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).