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

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.

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Discuss Egypt and its contribution to Western Civilisation.

Discuss Crete and its contribution to Western Civilisation.

Discuss the vastly long-lived but generally stagnant civilsation of Egypt verses the comparitively short-lived but dynamic civilisation of Crete.

Questions? Comments? Llamas?

Or tossing notes. Whatever is going on that isn't classroom discussion.

As the questions you didn't want to ask in class here. Add/Drops also here.

Give me at least one hundred words on either Egypt or Crete. For sources to ~~cut-and-paste~~ research, look in my journal (http://www.livejournal.com/users/prof_methos/) at the list of links to the right.

No, we're not doing Jabberwocky like the Medieval English people. Sheesh.

llamas

"One of the most obvious things that both Egypt and Crete (or the ancient Greeks in general) have in common is that they all have multiple gods. Except for the period which was reigned by Achnaton, who introduced the monotheistic religion in which the sun was worshipped, they all have several gods with specific functions. The gods of the Egypts had mostly animal heads, while the gods of the Greek were famous for their metamorphoses (as described by Ovid in his 'metamorphoses'), so in that way you can say they're obviously related, i guess" Harry says, showing off he's done some reading in his free time.

Harry is heeeere

((And the mun is all excited the reading-about-egypt finally comes in handy somewhere *g* ))

How about a chorus of Happy Birthday?

Best wishes!!!

And I'll actually discuss later, I have to go fetch a kid at the moment.

Isabel signs in.

"Very good, Mr. Potter. Many -- if not most -- regions were polytheistic at this time. Asigning certain funtions to certain gods could be a way of focusing your prayers on a specific topic, or a way of feeling that a particular god took a particular interest in you."

Janet signed in and took a seat.

Broots signed in.

Molly signed in.

Lyta signed in.

Yeah!

"Happy birthday to yoooooooouuuuuuuu...!

"The first formalized alphabet was developed by the Eygptians. It had 22 hieroglyphs that represented individual consonants of the langauge and a 23rd that represented initial word or final word vowels. These glyphs were used as pronunciation guides for logograms, to write grammatical inflections, or to transcribe loan words and foreign names. But the system wasn't used for purely alphabetic writing. That was developed around 2000 BCE for Semitic workers in central Egypt. Over the next five centuries it spread north, and all subsequent alphabets around the world have either descended from it, or been inspired by one of its descendants."

"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.

The Minoans were primarily a mercantile people engaged in overseas trade. Their culture, from ca 1700 BC onwards, shows a high degree of organization. Many historians and archaeologists believe that the Minoans were involved in the Bronze Age's important tin trade: tin, alloyed with copper apparently from Cyprus, was used in the manufacture of bronze. The decline of Minoan civilization and the decline in use of bronze tools in favor of superior iron ones seem to be correlated. The Minoan trade in saffron, which originated in the Aegean basin as a natural chromosome mutation, has left fewer material remains: a fresco of saffron-gatherers at Santorini is well-known. This inherited trade pre-dated Minoan civilization: a sense of its rewards may be gained by comparing its value to frankincense, or later, to pepper. Archaeologists tend to emphasize the more durable items of trade: ceramics, copper, and tin, and dramatic luxury finds of gold, and silver.

Ivanova glares at ~~the person above her~~ Lyta and signs in.

*seconds the llamas*

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

SIGN IN: Western Civ, Discussion 2

DISCUSSION 1: Egypt

DISCUSSION 2: Crete

DISCUSSION 3: Egypt versus Crete

DISCUSSION 4: Potluck

TALKING IN CLASS: Western Civ

AFTER CLASS: Discussion 2 Western Civ

HOMEWORK: Egypt/Crete

OOC: Western Civ, Discussion 2

Re: DISCUSSION 4: Potluck

Re: DISCUSSION 3: Egypt versus Crete

Re: SIGN IN: Western Civ, Discussion 2

Re: OOC: Western Civ, Discussion 2

Re: SIGN IN: Western Civ, Discussion 2

Re: DISCUSSION 3: Egypt versus Crete

Re: SIGN IN: Western Civ, Discussion 2

Re: SIGN IN: Western Civ, Discussion 2

Re: SIGN IN: Western Civ, Discussion 2

Re: SIGN IN: Western Civ, Discussion 2

Re: OOC: Western Civ, Discussion 2

Re: DISCUSSION 1: Egypt

Re: DISCUSSION 3: Egypt versus Crete

Re: HOMEWORK: Egypt/Crete

Re: SIGN IN: Western Civ, Discussion 2

Re: DISCUSSION 4: Potluck