RJR

RJR
 * DON'T MAKE ANY CHANGES WITHOUT TELLING EITHER ROHAN JACK OR ROB!!!!!**

Great site - http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/menu.html

Rohan's color will be orange while typing, Jack's color will be Pink while typing, and Robbie's color will be Blue while typing.

We will divide the workload equally, Rohan and Jack will equally do the images, Jack and Robbie will do the Originality and sound effects. and Rohan and Robbie will do the podcast while Jack helps a little. That is how we will divide the workload.

Our main idea: These people are on a boat ride and the ride in the Bermuda Triangle, and the boat ride mysteriously takes them back in time. They end up on the Euphrates River. They have to learn the Mesopotamian ways of life including the 7 characteristics of a civilization. They will talk to different people in each class of the social structure and ask them about there life. This will include the urban focus, social structure, technology and arts, the creation of writing, a stable food source, political and military structures, and a religious structure.


 * Development of Writing,** By Rohan Parikh

=
The earliest writing systems came around the same time in Egypt and in Mesopotamia. But with the knowledge that we hold today, it says that Mesopotamia's development of writing came first. The first forms of writing came at around 3500 BC. At first the Mesopotamian writing was just a pictograph, for example a picture of a duck would be exactly what they drew, "a duck". As time passed, these pictographs became to be more abstract, and more complex. They developed to be the worlds first writing called cuneiform. Cuneiform became to be both, representing a sound and or, representing an object. cuneiform style of writing was a wedge shaped linear impression on clay tablets.The cuneiform writing dates between 3000 BC and 200 BC. It could be put as: =====

(3) Assyrian cuneiform.



 * Urban Focus of Mesopotamian's** By Rohan Parikh

==== One of the most important things to Mesopotamian's were their Ziggurats. Ziggurats were an urban focus for the Ancient Mesopotamian's. They were first built by Sumerians. Each one was a part of a temple which included other buildings. During 4000 BC the earliest Ziggurats begun, and during 600 BC the latest ones were developed. They would use sun baked bricks and set them on top of each other to make a Ziggurat. After the fall of Sumer, Babylonians inhabited these wonderful Ziggurats to keep as their own urban focus. They were considered an urban focus because it was a social market place, and there was high belief in religion. Mesopotamian's believed that the stair cases to a Ziggurat were a way for god to access the earth from heaven. That is why Ziggurats are a huge urban focus of Mesopotamia. ====

Political and Military Structures by Jack Beck,

From about 900BC, kings of the assryian empire sent out armies whose job was to conquer new areas. Over course of 300 years, lands in Mesopotamia and land further to the east had been conquered by the Assryian armies. If the people of the conquered cities were to rebel or if they didn't pay tribute, the assryian armies would turn on them. The Assryian armies were made of many skilled warriors and were very hard to beat in a battle. This is why the assryian empire spread so far. In Sumer, wars went on for 2000 years between city-states. The first ever war recorded was between Lagash and Umma in 2525BC. The king of Lagash led an army of mostly infantry, soldiers on foot, and spearmen to Umma to try to conquer the city-state. Armies of Sumer used chariots. At first these chariots were very simple. They had 2-4 wheels and were pulled by Onagers, wild Asian donkeys. Also, the base of the chariot was a woven basket and the wheels that had a three piece design.At first they weren't used very much for battle, but for transportation. Later in time, the new technological advances made it possible to redesign the chariot and make it more fit for battle. Sumerian city states were surrounded by mud-brick walls that could keep out some foes that tried to conquer their city-state. Here are just a few key examples of military and political structures in ancient Mesopotamia.

Social Structure by Jack Beck,

In ancient Sumer, there were three main social classes. They were the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class. The upper class consisted of Priests, Landowners, and Government Officials. People of this class normally wore gold jewelry. They especially wore gold rings. The men wore skirts, had long hair, had a curly mustache, and a long beard. They normally braided their long fine hair. The priests were easy to pick out of a crowd. They had shaved heads unlike anyone else. All of the people in the upper class wore cloaks made from sheep wool when it got cold. The middle class was made up of Merchants, Artisans, Farmers, and Fishers. These people got paid for there work. They didn't where gold jewelry, but some did where some type of fine jewelry. The middle class tried their best to follow all of the fashion trends set by the upper class. The middle class tried very hard to become rich and be apart of the upper class. The lower class was made up of the slaves. The slaves were normally brought from a conquered city to work for the king or the upper class. Slaves could be bought in the market. Slaves were normally sold for less than a donkey, but more than a cow. This is the social classes of ancient Sumer.

Technology and arts by Rob Corso

There are many important inventions from ancient Mesopotamia. For example there was the wheel. Which was made by acciedent it was used to make pottery with at first then it fell over and Mesopotamians noticed it could roll. This helped them in many ways including farming, transport of goods, and chariots. Also their wheel replaced sledges which where used to carry crops. Also the assryians built a battering ram which was used to knock down large city-state gates. Mesopotamia also invented the plow it helped them plant crop seeds, it was also pulled by a oxen. The Mesopatmians also invented their own writing called cuneiform. Also in the arts they had music played on a lyria it is sort of like a harp but ancient. Then they had the ziggurat another form of art it was a big shrine for the city-states many gods.

Religious structure by Rob Corso

Mesopotamia's religious structure is done in many ways. For example they burned incense. They also built grand shrines named ziggurats. Also most political and social events were held at the city-states ziggurat. What their ziggurats were for was, that they believed their gods would walk down the huge steps of the ziggurat to walk upon the earth. Also each city-stae has their own god, back in ancient Mesopotamia their were also over 3,000 gods.

Narrator: Robbie

Peru: Jack

Marcel: Rohan

Gilgamesh: Robbie

Scene starts off in a boat.

Narrator: it is an unusually cold July day as the air of the sea smelt of fresh seawater, as Peru and Marcel travel through the unknown waters of the Bermuda Triangle.

Peru: oh boy its unusually cold today

Marcel: yeah I know right. This is all your fault Peru! It’s too cold to be out here. I knew I shouldn’t have come!

Peru: OH now it’s my fault! Who’s the one that wanted to come on a boat to come fishing today. There aren’t even any fish.

Narrator: As they both go on arguing they don’t notice that the sky turned dark and there was a huge wave coming towards them.

Peru: Hey Marcel, why did the sky get so dark?

Marcel: OH MY GOD THERE IS A HUGE WAVE COMING TOWARDS US!

Peru and Marcel: AHHHH

Narrator: The huge wave crashed into them and little did they know they were sucked into a vortex in the vast ocean!

Narrator: The two men woke up, only to be greeted by soldiers of Uruk.

Marcel: w-w-where are we???

Peru: I don’t know, doesn’t seem like were home.

Solder: You need to come with us to the king!

Marcel: okay?

Narrator: they get carried back to the castle of Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh: in the name of Marduk, What do we have here??

Marcel: Woah your that king of Uruk, the one who lost his best friend and grieved for so long. I read the book about you.

Gilgamesh: I do not know what you are talking about, I have no friends. I do not care for anyone but my self and my city. Not the people in it. And do you see this wall, it is a disgrace to Uruk!

Peru (whispering): oh yeah this is before the tale of Gilgamesh happened.

Marcel: yeah

Marcel: so tell us about how you live and how you survive for example what is your urban focus, your social structure, religion, technology, food supply, how the writing developed, and also how you handle your military?

Gilgamesh: Um, Well, we survive by the 2 rivers that surround our city-state, from that we get our water and food, also we grow many different types of crops including barley and wheat. our urban focus is a Ziggurat, which we use to worship our gods, we also have a social market place within the Ziggurat. we have our social structure here. there is an upper class which include, priest's, merchants, and land owners. Beyond the rich was the middle class, which include Gov. Officials, Shop keepers, and artisans which are skilled workers.

Peru: Oh wow that is....

Gilgamesh: DO NOT INTERRUPT ME!

Peru: oh sorry.

Gilgamesh: now where was i, oh yes, and after the middle class there are lower class, which are farmers and slaves.

Gilgamesh: We have over 3000 gods, each god is in charge of everyday problems. We needed to keep track of business so we created a language. Each symbol that we drew represented exactly what was drawn.

Peru: yeah pictographs, but as time will pass these pictographs will become more abstract. And it will be called cuneiform

Gilgamesh: our military structure includes of course me, because there is no other man that is stronger than me and we have our measly wall to protect us. We really don't have much technological advances we use the wheel that the Sumerians invented for better traveling. Is this all of the knowledge you seek?

Marcel: Yes, thank you for your knowledge, I will surely share this story with my family.

Peru: Me too!

Gilgamesh: Humph, my work here is done! Now be gone! Narrator: Gilgamesh told his soldiers to take Peru and Marcel back to where they were found.

Peru: hey whats that…

Peru: MARCEL, ITS THE WAVE THAT TOOK US HERE!

Marcel: Finally we get to go home!

Narrator: The men got back on their boat and sailed out to the wave. Their boat went through the vortex again and they were back in their own time period. Peru and Marcel told of their adventurous trip back in time, but sadly, nobody ever believed them.