Mesopotamia

1. Cuneiform

• The Sumerians of Mesopotamia implemented a pictograph writing system around 3500-3000 BCE. The most contributions came from the Sumerian city of Uruk, when they advanced it to the wedge-shape system that was based on sounds and not ideas or pictures.

• It is significant to history because it is the first known system of writing with sounds. With sounds being the key to the system, it was adaptable for the Assyrians and Babylonians too. It provided so much insight to the culture and lifestyle of the Sumerians too, which helps us learn more about them, how they operated, and their religion. Before this, learning about different cultures was a lot of guessing based on how the pictures or drawings could be interpreted, and that may not have always been what they actually meant.

2. Domestication

• During the Neolithic Revolution in the Western Hemisphere from around 10000-2000 BCE,

the Peruvians began to convert plants and animals for specific human needs. The first animals to be tamed were the dog, pig, sheep and goat. They were used for food, or to hunt food. Plants being domesticated or planted in mass amounts for food were maize, grains and the potato.
• This is significant to history because it allowed for people to settle in one area and not have to live a nomadic lifestyle. This ultimately led to towns being established, hierarchy systems being implemented, writing systems developing, and trading among different towns and cities. It was the start to sedentary civilization, which allowed time to develop other advancements because food was no longer an issue.
3. Ma’ at
• She is the Egyptian goddess of order. She is whom they look to for balance and justice. She is important to them because she represented that everything around them had its own place in the world, and that anything else was chaos, which is how they lived their daily lives. By abiding by her, you lived a good and balanced life free from laziness, jealousy, and dishonesty. She was the conscious of the country.
• This is significant because this is the way the Egyptian people lived their life. They used her teachings as a standard for their life in hopes to not create chaos. She also was the determining factor for them after death, if their heart was heavier than her feather, they were considered full of evil and their heart would be consumed by the demon Ammut and they would cease to exist, so living a life of good by her teachings prevented this from happening.
4.

Territorial States

• Territorial States were boundaries set either geographically or by demographic limits. They had one ruler, and order was established by shared values and legal codes. They originally occurred when nomadic people began to arrive in Mesopotamia around 2000 BCE.

• The significance this has in history is that it is where people began to be able to coexist. Different people with the same values and religion could all live together with a different region of people with different beliefs could be ruled near by. This allowed for the development of treaties and diplomacy, and allowed for trade advancements. However, they created a lot of tension and war over land, and that is something we still struggle with today, and when war is occurring, it makes it more difficult to trade and coexist.

5. Alluvium

• This is just loose sediment rock and soil that is left behind from flowing rivers. It is the key to starting the Agriculture Revolution during the Neolithic time period. It originated in the Fertile Crescent and then quickly spread throughout the

world.
• It is significant to history because it allowed for crops to be grown, so it allowed for people to settle in certain regions and start a life that did not force them to move for food. It allowed them to start to build cities and focus on other advancements such as writing systems and architecture. It was a major building block for the advancements of cities.

Primary Source Analysis:
From this snippet a lot can be learned about the Egyptian civilization and the relationship between different classes and professions. From it, I understood that the head scribe is trying to encourage them to stay the course in becoming a scribe, and he does this by highlighting how unpleasant the other jobs available can be. He also gives clear description of how different classes of people hold particular jobs.
From these descriptions, one can see the different class levels that make up the Egyptian society, and according to their class, what profession they are required to do. It is apparent that the lower classes in society spend their days working in hard labor. From the whole passage I believe the head scribe described it as being a hired ox. Whereas, being a scribe is held at extremely high standards and is described as living a life of less physical demand or free, and that with their education, only the Pharaoh is above them in status.
With class, I believe came wealth. The higher up in the social rank you were, the more worth you seemed to hold. I think this is a key to understanding the Egyptians. I believe that is why this satire was written. To illustrate how much they valued their social ranks, and to show how it all affected their daily lives.