History of Western Civilisation - Wednesday 5th Period: Discussion 2: Egypt and Crete

[prof-methos.livejournal.com]

Greetings and Salutations, class. Now that your hands are throughly exhausted from taking notes on yesterday's lecture, I'm going to make you talk until your jaw is tired as well.

For your homework, due next Tuesday but turned in to this thread, I'd like you to comment in at least 100 words on some aspect of Egyptian or Cretan civilisation. Bonus points for comparing something between the two.

[[OCD comment threads are up. Comment away!]]

Comments

Re: DISCUSSION 3: Egypt versus Crete

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"The success and length of the Eygptian civilization was definitely due in part to their geographic localtion. They were well protected from attack, the area was geologically stable, it seems like the worst they had to deal with was the annual flood of the Nile and even that was reasonably predictable. So it kept the civiliazation stable, but because of the lack of significant outside influenence there was stagnation in cultural developmnents."

"Now on the other hand, the Minoans were a sea-faring, trading society. That trade would expose them to new ideas and cultures which could then be incorporated into their society. Of course if anything happened to that trading fleet, there would be a problem. When Thera was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, the resultant devastation most likely destroyed the fleet and the trade it and left the island open to invaders," Isabel finished. She'd done some reading and hoped that she managed to make sense.

Re: DISCUSSION 3: Egypt versus Crete

[janet_fraiser]

"Good point," said Janet. "Though I believe Egypt was invaded several times even prior to Alexander the Great and the Romans. The Hyskos invaded them and brought in the use of iron, right? Also, they traded with the Phonecians too. Or so I believe." She grinned at Isabel. "So they did have an infusion of new ideas and some cultural exchanges which helped keep the culture less stagnant. Maybe the combination of the priesthood and the divine ruler--" Janet's voice got just a little harder when she said that. "--ended up keeping the outside cultural influences relegated to the merchant class and even the lower class, where we'd be less likely to see them in the archaeological record."

Nope. No issues about ancient Egypt. Or divine god-kings. None at all.