In ancient Egypt, the Egyptians would trade with the Mediterranean so the Egyptians would learn from their ideas and methods. The culture is all about eternity and the afterlife. It was believed that the pharaohs also ruled with gods which made the Egyptians where they would ensure the pharaohs afterlife with all the great things he had while alive. The Egyptians would bury the Pharaohs belongings with him and would even go to the extreme where they killed servants and family members to be buried with him. Over time, the Egyptians realized that art interpreting the people and object would be good enough. The Mask of Tutankhamun characterizes the king. It represents magnificence. Another reason for the headdress was an image that the soul could come into and occupy in the afterlife is something were to ever happen to the body. I believe we do things similar to this. If someone we loved were to die instead of putting things in there casket with them, we put things on the head stone at their grave. On their head stone we put a quote or something and their picture. We also put flower and other nice things down for them. (Debra J. DeWitte, 2012)
One of the most popular Islands in the Pacific Islands is Easter Island. Civilization began at 1200 AD and their society did not last long. They were separated into classes, light skinned islanders wore huge disks in there earlobes they wore a lot of tattoos and worshipped the huge statues. According to Heyerdahl, Easter Island was settled periodically over certain amount of years by at least two cultures. They were cultures such as Polynesia and another from South America. There is also a third story about a Spanish ship. The ship, San Lesmems, went missing near Tahiti. The legend is that ...
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...spread, self-reliant feudal divisions throughout Europe, made up of a lord and his obedient vassals. These out-of-date lords were constantly in battle during the early middle ages, their armies of farmers facing off to win land for their nobles. The have four main social classes. The four divisions are, Grandi, Popolo grosso, Capitalist merchants, and the popolo minute. Having this division of society it resulted in the Ciompi revolt of 1378 which was when the poor people went up against the grandi and the popolo grosso because of the constant conflicts. This made the Black Death cause the banks to collapse which made the popolo minuto even poorer. The Black Death was a pandemic that killed about 75 to 200 million people in just two years. It lowered the world’s population from 450 million to 350-375 million people. This took 150 years for the population to recover.
So the peasants were extremely poor at that time. After the Black Death, population decreased, serfs and peasants were able to move around and they had much more freedom than before. They were no longer belong to the lord, and had choices of who they would work for. Most peasants chose to work for high paid jobs. The landowners, in order to attract people to work for them, provided the workers tools, housing and land. “The worker farmed all he could and paid only the rent.” The better treatment of serfs weakened the manorialism, as well as the decline of nobles.The plague killed so many people, and even nobles could not escape. The wealthy families were incapable of continuing growing, because their descendants died. So their position could not be passed on. Many families extinct. To fix this problem, the government setted up a new inheritance law which allowed both sons and daughter inherited property.
Egyptian culture didn’t truly begin until the third dynasty, which is grouped into a period called the Old Kingdom. Since then, it developed into a thriving culture that changed little, even with new leaders. This conveys a sense of order and cohesion that flows throughout the time of the Egyptians. I was fascinated by the continuity. Unlike the artists of today, Egyptian artists did not rebel against the conventions of their day. If the surviving art is any indication, they were content to follow the artistic practices of their time. During the New Kingdom, a painting called "Funeral Procession, Tomb of Pairy" was created. It is a depiction of a portion of the process of laying Pairy to rest. Harold Hays wrote an article called “Funerary
In Middle Aged Europe, feudalism and the Catholic Church dominated what was left of a central government. People lived without leadership, and those who did turned only to small based feudal Lords with little power. This led to a serious lack of intellectual activity and many of the Europeans during this era were considered to be, “wallowing in their own filth.” As a result, the Black Death spread rampantly after its initiation in 1348. Several accounts of the disease portrayed it as a horrendous, deadly and disgusting disease that preyed on every man woman and child. Angelo di Tura chronicles the outbreak of the Black Death in the Italian city of Siena in May of 1348. He writes, “There are not words to describe how horrible these events have been [...] whoever can say that they have not lived in utterly horrid conditions can consider themselves lucky” remarking at how terrible life with
In the 1340’s, an epidemic named the Black Death, erupted through Europe, killing nearly ⅓ of its population. The Black Death originated in China, rapidly spreading to western Asia and Europe. It killed about 30 million people in Europe plummeting its population. A lot of these people were peasants. This was because they had the least money, therefore putting them in the worst living conditions. There were so many of them that no individual could make a substantial amount of money. When the plague hit, the peasants were strongly affected. A huge population of them were killed. After the epidemic, the population of peasants was far less than before. This provided them with a chance to really improve their lives. The Black Death caused a change
The Black Death is the name later given to the epidemic of plague that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351. The disaster affected all aspects of life. Depopulation and shortage of labor hastened changes already inherent in the rural economy; the substitution of wages for labor services was accelerated, and social stratification became less rigid. Psychological morbidity affected the arts; in religion, the lack of educated personnel among the clergy gravely reduced the intellectual vigor of the church.
age-old Pharaonic traditions) with elements of Greek culture and also made great innovations. Egyptian depictions tended toward the idealistic but stiff, with no attempt to likeness but with the influence of Greek culture, they started to emphasis on the face more than it the past. Smiles suddenly appear. Like on the head of the carved and painted wood featured a large face synonym of smile. It was round and painted in gold. The face was decorated with a fake beard, a wig painted in blue, and has black-lined eyes and eyebrows makes it look exotic. Colors were more expressive rather than natural: blue or gold association with precious materials indicated divinity because of its unnatural appearance; the use of black for royal figures expressed the fertility of the Nile from which Egypt was born. This is probably the reason why the coffin covered with a red net clothing above which many iconography, and gods and goddesses of the ancient Egypt were painted. Animals were also highly symbolic figures. For example, on the coffin of Pedi-Osiris above the painting of a goddess named Nut, there were paintings of a scarab beetle named Khepri, god of the morning sun, with wings and it ball of dung. On each shoulder of the wooden coffin featured paintings of a baboon that was raising its arms in a worshiping position. Also the paintings of two jackals, gods of embalming, appeared on the base of the coffin, representing veneration and protection of the deceased. Symbolism played an important role in establishing a sense of order. The fake beard in ancient Egypt was symbolic and meant wisdom, high rank, wealth, etc. In the usage of hierarchical proportion, the size of figures indicated their relative importance. The figures of gods and goddesses or the divine pharaohs, high officials were usually larger compared other figures: any servants and entertainers,
The Black Death is considered to be "the most severe epidemic in human history" that decimated Europe from 1347 to 1351 (Witowski). Not only did the Black Death depopulate Europe, but it also had long lasting social and economic effects as well. The social effects consisting of culture, morals, values, and social norms. The economic effects consisting of labor, payment, and the foundation of feudalism. However one would call it, the Bubonic plague, the resulting Pneumonic plague or the Pestilence, the disease scarred the social and pecuniary foundations of specifically the European Middle Ages and some of the impacts even carrying forth into further generations.
It cannot be argued that the Black Plague was detrimental to every aspect of Europe’s communities. It was a powerful epidemic that wiped out a third of the continent’s population. Out of the midst of all its terror, however, positive after effects presented themselves. Some of these effects included revolutions in the church and society, eventually leading to the separation of church and state. Feudalism was also challenged as peasants demanded wages and revolted. Along with social changes came technological innovations, new inventions, and an attention to hygiene and the beginning of modern medicine. The plague may have devastated Europe, but it also gave way to a new era.
Between the years 300BC-400BC, a group of inhabitants landed ashore the island of Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui. Once ashore, these settlers began collecting resources and learned to survive with no help from the outside, stranded on an island in the middle of the Pacific. They created methods to hunt, fish, make clothing, and cook food properly. In addition, the people of Rapa Nui also separated into different groups or tribes. These tribes coexisted on the island for some time – until civil wars broke out across the island. The inhabitants of Rapa Nui disappeared from the island without a trace. The cause of their disappearance is unknown although experts believe the inhabitants of Rapa Nui were irresponsible with their resources.
In 1348, people from all around the world suffered from one of the most deadliest and cruel diseases known as the Black Death. The plague killed so many people in Europe that some of the villages were abandoned and the population of some cities was decreased by half. Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer and poet who eye-witnessed and described the horrors caused by the Black Death in his novels Decameron. In Boccaccio’s work, the sick people were left behind to survive on their own and even children were left behind by their parents because they were sick. Unfortunately, from all the people who died during the epidemic, the peasants were those who actually benefited from it. The Black Death end up with political,
In order to learn how societies were impacted by the Black Death, it is significant to note the situation prior to the epidemic. Britain and France had been at war since 1337, by August 1347 France was devastated. Many of the French people were left without homes, food or livestock, they were about to face a harsh winter and were unsure if they had enough seeds to plant crops the following year. The climatic changes that occurred over Europe had drastic consequences for agriculture, resulting in malnutrition which pre-disposed the populaces to disease. Inflation increased and famine soon spread across Europe, resulting in many deaths. Around 1339, Europe’s population began to increase, this growth began to surpass the capacity of the land to feed its populace. Therefore a severe economic...
The funerary rituals introduced by the Egyptians were the most intricate, spiritual rites in their times and, perhaps, even to this day. Their elaborate customs, tombs, and gifts to the dead were representative of their pious, devoted nature. Albeit not all were as imposing as the oldest and still remaining Seven Wonder of the World, the Pyramids of Giza, all were meaningful and sacred. The Egyptians, highly reverent of their dead, adopted ornate, religious burial practices to fit to every member of their society.
Today most experts believe that Easter Island was first settled by Polynesians looking for a new homeland. About 1680 A.D, the quality of life on the island began to decrease. At this time, clan rivals erupted in a bloody battle between long ears and shorts ears. This destruction of the islands natural resource undoubtedly contributed to its decline.
The first settlers, also known as the Rapa Nui, arrived around A.D. 300 – 400, and are believed to be of Polynesian descent. According to legend, these first settlers were a small colony of men, women and children who braved the ocean in nothing more than a catamaran. Their chief, Hotu Matu’a, led them to the island after fleeing their native homeland of Marae Renga following a defeat in war. The population on Easter Island has varied from 7 up to 17,000 before settlers from Europe arrived. Years of famine, introduced diseases from visitors, internal tribal warfare and slave raids led to severe population fluctuations.
In 1,850 A.D. the population was decimated to mere 111 sick and starving islanders, and for some reason all of the trees were gone. It is believed that the Rapa Nui cut all the islands trees down to aid in the sculpting and production of the massive Moai statues. The declination of trees and overall island life is what escalated the islanders to start fighting each other. The inhabitants had spread out and made clans around the production of Moai, trying to make the largest possible statues they could to please the gods (Henriksen 1-2). Then the islands first documented discovery was made by the Dutch explorer Admiral Roggeveen on Easter Sunday in 1722, ergo the name Easter Island (Judd 2). The dis-covery of the island by the Europeans wasn’t a good thing this is where all of the horrible diseases came from, which made the already high death count rise even more, and as if that wasn’t enough this discovery helped Peruvian slave ships find the island and kidnap the inhabitants to sell into slave