History of Western Civilisation - Wenesday 5th Period: Exam 1

[prof-methos.livejournal.com]

Methos, kindly, has a full spread from Jeff, God of Biscuits spread out. Everything from doughnuts to bagels to cookies. Coffee and soda provide caffiene.

Methos himself is sitting at his desk, working on what looks like a photocopy of an ancient manuscript. He's translating it into a spiral bound notebook. He's frowning and thumbing through several of the pages.

On the board is written:

EXAM 1

Pick three topics and write or handwave 100 words (at least) on each:

- Sumeria
- Egypt
- Crete
- Greece, political
- Greece, cultural

When finished, you may turn in your papers and leave.

NO TALKING.

Comments

Re: TURN IN YOUR ANSWERS: WC EXAM 1

[janet_fraiser]

The Peloponnesian War - Consequences
After the Peloponnesian War was over, all the cities of Greece were worn out and very poor. Many men went and fought for the Persians for money. But others tried to rebuild the cities. This was the time of Socrates and his student Plato, the great philosophers. But to the north of Greece, in a country then called Macedon, King Philip had noticed that the Greeks were very weak. He attacked the Greek city-states and one by one he took them over. When Philip was assassinated in about 336 BC, his son Alexander became king, and he also ruled Greece.

Prehistoric Crete
Little is known about the rise of ancient Cretan society, because very few written records remain. This contrasts with the superb palaces, houses, roads, paintings and sculptures that do remain. Cretan history is surrounded by legends (such as King Minos; Theseus; and Daedalus and Icarus) that have been passed to us via Greek historian/poets (such as Homer). Because of a lack of written records, estimates of Cretan chronology are based on well-established Aegean and Ancient Near Eastern pottery styles, so Cretan timelines have been made by seeking Cretan artifacts traded with other civilizations (like the Egyptians) - an established occurrence.

Ancient Egypt
The area around the Nile was called Kemet ("the black land", in Ancient Egyptian Kmt), the name for the dark soil deposited by Nile floodwaters. In contrast, the desert was called Deshret ("the red land", in Ancient Egyptian Dsrt), c.f. Herodotus: "Egypt is a land of black soil.... We know that Libya is a redder earth." Ancient Egypt was a civilization along the Lower Nile, reaching from the Nile Delta in the north as far south as Jebel Barkal at the time of its greatest extension (15th century BC). It lasted for three millennia, from 3200 BC to 343 BC.