Amber Ingram HIS101 Christopher Howell Unit 1 Review Due: 9/19/2021 1. What major historic themes can you identify across the first four chapters of the book? In the first unit of the textbook, I think the main theme that is covered across all four chapters is the discussion and explanation of early time period civilizations. Each chapter showcases a different civilization or time period. We learn how they came to be and what worked and didn’t work for them at that time. The different chapters might introduce a new people or skill set they excelled at, but they all seem to have a common theme of early civilizations and how they changed and formed their lives and what we have learned from them so far. 2. Identify a major historic figure and explain the importance and impact they created historically. A historic figure that we learned about in the first unit, and one that I would like to showcase is King Djoser. Our text introduces us to King Djoser in section 3.2. King Djoser ruled ancient Egypt for about 20 years during the Old Kingdom period. He is mainly known for being the first to produce an enormous pyramid shaped tomb to house his remains after he died. Birtannica.com delves farther into his life and explains that Djoser (also spelled Zoser) was the second kind of the 3rd dynasty. His reign was marked by the technological innovation of stone architecture. He went from the typical use of a mud bricks to those completely made of stone. Britannica says His greatest advance was how he completely altered the shape of his monument from a flat toped rectangular structure to a six-stepped pyramid. This new creation was many times larger than anything done before. King Djoser helped to pave the way to new building types that could be bigger and better because if his innovative techniques. His use of architectural details of columns, cornices, and moldings provided an example for many in later development. 3. Identify a major culture, civilization, or class of people in the four chapters. Explain the importance and impact of that group of people historically. A major social class of people that were discussed in the first four chapters are the peasants. Most groups of people since the creations of civilizations and towns had social classes. The peasants were the lowest social class, they had the fewest comforts, lived in the least fancy houses, and they ate the most plan diets of all the classes. This class of people were the Average Joe’s. They were the farmers, construction workers, and the unskilled laborers of Egypt. They were an important part of society because they were the ones responsible for helping to build the monuments and pyramids for the pharaoh. Because of the peasants Egypt was easier able to grow and flourish, and without all their hard work, we would be reading a much different story today. 4. What unusual historic fact or piece of evidence stands out to you from the four chapters? Why? A historic fact from this first unit that I found interesting is that Ancient Mesopotamians developed a complex and accurate system of arithmetic that would go on to form the basis of mathematics throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. I find it so interesting how much these early civilizations accomplished with such limited resources. Human ingenuity just amazes me, and I’m always surprised at the talent and workings of these early civilizations. 5. Reflect on the unit discussions. What discussion do you think you performed the best upon? Why? I think I’ve performed pretty well on all the discussions so far. I’ve gotten full credit for them and have put thought and effort into both my initial posts and my responses to fellow classmates. I think the most enjoyable discussion so far was the U1M3 discussion. I enjoyed having a couple different source types to compare and contrast. I also liked that we got to see a variation of topics because each student got to pick a video and naturally there were different choices made. 6. Choose one main lesson of history from the four chapters. Apply that lesson to the present such as for a current event or even in your life. Explain how the lesson from history you chose is relevant today for our modern world and/or for you personally. When reading these first four chapters a part that really stuck out to me was when I was reading about Egypt in chapter 3. Egypt has always fascinated me, as it does so many others. The text talks about how for the most part Egypt was stable and peaceful, but also talks about the intermediate periods where there was instability. These periods were troubled, violent, and chaotic. What about these people? The generations of Egyptians who lived during these 160+ year stretches. It really stuck with me about what their lives might have been like. To be the “lucky” few who only knew the chaotic, unstable aspect of Egyptian life. Brooks says in our text that there are written records that indicate that Egyptians “knew very well that things had been fundamentally upset and imbalanced, and that they did not know what to do about it.” I felt like I could relate to those people. I feel like a lot of people in our current time feel this way along with me. That all our systems are messed up and broken, our world and values are almost turned upside down. I feel like many of us know that it’s not right, not how we want the world to be, but we just don’t know what to do about it; not quite sure how to fix things. We might not have kings or pharaohs, but we have the same expectations of our political leaders to keep the balance and the peace. To make our world a better place, and to listen when we collectively speak. They have a responsibility to “oversee the harmony of life,” just like those early leaders in ancient Egypt did, and I feel like we are being let down just like the people in Ancient Egypt were. I really felt the similarities in today’s world and our own imbalances. These ancient people they lived though many, many years of this turmoil. It led me to think about our “Worst” as a country during the great depression and how hard it was for people then. That was however only 10 years, I can’t imagine 160 years of darkness and chaos. This was so much more than a few bad terms of an unfavored president, or the last few years of the pandemic changes and instability. This is a few generations worth of Chaos, violence, and instability; and I’m reminded that it could be worse. Hopefully, collectively as Americans, we can come together in love and unity and be great again like Egypt did. Hopefully the government can earn some trust and lead this nation like it is supposed to. Hopefully my generation won’t become known as an “intermediate” time in American history. Works Cited: Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia. "Djoser." Encyclopedia Britannica, June 19, 2015. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Djoser. “Egypt.” 2019. Portland Community College. September 16, 2019. https://human.libretexts.org/@go/page/17001.
