Who was Enheduana?

Leon, Vicki. "Enheduana of Sumer." Outrageous Women of Ancient Times. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. 

Print. 

Who was Enheduana? 

Enheduana was a royal daughter who was the daughter of King Sargon. King Sargon started off as a farmer's son then became a cup bearer then became king! She also had two twin brothers, Rimush and Manishtusu. Enheduana was best known for being the first writer ever to put her name on her pieces of writing. She wrote many poems and hymns about the gods and godesses of the Sumerian religion, since she was assigned the high priestess of King Sargon's empire. She lived at the very top of a temple or ziggurat to be as close as possible to the gods. She was the first "best-selling" author as well. Enheduana was highly respected by most people and performed rituals and sacrifices to please the gods. Later, she started to write a lot about the moon-godess Inanna. After a few years, Inanna became the supreme or ultimate godess of Akkad and Sumer. A few years later there was a revolt against King Sargon and the rebels exiled Inanna from her temples. King Sargon managed to stop the revolt and forced his people to respect Inanna as the Ultimate godess. King Sargon then died and one of Enheduana's twin brothers, Rimush took over his empire. Then rimush was over thrown by his twin bother, Manishtusu. Both twin brothers were hated by a lot of people and both were killed by palace enemies. Enheduana's nephew grew to power and exiled Enheduana to he desert forever. Enheduana was very important to better understand this time period. It is rare to find written down emotions, thoughts, and beliefs from a woman during almost any time period. Her literature also helped us better understand the religion. The gods, godesses, rituals, and stories/tales. Since her literature was written on clay tablets, it was preserved for thousands of years. 

Cuneiform Writing Activity Reflection

Cuneiform Writing Activity Reflection 

by Tyler Monestel 

In class we did a fun activity in which we had to write a sentence about Mesopotamia in the Ancient Sumerian language of cuneiform. After that we needed to read another persons sentence and translate into English. I think this activity introduced us to the language of cuneiform, which is way different than most modern day languages, especially English. Since cuneiform is based more on shape than text, it is particularly hard to translate since English is more text or phonetic based. A good example is that English uses text like letters A,B,C,D,and E while Cuneiform is based on shapes like triangles  ► ▼.I think that writing the language was harder than reading. Writing took a long time and effort just to make a few words. I personally think that cuneiform is a lot harder than writing and reading most modern languages like English, German, Spanish, French, and so on.  

Did Hammurabi's Code mark the development of law and order?

Did Hammurabi's Code mark the development of law and order? 

I personally think that Hammurabi's Code did mark the development of order. Hammurabi was the first peron to ever create a big set of laws for an empire, which was Babylonia. Hammurabi's code was a set of 282 laws which covered many topics such as divorce, assault, theft, and more. His code had a variety of laws that covered many situtations. I believe that most of Hammurabi's Laws were fair. For example one of his fair laws are: If someone helping to put out a fire loots (steals something from the premises), that individual may be thrown into the fire. I think this is a fair law for two reasons, one, that person was looting, which is already a crime by itself. The second reason is that the person is not only looting, but also is stealing while they should be helping to out the fire. Another fair law is: A person who lies while serving as a witness in a case involving death penalty, that person might also be put to death. Even today if you lie in court you can get a penalty. Lying in court is almost as bad as committing the crime because you are not wanting to help the government find the culprit.  

Some people say that Hammurabi's code was strict.  Well he had to be strict. This was during the times of Babylon, not today, so things were harsher. If you ever want for crime levels to drop you have to make people frightened to commit crimes. If you have strict laws people will see that by committing a crime you might get harsh punishments that may involve ending their life. Even though I think most of hammurabi's laws are fair, there are some that are unfair. An example is: A builder who sells a poorly built house that kills it's owner, maybe put to death. If the collapse kills the son of the owner, than the builder's son is punished. I think this is a very unfair law. First of all, even well built houses can collapse over time. So the builder should not receive a punishment unless it is a fairly new house. The second part is even more unfair! Why does the engineer's son get punished!? He had nothing to do with the incident. If he did, then he should be punished. Even though some of Hammurabi's laws were strict, overall it helped bring order and justice to Babylon. 

Citation:

Landau, Elaine. "Hammurabi's Babylonia." The Babylonians. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 

2010. 39-44. Print. 

"Day in the life of a bronze age trader"

 "Day in the life of a bronze age trader "  

Characters: Dalton and John

Date: 5500 B.C.

I swung the heavy leather bag over my back as I was exiting my sturdy, old wooden house. I walked over to the caravan and carefully placed it in the back. "It's about time we finished loading the caravan, let's get going Dalton" said my father, John, eagerly. We were going to a nearby market to trade some goods. "First we must stop by the blacksmith before we go, I heard bronze tools go for a high selling price at the market place." I reminded him." Okay, let's get going!" said my father. I hopped on to the small bench that was in the front of the caravan. My dad whipped the mules with a rope and they started going. While we were going I saw a few things. I saw a group of women and men gathering and planting wheat and other plants. It looked like a tough job, they were all sweating and looked exhausted. After about another five minutes of traveling I saw a group of men in ragged clothes digging. They were slaves that had been ordered to dig more canals. These canals are important because they bring water from rivers and lakes, into the inner parts of the city. Finally we arrived at a blacksmith that was near the market place. We hopped off and went in. I have always found the job of a blacksmith interesting. They  buy or gather bronze items or ore that was unwanted. They then heat the bronze and wait until it is very flexible. They then bend the bronze until they make it into a certain shape that can do a certain job. We bought a few tools that could be used for farming and some for cutting through hard objects. We then headed off to the market. 


When we arrived at the market, it was really crowded and there were people yelling. We waited and unloaded our things so we are ready for customers. A young-looking man came up and asked  if we have any harvesting pots and tools. Immediately my dad and I unloaded a few clay and brick pots and some different tools. He said that he would trade some slabs of goat meat for 4 pots and 3 garden tools. My dad accepted and took the slabs of meat. We waited and more customers came. After a while a woman came asking if there was any jewelry for her younger daughter. "Certainly!" I responded. I got out some jewelry. She said she liked the bracelet with a piece of quartz at the end of it. About three hours later a man came and asked if we have any pots for carrying water from one place to another. My dad took out some clay pots and said that it was the most durable clay you could find. "I don't have anything I could trade though... I know! I could trade you my finest goat for two pots," he said.  My dad agreed. 


 On the way back I was looking through all the things we had gotten and remembered what we had sold. We ended up selling all of the bronze tools. We sold around 12 pots and 7 different jewelry pieces. I looked up at the sun. It was about to set and you could see a hint of the moon. Our caravan later passed by a man with a crowd around him. He was giving a speech about new laws from the government. When we were about to arrive home a man yelled at us. He was on a caravan with other goods on it.  He waved at us. He was another trader passing by. He said he loved a vase that we received from trading some bronze equipment.  "I will trade you this unique tool I found in a nearby village for that vase," the man said. He handed us the tool. I examined it's weird shape. It cuts meat faster and easier. We ended up trading it. At the end of day we returned home with many new things to keep and others to trade tomorrow.

Becoming Human: Last Man Standing

"Last Human Standing." Becoming Human. PBS NOVA. 31 Aug. 2010. Television. 

Becoming Human: Last Human Standing 

This T.V. program,

Becoming Human: Last Human Standing, 

was about how homo 
sapiens ended up being the last human to 

survive on Earth. I 
learned a lot from this movie. I learned that it was not only our 
brain size that caused us to be the last humans standing, but we were also able to adapt to different conditions. Since we were able 
to adapt to changes, we could outlive other 

species. Also our 
brain was naturally more intelligent than the 

rest. We were able 
to make specific tools for specific jobs. For 

example, we could 
make hooks to fish seafood, we made 

specific stone shapes for 
crushing and slicing, and we also made the throwing spear. I 
also learned other interesting things, like there was four different humans living all at the same time. The 

T.V. program also 
emphasized on our body and brain features in comparison to 
other 
humans. Homo erectus was the first human to have similar bodies to us. Homo 
erectus was also the very first human to 
leave the continent of Africa. It was 
also fascinating 

how
 homo 
erectus may have buried their dead. This evidence 

was found in Spain, in which 
over 80 individual skeletons were 

found. A fascinating fact was that 
Neanderthals are in fact the 

closest humans to us, according to research. 



All of this intriguing research and information were found by 
different people and found in different places.   Of particular 
interest were two findings in Belgium and Spain because they 
were very important for revealing our deep past.  Over
80 individuals were all found in the same
place in Spain, in a 

cave which may have 
been exposed during the time of homo 

habilis. Since it was 
probably exposed during this time, the 

homo habilis used it as a burying pit. Also, the very first Neanderthal was found in Murz 
Valley in Belgium. 
 Once important 

contributor was
 Charles Darwin was the person who made up 

the 
evolutionary theory. The evolutionary theory 
states that all 

living things change over time because of 
changes in their 

ecosystem. An important icon mentioned in this show is Turkana boy. 
Turkana boy is the nickname for a homo erectus that was 

found near lake Turkana. Turkana boy represents the change between human like and ape like.

From Grunts to Grammar: The Evolution of language

Miller, Jeanne. "From Grunts to Grammar: The Evolution of Language." Odyssey: Adventures in Science

FROM GRUNTS TO GRAMMAR: THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE NOTES 

In this article, "From Grunts to Grammar", I found out about the beginning and the development of language. For a long time scientists and researchers have been asking when  humans start to have more complicated language. We also have been asking when our brain was actually complex enough to develop, use, and understand more intricate language. To be able to have language we didn't only need a developed brain, but also the vocal chords to make the sounds. According to evidence and artifacts we have found, Homo Habilis might have had an area in their brain for speech. Over time our ancestors' brains have changed in complexity and size. This was a major factor in the development of languages. The larynx developed over time so that we can make different noises. Humans have a space right above our larynx. This is helpful because sounds that we make can be modified because of our throat and neck muscles. This probably helped in our development of language.

 The author also talked about how we are different from other mammals because most mammals breathe through their nose only but we breathe through our nose and mouth. Scientists think this developed when we were in the African savannah and needed to hunt. Since we breathed through both nose and mouth, we had more stamina.We actually have no evidence of language since it was 100% oral, but we can find out a bit about language by looking at our ancestors larynx and brain. To travel from place to place, it was important to have communication. An example was when homo sapiens were spreading to Australia. To be able to make boats to go across water, they needed a lot of communication.

 I think this article is great because it goes into depth about the major factors of the development of language. It also talks a lot about these factors and how they were changed over time. One thing the author could do better is explain how the larynx works because I got very confused. I also liked how the author describes why and how the different factors  affected language development. The article  has a lot of details and examples to back up its different points.

Taming Fire: The First Scientist

TAMING FIRE: THE FIRST SCIENTIST? 

NOTES 

This article, "Taming fire: The first scientist" is an article about how, when, and why our ancestors started to use fire. In the article they talk about how for a very long time humans were quite frightened and curious about the great power of fire. Scientists think that humans have been using fire for at least 250,000 years but some think that we have been using it for at least 1,000,000 years. They think that humans first got fire by getting it from natural fires. Some examples of this are from lightning and forest fires. Later, humans were able to control fire. They did this by creating hearths. Hearths are a very simple form of a fireplace, and were usually just a ring of rocks to prevent fire from spreading. Scientists know this because unburned and intact tools were found near hearths, proving that they could control fire. Also fire from hearths are at a higher temperature than wildfires. So the more burnt objects were obviously from a hearth. The author also talks a lot about the purpose of fire. We used fire for several different purposes. One of these purposes was that we used it for cooking meat. By cooking our meat it made it softer and easier to chew. It also killed any dangerous bacteria and parasites, hidden in the meat. Additionally, we used fire for keeping ourselves warm and scaring off animals.  Fire was used for light, as well. By having a source of light at night, we could work even when it's dark. This provided them with a longer day. I think this is a very good article because the author gives both sides of an argument. He talked about how some scientists think that we started to use fire 250,000 years ago and some say 1,000,000 years ago. There is one bad thing about this article. I personally think the author could have added more facts and information. This is such a broad topic and I think he leaves a lot of loose ends.