As my latest assignment, I was supposed to think of 5 questions that I could ask about a place to determine whether it would be a promising place to find mummies.

Is there any evidence that an ancient civilization has lived in the area?

If there was an ancient civilization, was mummification a part of their culture/religion?

If not, are there natural conditions like mossy bogs that could preserve a human?

Have other mummies been found in the general area?

Are there any locations that might have been used as burial areas?

Mummies: Definitions, Questions and More

In class we read this text about mummies, and had 3 questions to answer. We were also supposed to define any words that we didn't know from the text.


Define the word "mummy":
A mummy is an ancient dead body whose soft tissue has partially or wholly resisted decay.
According to current scientific beliefs, what are some reason people were intentionally mummified? 
A modern belief is that people who were intentionally mummified were mummified because of a primal human urge to extend human life. 
What features of the natural environment can cause bodies to be mummified unintentionally?
People can be unintentionally mummified when they die in a mossy bog. They can also be mummified when they die in a cold area like a mountain, because the frozen climate freezes the body.


Unknown Words
Transgressions:

the act of transgressing; the violation of a law or a duty or moral principle

After answering those questions, I received another set of questions.
In what parts of the world have mummies been found?
Mummies have been found all over the world. I found this map, and it shows that mummies have been found in all continents of the world except Antarctica.
In  what types of places (physical geography & climate) have mummies been found?
Mummies have been found all sorts of different climates, including cold and dry climates.
How did Ancient Egyptians preserve their dead?
Ancient Egyptians preserved their dead by mummifying though a process that involved embalming them and wrapping them in linen.
Why do you think ancient Egyptians took such care to embalm their dead if the desert could do the job for them?
Although the ancient Egyptians probably knew that the desert could do their job for them, the probably thought that it would be more respectful to the dead if they were handled with care and respect and put in a proper coffin rather than put into the sand.

Hittite Poster

A while ago I was in a group with Kyle and Sophia and we made a poster about the Hittites, which were an ancient Mesopotamian civilization. You can't really see that much in this photo, but if you click on the picture you can see a larger version of the photo. 

Unit Reflection - Mesopotamia: The Fertile Crescent

During this unit, I learned about many different topics. 
One of those topics was the domestication of plants and animals. I learned that domestication didn't occur right after humans started settling, but it actually came later. I also learned that when plants and animals are domesticated, they adapt so that they rely on humans for their survival over a long period of time. Domestication led to farming, which led to surplus which meant that not everyone in a group or clan or village was needed for getting food, which led to people having more free time and the development of culture.
Another topic I learned was about the transition from hunter-gatherer communities to the first civilizations. This transition happened slowly over time and was very important. Humans were originally nomadic and followed their food, which was usually a herd of animals. As time went by, people started settling for long periods of time in various places and eventually lived there full-time. This is what happened in the fertile crescent.
An additional topic i learned about was early religion and beliefs. As religion evolved and became more complex, temples were built in large cities and priests were appointed. Sacrifices were also made to the gods. The priests were the original leaders of the city, but they were later replaced by kings.


If someone said to me,  "Learning about the Sumerians isn't very 
    important since they're long gone!" I would tell them about all of the important things that they invented that we still use today, like the sail, the plow, the book and the wheel. Without these contributions to history, our life would be very different.

This is a wheel that the Sumerians made.

This is a fragment of the first book, The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Enheduana, The First Known (Non-Anonymous) Writer

Recently in humanities class I read about Enheduana. Enheduana was a woman who lived around 2300 BC. Her father was King Sargon, an important king who ruled cities like Akkad and Kish in Mesopotamia. She is best known for being the first person to use their name in writing. This is significant not only because of the fact she is the first named writer, but also because at the time, extremely few women knew how to read or write. IN fact, most people were illiterate and literary tasks like recordkeeping in trade were handled by (male) scribes. Enheduana only learned to read because of her father's importance. Her father appointed her as high priestess, which was a very important position at the time.

In the text that I read about Enheduana, there were some questions at the end. Here are the Answers:
1. Books at that time looked a bit like pillows, because they were large clay tablets. They were made by scribes scratching the text into the clay tablet while the clay was still wet, and letting the clay dry.
2. Enheduana and her family lived in a palace in the city-state of Akkad, in Sumer. Her father was the King.
3. Her job was to be the High Priestess to an important god. She did her job by offering prayers and carrying out rituals. She later lost this job when a nephew of her's became king and kicked her out.
4. The author supports the claim that they were so popular that they were like bestsellers by telling that over 50 tablets have been found with one of her poems.
5. Enheduana wrote about how how her father Sargon was revolted against and his city besieged, and how he broke the siege.

This is an image of one of the tablets where one of her poems was written.

How People Today Have Changed their Environment

If changing one's environment is a sign of success, then we as humans are incredibly successful. Pretty much every aspect of most people's environment was created or altered by humans. Let's run through an average person's day, who we'll call Person A.
Person A wakes up in his apartment, in a building made by humans in a city built by humans.
He showers with water from a tap, a system created and controlled by humans.
He eats cereal, which a processed food made from domesticated wheat in an industrial farm with pesticides. That farm has been made many times more productive by humans, with tools like machines that sow seeds, and pesticides that wipe out bugs.
After continuing to get ready, he drives to work in a car on a road. Both of those are completely human inventions. Humans have devised an invention to get them places quickly, along with a system and rules and a whole lot of paving. Where the pavement that Person A is driving on is used to be nature a few thousand years back. On the side of the roads, he sees some fields. It is one of the few elements that hasn't been created or altered by humans that he will see throughout the day.

I won't go through his whole day.
Along with all this human modification to the world what makes our lives easier and more pleasurable, come some downsides.
The car, which I mentioned earlier puts CO2 gas into the air which causes global warming. Humans have also contributed to the extinction of many animals.Some people could also argue humans were happier with a simpler, hunter/gatherer lifestyle without a mortgage to pay off or taxes to pay.

Why is Catal Hoyuk an important archaeological find?

Why is Catal Hoyuk an important archaeological find?
Catal Hoyuk was a significant archaeological find because it was a big step for humanity, as it was the largest town at the time in the world and was also a culmination of human development with things like trade, and farming. It was also important because it showed the state of human development, of farming, weaponry for hunting, craft-making.
I personally think that it is an interesting site because of the way all the houses were grouped together and people walked on the roofs, but that's not really relevant.