Writing Activity- Reflection

I think that our writing activity was very interesting. I think that it was hard writing and keeping in mind what letter is which. When we wrote we couldn't use punctuation (full stop, semi colon, comma etc.), also it was tricky to tell when a word started and ended. Also, it was very fun understanding what other messages my classmates wrote since all of our messages were written in a different way: some were written in big letters, others were colored in.

Enheduana: biography

Enheduana daughter of King Sargon and sister of two twin brothers; as the daughter of the king who reigned she had the possibility of learning of how to read and how to write. Enheduana was the first writer/author in all history: she was the first person to put her name in her writings.  She was an author and a poet; her writing would be written with a stylus on a clay tablet. Her writing made her famous all over Sumer. Sargon hoped that his twins were talented enough to be king as well as him, but they weren’t, so the king educated Enheduana to be the high priestess to Nanna. To work as a high priestess Enheduana had to move from her birthplace. She worked in the Ziggurat, through her the people of that region believed in many goddess and gods. At the top of the Ziggurat she sacrificed animals and burned incense and other perfumes. Enheduana’s most imported duty  was to celebrated the New Year in Spring.  She and the king or high priest (male) would act the marriage of a goddess and a human.

Enheduana was a high priestess for twenty five years and she also wrote 42 poems. As she wrote on clay tablets archeologists had seen that over fifty had written the same sentences on them. Tablets included sentences that tell about herself, her religion and politics.

So Enheduana has become the first author to be known by her name.

Enheduana proverb: “my mouth make me comparable with men”

Hammuraibi’s Babylonia by Elaine Landau

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

     2010. 39-44. Print.

During Hammurabi’s reign Babylonia grew: scientists made very interesting discoveries, scribes composed poetries and sculptors made statues representing daily life. Agriculture and trade grew as well: Irrigation was under the King’s control and due to that there was surplus food, the surplus food was then traded. Also they traded the most common material of the region for the least one; trade also expanded regions from the Persian Gulf trade with Babylonia. Hammurabi is most known his collection of laws which was about daily life disadvantages and problems. There were 282 laws and they made life easier. Also, the laws kept the region in order some laws were very tough others were rational. One unreasonable law is: if the surgeon kills a patient during his operation his hands need to be cut off.

In the article the author mentioned that slaves and rights, unlike modern days they had rights and could own property.

Social Classes of Ancient Mesopotamia:

Babylonia:

Ziggurat:

Help Wanted: Activity

An Afternoon in the Bronze Age: 2,000 BCE

Hi, my name is Cosmo, I am very famous trader in Mesopotamia thanks to the discovery of bronze. Not everyone in the city and villages around know about this, but I try to convince them that whatever weapon they made from it, it can last longer. I am an expert in making shields and helmets and I can assure you they last much longer. Other than trading bronze I trade clothing and pottery. Today I made a very good deal, a family gave me three chickens and one bag full of grain; meanwhile I gave them 5 helmets and about 10 pieces of clothing. People are very interested in bronze and usually they ask me many questions. At home I have dogs, horses, goats and chickens. Many people want my horses because they are strong enough to pull their carts or the goats because their skin and milk are helpful for their family. In the cities the building are big and in a much better shape than they were in villages and towns.

The people I trade with usually have their house near the northern part of the Euphrates river, and for them it is much easier to come here to Babylon and not to Ur. The market place where I trade is near granaries and religious places.

Jata, Polo (my children),and my wife are at home, cooking. They would turn grain into flour and add water, the dough was put over the fire and after few minutes it would be ready to eat.

When the sun started to lower and it was darker, little by little the streets emptied and many merchants went back home after the last deal I made I packed my stuff and went home.

Taming Fire: The First Scientist

Author: Mary Beth Coax

Odyssey: Adventures in Science

          pg.29-30

Coax, Mary Beth. "Taming Fire: The First Scientist?" ODYSSEY: Adventures in Science Oct. 2009: 29-30. Print.

Fire since the beginning of time as been a jeopardy and a great invention towards everybody. But who was the one who discovered it? The first signs of the use of fire are hearths, they were found in some prehistoric camp in Europe, it is about 250,000 years old. Hearths, as the describe by the article are:"are rudimentary fireplaces, often identified by a ring of rocks that outline them." First early humans were scared of them, but them as time passed they started to see its benefits. Fire provided them safety; because predators were afraid of fire. It provided them warmth; during the cold season warmth was important. It provided them  light; in the short days of the year, fire could keep the day go on, the fire was a bit like today is the lounge. It was used for cooking meat; cooked meals were '"cleaned'" so there were not many illnesses. So, fire was important for them to survive. Also we believe that our ancestors managed to start fire. 

Becoming Human: Last Human Standing

 

 

Everything started from small group of early humans, about 600 individuals.  As time passed things evolved, and for a certain period of time four different kinds of human being where living in the same period of time.

Neanderthals lived during cold times and they were the most advanced people on Earth. What made them the most advanced was the capacity of surviving any weather, especially cold ones. Also, apart from that, their brain was bigger than ours. Neanderthals are known to be the closest to us, though we never interbred with them.

We were and are the only ones to survive because we were more dominant. And we had a developed way of thinking. We started to think more when H. sapiens changed their diet (due to other things). Their diet made them healthier and that let them have a more developed mind; with a developed mind we (Homo sapiens and Cro magnos) our knapping (tool making) was more sophisticated.

From Grunts to Grammar: The Evolution of Language

Homo habilis was probably the first hominin who started to speak. Which means approximatly 2.5 million years ago.  The author includes: "Just as important as the brain in language development are changes in the larynx (the voice box). The larynx contains the vocal cords that allow us to produce sounds from our throat." that can tell us that through time, eventually, our voice box has changed. So, as we started to change also our larynx did. Dr. Laitman a professor of anatomy at the Mt. Sinat School of Medicine in NYC says: "The larynx disengaged from the back door of the nasal cavity. The disengagement would have radically changed the way our ancestors breathed, swallowed and made sounds."

Mouth breathing isn't common in mammals but we do. It maybe started when our ancestors started to hunt. Mouth breathing led more oxygen in and out the lungs. Maybe we started using language/speech the way we do now. Dr.Conkey, director of the Archaeological Research Facility declares: "Humans or hominins have been making stone tools for probably 2 million years, so it's unlikely that complex language had to exist for that. We have strong primate heritage of learning by imitation. Chimpanzees and many other nonhuman primates don't need complex language to learn such things as washing food, picking up a hammer stone and cracking nuts, and even --- in the case of chimpanzees ---  stripping leaves off twigs and using them to fish termites out of a termite hill." that means that to have tools we somehow needed to communicate. This conclusion could be the result of the same tool in different areas. Though, we're sure that 35,000 to/or 40,000 years ago language was used.

On Our Own Feet

    

On Our Own Feet (print magazine article)

By Stephen Whitt

Odyssey: Adventures in Science

          October 2011

          pg. 26 – 28

Our origins, how we evolved are all a mystery to us. We have evidence but it is hard to connect everything together and we still need more evidence. Though scientists after questioning themselves have come to a conclusion, not everything happened at the same time. As an example, upright walking developed before our brains (physically) did. Another question after how and when we stood upright is, why did we stand up in an upright position? Stephen Whitt in his writing stated this: “C. Owen Lovejoy, a scientist at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, believes he knows. Lovejoy has developed one of the best known controversial theories of upright walking. We started walking, he says, to free up our hands and arm for carrying food to our mates, by sharing food we made it possible for one parent to focus on raising children. This, in time, led to more complex, learned behavior, and finally to the modern human brain”. However this is only one theory on how we evolved to an upright position and started walking.

This article also talks about our ancestors, and not theories on our ancestors. For example, many people err when they say that monkeys and chimps are our ancestors. Both of us (monkey and us) have a common parent; Australopithecus and apes. Having Australopithecus as a common ancestor doesn’t mean we are connected to monkeys (general, including chimps). Many people get confused when comparing us and chimps; what we have in common with chimps is the skull.

Differences and similarities:

US	CHIMPS
Flat face	The face sticks out
Bigger brain case	Small brain case
Foramen magnum – horizontal, straight	Foramen magnum – angled-up
So as you can see, before interpreting scientists need theories and physical evidence. Whitt, Stephen. "On Our Own Two Feet." Odyssey: Adventures in Science (2009): 26-28. Print.

Who’s Who Among the Early Hominins?

Magazine article:
Title: Who’s Who Among the Early Hominins?
by Randall Susman
pg. 22 - 25
October 2009

Our first ancestors, hominins or hominids shared various physical features and also the DNA shows so. A reason why they were also called ape-men. The members of the group primates are us (moder humans) and generally hominins and African apes. Scientists gave different names to the different types of stages. Very complex names were given, some examples are: Ardipithecus, Parathropus, Homo Rudolfensis, Homo Florensiesis, etc.

They actually follow this order:

• Ardipithecus: which was the earliest hominid, many of its characterists are similar to apes and it is 4.4 million years old.
• Kenyapithecus: found in Kenya, 3.5 m.y.a. when it was found the skull was into millions of pieces
• Austrolopithecus: or ‘southern ape’ it was a broad group of hominid and it is approximately 2 million years old.
• Paranthropus: also called ‘robust’ austrolopithecus. 2.5 m.y.a. and it is the hominin which started to get similar to man with those particular features:
• bipedal
• human hand and foot
• massive chewing muscles
• Early Homo: Hominins are improving their ability with hand, we can say that from the evidence of non-modified stone tools. Apes are starting to gain many characterists that have today such as
• larger brains
• smaller teeth
• Homo Habilis: Also called ‘handy man’. Some scietists argue weather Early Homo hunted and killed animals. Susman when talking about Homo Habilis also says: “H. habilis is best known from the fossils found at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. Fossils also have been recovered in Kenya ans Ethiopia. H. habilis has a larger brain, and smaller, narrower premolar teeth than Austrolopithecus and Paranthropus.” this means that Homo habilis is part of the Early Homo.
• Homo Rudolfensis: it was found in Northern Kenya, and it dates the same as Homo habilis but has different features/characteristics. The face is flatter and it has a larger brain.
• Homo erectus: renamed ‘upright man’ was found all over the world, this shows hunting. The author describes Homo eructus as: “H. erectus also has a larger brain with thick skull bonesand prominent brow ridges. The crests on the skulls for the attachment of chewing muscles are smaller in comparison with those of other early hominins.
• Homo neanderthalensis: 250,000 to 300,000 years old, it lived in Europe and Asia. Thebpdy size and structure is very similar to humans’ ones.
• Homo florensiensis: 94,000 years old. The author explains that: “ H. florensiensis retained primitive skeleton features more characteristic of early hominins of the Plicene - Pleistocene. this evidence does not support the suggestions of some scientists that the Flores Hominins represent a population of moder humans with genetic abnormalities.”.