February 2010 – Emit Repoons on a Mission

Emit and Llatiwonk take off

February 24, 2010

1:01 am

6 Comments on Emit and Llatiwonk take off

Ancient Egypt, assignment research, websites

Whoops! I hope you don’t mind having a teacher who is out of the loop. Imagine that – I decide that I’ll give you your first test on a day when you’re all on camp. If you hadn’t kindly told me, picture the lonely classroom, the blank test papers…Well, honestly. I’m changing the date to Thursday 4 March. That way I can correct your tests over the long weekend. I wouldn’t want to spend too much time relaxing. My brain might become even more addled.

Now that you have your assignment sheet and are rocketing off with Emit and Llatiwonk, here are some internet links to help you find information. Of course you could find them on your own, but this will make your life easier, with any luck. And don’t forget to beat a path to your nearest public library. Where else can you go and check out an unlimited number of books and have people smile and wave at you?

Keep in mind that Emit is keen, curious and questioning. He can be wild and rash, take risks and do crazy things in his search for knowledge. Llatiwonk, on the other hand, is rational, careful and thorough. Who do you think is more like you? (You can do some self-analysis and leave an answer to this question in a comment if you like.)

Begin your adventure by looking at some of these sites on ancient Egypt…

Play the Mummy Maker Game at the BBC website by clicking here

Read about the power of the Pharaohs here Edy’s Egyptian figure (7F 09)

View the treasures of Tutankhamen here

Convert your name to hieroglyphs here

Click on this link to find out more about the Nile River:

http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/river-nile-facts.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/nile_01.shtml (for serious readers only!)

This photo and the one in the header were taken by John Bayley, a friend who could easily get a job with National Geographic but instead lets me use his photos to my heart’s content without any monetary reward.

Peasants

Sources suggest that peasant farmers made up about 80% of Egypt’s population. The most likely way to raise one’s status was through learning to write, but this would not have been easy for many peasant farmers to do. They had many other onerous tasks and they paid a very substantial proportion of their grain in tax – some sources suggest over half.

Here are some links about the lives of peasants:

http://www.egyptologyonline.com/Work%20&%20Trade.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1624_story_of_africa/page89.shtml (This site explains that it was peasant farmers rather than slaves who were responsible for the great monuments of ancient Egypt.)

For a detailed account of how the ancient Egyptians made beer and bread, go to:

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/dailylife/breadmaking.htm

To read about Hatshepsut, a rare woman pharaoh, go to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/hatshepsut_01.shtml

To read about the rights of Egyptian women, go to:

http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/form6.html

In order to compare Egyptian women’s rights to those of the ancient Greeks: http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/womneg.htm

A test that none of you will find the slightest bit daunting

by Roslyn Green

February 19, 2010

11:22 pm

11 Comments on A test that none of you will find the slightest bit daunting

Revision Details

test revision

Kyle’s remarkable creative timeline of the Stone Age. Thanks, Kyle!

“A test? But I’ve only been at high school for 3 weeks! What is that Ms Green thinking?”

Hmm, I know. That’s why you can be sure that this little test will be extremely straightforward. It will be a gentle baptism, not a baptism of fire. You will discover that tests are a cinch if you follow the cardinal rules. There are three of them.

1. Revise. “Well, obviously!” I hear my star 7X student say.

2. Read the question and answer it. “Oh my goodness, does she think we need to be told that?” says my hypothetical student, with asperity.

3. Answer the question comprehensively in order to gain all the marks allotted. “Hey, that might be useful advice. About time.”

Sorry for stating the obvious, 7X. But believe me, every year I mention these cardinal rules when I return the test to my students. Every year at least eight students in my class really needed to hear them before the test, not after. You see, I’m teaching you to sit tests as well as make remarkably thoughtful comments about history; after all, you don’t need much teaching in order to do that.

Now, the topics. I always give students ALL the topics well before the test, so that they can ace it. Our test won’t be until Tuesday 2 March. In the intervening week or so, you can make sure that all these topics are firmly woven into your brain cells. Here they are:

BC, AD, BCE, CE, BP (Sounds like a petrol company! Don’t write that in the test though.)
The Stone Age (use the quiz on this blog to help you revise – you can go to this quiz by clicking HERE)
The life and death of the Neanderthals; comparisons between them and homo sapiens (us)

Summary: The Neanderthals appeared about 300,000 years ago and died out about 35,000 years ago. Their brains were larger than ours; they were strong and well-adapted to the ice ages; they made tools and they were effective hunters. Perhaps most interesting of all, they buried their dead and looked after the old and infirm. YET they did not survive.

Modern humans, called homo sapiens (wise or knowing man [person]) developed more sophisticated tools than the Neanderthals did. They were the first to create art works as far as we know. They are generally believed to have developed more complex language skills than Neanderthals. They are the only hominid to farm and learn to write, but they did not begin to do so until long after the Neanderthals had become extinct. For most of their history (that’s our prehistory!) they were hunter-gatherers. That period and lifestyle lasted for almost 2 million years.

The Old Stone Age (hunting and gathering) and the New Stone Age (farming and herding), as summarised below:
The hunter-gatherer lifestyle which dominated human life from 2 million years ago until about 10.000 years ago, and continued in many parts of the world for much longer

Summary: People moved from place to place. In other words, they were nomads, who followed the migrating herds of wild animals and moved around to find wild plants. They hunted wild animals for meat and gathered wild foods such as berries, nuts, fruits, vegetables and eggs, using stone tools and weapons. Their lives would have been harsh and difficult at times. They had to find food during the Ice Ages, suffer fractures and injuries caused by hunting and deal with constant uncertainties about food, especially in the less fertile areas.

The farming and herding lifestyle that began to develop in the New Stone Age; advantages and disadvantages of each kind of lifestyle

Summary: Farming and herding began about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East and spread inexorably from there to Europe. It also began independently in Asia and the Americas a little later. It changed human societies and lifestyles in many ways. For instance, people could stay in one place and gradually build larger settlements. People’s jobs began to vary more within more complex societies, with specialists such as builders, potters and leaders, etc. People began to have more possessions, which needed to be protected from theft and conquest. Since the land was being farmed intensively, it could support a denser population. In short, this change to farming and herding, many anthropologists believe, was the basis for more structured and more hierarchical societies.

Primary and secondary sources in history **** (not done in class yet – DON’T PANIC!)
Important events in the Stone Age as shown by your Stone Age timeline (you don’t need to look up any more)

Sarah’s stupendous walk through the Stone Age. Well done, Sarah!

The Mystery of Neanderthals

by Roslyn Green

February 14, 2010

9:52 pm

22 Comments on The Mystery of Neanderthals

Class Work

Neanderthals, Student work

Call me inquisitive if you like, but I admit to a long-standing, burning curiosity about the Neanderthal people. That prolific, brilliant author, Isaac Asimov, once wrote a novel about modern humans transporting a young Neanderthal child to the modern world to try to find out what had happened to them. I read his novel eagerly but, like him and like everyone else, I cannot explain with any certainty what could have caused these highly adapted, community-minded people to die out, leaving us as the only species of humans on the planet.

(Incidentally, the novel by Asimov was called “Child of Time” and it was originally a short story called “The Ugly Little Boy”. That last title is not very complimentary to how Neanderthals might have looked, but you get the idea.)

It seems to me that the Neanderthals were tantalizingly similar to us, yet mysteriously different as well. They didn’t farm, but then neither did we at that time in our past. They didn’t create rock art (at least to the best of our knowledge). Yet they buried their dead and looked after their old and infirm. In some respects one would think they would have been more likely to survive than we were. For instance, they were better adapted than Homo sapiens to a frozen world. They survived thousands of years of Ice Age. Their bones were far stronger than ours. Our bones are finer, more fragile, much more breakable. They would have won a wrestling contest with us easily.

So why did they, around 35000 years ago, become extinct?

href=”https://year7historygr.edublogs.org/files/2009/02/neanderthal-from-wpclipart.jpg”>

Image from wpclipart.com and used with gratitude

Here’s your chance to plumb the depths of this mystery and go back to the time before homo sapiens were the only human beings on the planet. Have a look at each link below to view some fascinating speculations about Neanderthals:

Their brains were 20% bigger than ours, they were better adapted to the cold and they could probably talk. So why did they die out? Look at this site (BBC Science and Nature) which tackles this question.

Neanderthals might have had more difficulty with childbirth. Look at this site (National Geographic) to find out the details of this discovery.

Neanderthals could have had red hair and freckles…like the Weasleys.

Neanderthals may have been less likely to suffer from mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia.

Of course, many of these ideas are theory rather than fact.

Now, write down what you think. You might have a theory, a question or a perceptive comment to make on the life and the fate of the Neanderthals. Don’t forget that if you find a fascinating site or interesting piece of information you can leave a comment with the details to inspire and interest others (including your inquisitive teacher).

Kind regards,

Ms Green.

Jan’s wonderful Stone Age Timeline is featured below. Well done, Jan!

Shelley’s is also a wonderful work of art. You are both stars in the history firmament, girls!

Begin your adventure by looking at some of these sites on ancient Egypt…

This photo and the one in the header were taken by John Bayley, a friend who could easily get a job with National Geographic but instead lets me use his photos to my heart’s content without any monetary reward.

Peasants

Here are some links about the lives of peasants:

http://www.egyptologyonline.com/Work%20&%20Trade.htm

To read about the rights of Egyptian women, go to:

http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/form6.html

In order to compare Egyptian women’s rights to those of the ancient Greeks: http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/womneg.htm

Kyle’s remarkable creative timeline of the Stone Age. Thanks, Kyle!

“A test? But I’ve only been at high school for 3 weeks! What is that Ms Green thinking?”

Hmm, I know. That’s why you can be sure that this little test will be extremely straightforward. It will be a gentle baptism, not a baptism of fire. You will discover that tests are a cinch if you follow the cardinal rules. There are three of them.

1. Revise. “Well, obviously!” I hear my star 7X student say.

2. Read the question and answer it. “Oh my goodness, does she think we need to be told that?” says my hypothetical student, with asperity.

3. Answer the question comprehensively in order to gain all the marks allotted. “Hey, that might be useful advice. About time.”

Now, the topics. I always give students ALL the topics well before the test, so that they can ace it. Our test won’t be until Tuesday 2 March. In the intervening week or so, you can make sure that all these topics are firmly woven into your brain cells. Here they are:

BC, AD, BCE, CE, BP (Sounds like a petrol company! Don’t write that in the test though.)

The Stone Age (use the quiz on this blog to help you revise – you can go to this quiz by clicking HERE)

The life and death of the Neanderthals; comparisons between them and homo sapiens (us)

The Old Stone Age (hunting and gathering) and the New Stone Age (farming and herding), as summarised below:

The hunter-gatherer lifestyle which dominated human life from 2 million years ago until about 10.000 years ago, and continued in many parts of the world for much longer

The farming and herding lifestyle that began to develop in the New Stone Age; advantages and disadvantages of each kind of lifestyle

Primary and secondary sources in history **** (not done in class yet – DON’T PANIC!)

Important events in the Stone Age as shown by your Stone Age timeline (you don’t need to look up any more)

So why did they, around 35000 years ago, become extinct?

Here’s your chance to plumb the depths of this mystery and go back to the time before homo sapiens were the only human beings on the planet. Have a look at each link below to view some fascinating speculations about Neanderthals: