be better understood as a strong reminder to subsequent dynasties that unification required the favor of the gods, forceful conquest, and submission of all to a single ruler.  Accordingly, the pharaoh's divine status was not sufficient to gain the allegiance of all. 

Old Kingdom Pyramids

When we study the pyramids, does it matter if we focus on the pharaoh or the workers who built them?

Accompanying article, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/lehner-giza.html

http://www.timemaps.com/history/ancient-egypt-2500bc

Class distinctions in ancient Egypt

Scribe (record daily life of all the other workers, accounting, accounts of battle, copying other texts, writing texts). THEY CONTROL THE HISTORY, WHAT WILL BE PASSED ON.

* always work to be done

* control over your daily life and the product of your labor

* power of others, others pandering to you.

* better work than being a suffering soldier 

* hold more respect for your life than another 

* this is not manual labor, you are not physically depleted with scribe work

* preferable to washerman , pot maker, cobbler, watchman, merchant ship crew, carpenter, tax collector, field workers, soldiers, and peasants.  

* mobility (you can climb up the ranks) 

*it is a higher in the hierarchy 

Social hierarchy 

Pharaoh 

Scribe - closer connection to the pharaoh, meaning the more power and influence you have, more possessions, more property, power over the other classes (e.g.,, peasants), own slaves.

Soldiers - a means to an end, lesser "identity" than a scribe, a pawn of the pharaoh 

washerman , pot maker, cobbler, watchman, merchant ship crew, carpenter, tax collector, field workers, soldiers, and peasants.  

Laptops for Monday!

Please bring your laptop, if you have one, to class tomorrow.  I will also have some heavy books of Egyptian and Assyrian artifacts in Egypt and Iraq for those of you still searching for a suitable pairing with your OI artifact.

Your best friend for citation purposes is http://www.citationmachine.net/chicago/cite-a-book

Examples of Artifact Citations

“Egyptian Clay Model of Cattle.” In Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects (New York: Viking, 2010), pg 44.

“Model of a River Boat; Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 11-12.” Chicago Institute of Art. http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/127874

"Winged Bull Relief; Neo-Assyrian, Sargon 2." Oriental Institute.  

            https://oi-idb-static.uchicago.edu/multimedia/7976/D.%20020004_A7369_050_HDR.1920x1200.jpg

World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras, s.v. "Assyrians depart for battle via chariot," Photos/Illustrations, Ridpath, John Clark, Ridpath's History of the World, 1901, accessed November 9, 2015. http://ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/.

Examples of Secondary Source Book Citation (with explanatory text)

Chadwick, Robert. "The Assyrians." In First Civilizations Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt,  
            77. 2nd ed. Oakville, Conn.: Equinox Pub., 2005. Chadwick argues that Assyrian kings 
            including Assurnasirpal II used "war propaganda" . . . "to strike fear and terror" in opponents.
            Such propaganda and actual tortuous acts were intended "not only to punish those who had  
            revolted, but to frighten the leaders of other cities and regions". 

Examples of Secondary Source Article Citation 

Davis, Paul K. "Assyrian Army." In World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2004-. Accessed November 9, 2015. http://ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/.

Step 1 Artifact Search: Fall Quarter Research Paper Begins!

Here is the link to the handout from class today, with the hyperlinks to the galleries at the Oriental Institute as well as the articles from National Geographic, etc. regarding the endangered or destroyed cultural artifacts. All requirements and due dates are contained in this document.

Today, we began STEP ONE which requires you to (1) decide to pursue either Assyria or Egypt, (2) find an artifact you want to explore from the Oriental Institute, and (3) find a complementary artifact from Egypt or Iraq (either in a museum or in situ).  You may search the Oriental Institute from the comfort of your home using the below link and keyword search OR you may walk over there (address 1155 E. 58th).  It is closed on Mondays, open Wednesday only from 10-8, and open Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10-5.  When you need to explore the underlying kingdom and time period, you should use http://ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Authentication/LogOn?returnUrl=%2F.  I gave you the username and password in class. 

http://oi-idb.uchicago.edu/ (Oriental Institute at University of Chicago)

Here is a book published by the Oriental Institute which contains countless Egyptian artifacts, along with secondary source material. 

http://www.sca-egypt.org/eng/MUS_Egyptian_Museum.htm (Supreme Council of Antiquities, Cairo) There are also a number of books which contain the collections of artifacts from the museum in Cairo.  See for example this Google Books search: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=Egyptian+Treasures+from+the+Egyptian+Museum+in+Cairo+

Narmer Palatte

Visual Detective Questions to Analyze An Artifact

Directions: Look closely at the Narmer Palatte. Using the questions below, examine its various parts as well as a whole, and answer as many of the below questions WITHOUT ANY OUTSIDE RESEARCH. (Notice a few of these questions would be impossible to answer without outside research.). The goal is to figure out what the Palatte depicts, based solely on its pictorial symbols.

• Where was the artifact found?  How was it found?  With what other artifacts was it found?  How can I use the other (outside) artifacts found with this artifact to interpret it? 

• Of what is it made in terms of materials?  What is the origin (place) of those materials?  What do those materials suggest about the culture that produced it? 

• What is its size (and relative sizes within the composition)? 

• If a scene, or consisting of separate parts, what is its layout or overall organization? 

• What are the unique stylistic features? What specific details are represented? 

• What is its purpose?  Who used it? How did they use it? Why did they use it? 

• (For artifacts depicting people/animals,) what actions do the people seem to be undertaking? Who are they? What do they represent? Is any status or rank differences evident? 

• How would you describe the life ways of the "people" based on their depictions? 

http://www.ancientegypt101.com/images/narmer_palette_2b.gif  

Mesopotamia Unit Assessment on Friday, October 23

Today's unit assessment is made up of two parts.  The first part is worth 25 points, comprised of the geography exam on the Middle East (1 point each for countries and capitals and 2.5 points for landmarks) for a total of 25 points.  The second part is worth 75 points, comprised solely of your FINAL version of your essay on Mitchell's translation of Gilgamesh and Kramer's article on the Sumerians.  Remember Gilgamesh is the king of Uruk, which was an ancient city of the Sumerians.

Gilgamesh draft feedback

• Begin you paper with a short sentence or two with the background.  Situate the reader within the time, place, people. 

• Create the most specific, argumentative thesis, showcasing the major (and separate and different) ideas underlying each body paragraph. If you don't have one now, read each body paragraph and include the main idea of each within the thesis.

• Check that your body paragraphs are well organized.  Each should deal with a DISTINCT analytical category, such as social structure, political structure, or religious beliefs.  You might be able to create two or three body paragraphs on sub-analytical categories,  such as workers, women, or children for three separate body paragraphs.  Another example could be religious deities, religious practices, etc.  A clue that your body paragraph is NOT a body paragraph is that you only have one or two sentences or pieces of evidence.

• Craft specific topic sentences that go beyond any single piece of evidence or fact and instead make an argument for that particular paragraph.  
• Not effective: Gilgamesh was the king of the people of Uruk.
• Effective: Gilgamesh failed to act as protector of the people's welfare.

• Locate and use specific textual passages from Mitchell's translation of Gilgamesh and Kramer's article on the Sumerians to support your topic sentences.   For those of you who didn't, make sure your final version incorporates specific textual passages.  These can be short and concise. 
• See below for examples. 

• Incorporate textual evidence in your essay, either using quotes or by paraphrasing it. Here is a great example of how to do this, with each source:
• Ex: According to Kramer, "Sumer was . . . inhabited by the people who spoke the non-Semitic language and had invented cuneiform writing." (71)
• Ex: Gilgamesh illustrated how political and religious power were intertwined: "Enlil granted [Gilgamesh] the kingship[.]" (90)  
• Ex: Kramer argued that Sumerians lacked "great art" (76) and yet Gilgamesh was shown repeatedly ordering the production of great works of art (69, 156-7).

• Please go through the paper and make sure you simply use PAST TENSE throughout.

• Please go through the paper and make sure you eliminate PASSIVE VOICE throughout. Start your sentences with an actor, rather than starters such as "There are several examples of" . . .
• Ex:  Gilgamesh illustrated the enormity of the powers of the Sumerian king. 
• Ex: Kramer argued that Sumerians were devoted to their gods and goddesses. 
• Ex: Gilgamesh illuminated the feasts, festivals, and funerary offerings of Sumerians (87, 154), with a similar depiction in Kramer (77, 79). 
• Note the above sentences also show how to PARAPHRASE VERY SPECIFIC IDEAS. 

Mock Trials in the Court of Hammurabi

If you were absent on Friday, Oct. 16, you are missing a grade in the gradebook for our simulation.  Scroll down and look at the cases we recreated, and then please discuss your options with me.

"Birth of Religion" Novice and Expert Jigsaws

Step 1: Break into "jigsaw" groups of four.  Using last night's reading, analyze the following questions.  While you may all contribute to the analysis, each student in the group should choose one question for which they want to be the designated "expert."

1. Identify the conventional wisdom concerning the Neolithic Revolution.  What is it? How did it occur?  Why did it?

2. How do the archeological finds at Gobekli Tepe challenge this conventional wisdom?  How would Schmidt explain the, what, how, and why of the Neolithic Revolution?

3. Upon how many assumptions or inferences are Schmidt's arguments based?  Identify and evaluate these assumptions or inferences.  How strong are they in your mind?

4. How have some archeologists suggested you may reconcile Schmidt's view with the Childe/Diamond view of the Neolithic Revolution?

Step 2:  Join your expert jigsaw group (all 1s together, all 2s together, etc) and work on improving your answers to the above questions.

Step 3: Share with me and the other groups in whole-class format.

Step 4: Let's discuss the test essay question, "To what extent did the Neolithic Revolution transform the life-ways of early humans?"  

• What sources would you use to answer it?

• What aspects of the GET PAST seem most relevant?

• What approaches might you take in answering the question?
  

Monday (First) Test & Neolithic Progressivist Argument

Today, we finished the progressivist argument for the Neolithic Revolution.  According to this approach, the domestication of cereal crops, the domestication of large animals, and the "goldilocks" climate/environment of Eurasia gave early humans the ability to accumulate a food surplus and develop labor specialization, such that it allowed some people to instead be kings, warriors, priests, designers/engineers, artists, scribes, etc. and in turn led to the development of more complex technologies.

You then discussed as a class the downsides of the Neolithic Revolution, according to Diamond's Worst Mistake article, which included malnurishment, epidemic diseases, socio-economic inequality, gender inequality, warfare, more work and less leisure, and ecological damage.  You will continue that discussion tomorrow as well as discuss the article, The Birth of Religion.

Your test is Monday, September 28. Please discuss with me if you have 3 or more tests already scheduled that day.   The first section will ask you to identify and explain the GET PAST of 5 "factoids," read a short passage regarding an archeological find, and distinguish between the facts and interpretations in a passage. The second section will ask you to respond in essay format to the question, To what extent did the Neolithic Revolution transform the life-ways of early humans?  You should use ONLY the readings from class and organize your essay around three categories of the GET PAST. 

Human Origins Discussion

Mini-lecture on Paleolithic Age (2.5 million to 8000 B.C.E.) timeline

• Invention of tools, mastery over fire, and development of language 
• Much of this Age occurred during the period known as the Ice Age 
• Home naledi argued to be of this era (anywhere from 2 million to 100,000 years old). Professor at Berkeley argues these are just homo erectus ("upright man") skeletons, dating from 1.6 million to 30,000 B.C.E.  Homo erectus were hunters, used fire, and made sophisticated tools. Homo erectus MAY have developed language (evidence: teamwork needed . . . probably relied on language). 
• Neanderthals (vanished 30,000 years ago) appear to overlap with both the Homo erectus and Cro-Magnon lines. Evidence of religious beliefs and rituals (e.g., funeral). Caves, temporary shelters, tools.  MUSICAL EXPRESSION. 
• Cro-Magnon identical to humans (40,000 B.C.E.) Planned hunts, advanced skill in language, created art (according to conventional wisdom).   

Your Turnitin.com Account for This Class

Below is the class ID and the enrollment password you need to establish your personal account for Early World History this year.  You may do this over the weekend, or in class, on Monday when you submit your paired partner paper responding to the question, What Do We Not Know That We Think We Know?

Mock Smithsonian Exhibit! Human Origins: What Do We Not Know that We Think We Know"

Imagine you are interning at the Smithsonian.  Rocked by a series of archeological discoveries in the last two to three years, the Executive Director wants to mount an exhibit entitled, “Human Origins: What Do We Not Know that We Think We Know.”  This exhibit could include references to PHYSICAL REMAINS (such as bones), PRIMARY SOURCES (such as artifacts like tools or art), as well as references to SECONDARY SOURCE interpretation such as dueling theories of rival archeologists.  The point of this exhibit is to challenge CONVENTIONAL WISDOM (what is widely accepted to be true) by challenging SO-CALLED facts or unfounded interpretations.   

You’ve decided to look at a run-of-the-mill textbook (World History: Patterns of Interaction) -- THIS IS THE BIG SHEET YOU GOT IN CLASS -- to determine what historians and textbook publishers are presenting to students today as widely accepted to be true.  You are going to challenge it using the new discoveries of the past three years to answer the question, what do we NOT know about the origins of humans (that we think we know)?   

Your work product will be a 1-page summary of how you would answer this question in your exhibit. What primary and secondary sources would you use?  How would you use them?  What are you challenging? 

Your research sources are as follows:

• The NYTimes article, Who Apes Whom? http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/opinion/who-apes-whom.html
• What Does Cave Art Mean? 
• In South Africa, People Painted with Cow Milk Long Before They Domesticated Cattle
• Rock (Art) of Ages: Indonesian Cave Paintings Are 40,000 Years Old
• The Cave Art Debate
• Things that Humans Did Not Invent (Including Art) 
• The Origins of Modern Culture
• The History through Art selection, Cave Paintings 

As you read, think about: What are the main points of these Smithsonian articles?  What do they suggest about what we don't know about human origins?   What parts of the GET PAST are most under challenge? 

This is worth 15 points in the Home and Class Work portion of your grade (2.5 class periods of work time plus homework).

• With examples, do you show you understand the difference between a fact and an interpretation? (5 points)   
• With examples, do you identify which widely accepted ideas about early humans have been challenged recently?  (5 points) 
• With source references, did you organize and write up your summary well? (5 points) 

Paleolithic - Cave Art Debate

Working in pairs, you will analyze 1-3 pieces of cave art from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/prehistoric-rock-art-visit-around-world-180952989/
Questions you may ask yourself as you try to analyze (to pick apart piece by piece until you reveal meaning) each artifact are below:

What is the artifact? (What do you see?)

What is the artifact made of?  What do those materials suggest about the lives of the early humans who created it?

What is the subject matter of the artifact? What does that subject matter suggest about the lives of the early humans who created it?

What is the style of the artifact?  What does that style suggest about the lives of early humans?

In totality, what does the artifact tell us about life for the early humans who created it?

Quarterly Plan

Fall Quarter

I.  Neolithic Revolution

II. Establishment of River Valley Civilizations
     Focus: Ancient Near East
        A. Mesopotamia 2750 BCE, 1780 BCE
        B. Egypt
        C. Judaism 1100 BCE
        D. Persians 540 BCE

III.

III. Ancient and Classical Asia
     A. China
     B. India

IV. Classical Greece (750 BCE,

V.  Roman and Byzantine Empires 44 BCE

VI.