Open the file you will see the instruction and you will have some examples of other posts then you can choose 2 of them and response to them.

Weekly Forum: Mesopotamia

Each week, we’re going to use this space to continue our discussions about the weekly topics. This

means that we share things pertaining to subjects or topics that are related to this week but might not have come up during our face-to-face discussion.

· What do you want to add to this week’s discussion?

· Which “game changer” you felt was significant and why?

· Do you have articles, videos, or information that would be pertinent to your fellow students (about one this week’s game-changers)?

Examples then response to 2 of them

Mesopotamia

by 

Salam Alajami

 – Monday, February 3, 2020, 11:55 PM

-Akkadian language is an extinct East Semitic language that was used and spoken in ancient Mesopotamia from the 3rd millennium BC, Akkadian language is considered now to be a dead language, its a language that was it really spoken as much it was written.

-The game changer that caught my attention in class was the different between ziggurat and pyramids, I used to think that they were both called pyramids and had the same purpose. I have learned that  ziggurat were built to get a temple closer to heaven while the pyramids were built by Egyptians for religious purposes to protect the body of the deceased pharaoh. 

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIGOFlFoCLc

Mesopotamia

by Tehya Anguiano – Tuesday, February 4, 2020, 3:41 PM

Throughout this lesson I found the Ziggurat to be very interesting. The Ziggurat was a building that the people used as a holy temple. They believed the high building was a connection between heaven and earth and i found the meaning behind that very beautiful. To have a place that was something so meaningful to these people and to be protected and worshiped. Here is a video that I found interesting that goes into a little more detail than just basic facts of the Ziggurats. 

Mesopotamia

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Axel Freiberg

 – Tuesday, February 4, 2020, 5:28 PM

I think a great innovation of Mesopotamia was the invention of the wheel. Its easy to think of how the wheel could have made daily activities in this time period much easier. One could fathom that the wheel has been the most important invention ever. If you think about everything the wheel is used for today, it would be hard to imagine the world being the place that it is. A commonly and essential innovation that we use today and for the foreseeable future is the car. Modes of travel wouldn’t be possible without the Sumerians invention of the wheel.

Mesopotamia – Hammurabi

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Kerry Gabalis

 – Monday, February 3, 2020, 4:12 PM

After hearing about Hammurabi in class, he just seemed too good to be true based off what I heard. From my research, I was correct. Seeing the Standard of Ur’s images largely reminded me of social classes/a caste system. A system that favors people of higher wealth and status, and lessens the value of those who aren’t wealthy. It turns out that there was a social class system in place, three classes called the Amelu (the elite), the Mushkenu (free people), and the Ardu (slaves). After finding the entire list of Hammurabi’s code, he turns out to be not as great as we heard in class. We heard how Hammurabi was open minded and more liberal with his laws, then why does law 110 say “If a “sister of a god” open a tavern, or enter a tavern to drink, then shall this woman be burned to death.” If a woman decides to have an alcoholic drink, or to even open a tavern to sell them, she gets burned alive. Or perhaps law 143,”If she is not innocent, but leaves her husband, and ruins her house, neglecting her husband, this woman shall be cast into the water.” So if a woman is claimed to not be “innocent”, tries to leave her husband, and doesn’t take care of the house for her husband, she is “cast into the water” or in simpler terms, drowned. Oh and here’s lovely law 210 “If the woman die, his daughter shall be put to death.” so if a husband’s wife dies and they have a daughter, the daughter is killed because to Hammurabi, a girl isn’t worth as much as a boy. Hammurabi sounds very sexist to me, along with condoning slavery, he does not appear to be as “wonderful” as we heard he was in class.

Here’s the full list of all his laws: 

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp

Mesopotamia

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Anthony Ellington

 – Sunday, February 2, 2020, 3:23 PM

I think the biggest game hanger from Hammurabi was the Code laws he had in his empire. Now, those codes are kinda like our own Laws now. Hammurabi’s codes were the basic start of our laws like if you break any type of law it requires a specific punishment but back then it was harsher than it is now

Mesopotamia

by Lexy Smith – Sunday, February 2, 2020, 2:06 PM

I believe that I and my fellow classmates did well on our presentation over some of the basics of Babylon, the Ziggurats, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Another game-changer that I felt was significant was the Mesopotamian polytheism. Polytheism is the belief in many gods and is heavily based on cosmology and mythology. Cosmology is the study of the creation of the universe (Fiero, 2016, p. 11). Polytheism gave the citizens of Babylon a religious practice similar to the fertility rituals. Each god has its own duty to the universe. For example, Tiamat the “Great Mother of the primeval waters” or Marduk the god of wisdom (Fiero, 2016, p. 11). Marduk was said to be the one to create the city of Babylon and the people who live there (Fiero, 2016, p. 11). Nowadays, there are many forms of religious practice such as Christianity, Islamic, and Hinduism.

Citations:

Fiero, G. K. (2016). Landmarks in humanities (Fourth). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. DOI: 9781259544927

Mesopotamia

by 

Anna Brown

 – Monday, February 3, 2020, 7:51 PM

This week I really thought polytheism was interesting. Polytheism being the belief or worship of more than one god/goddess. Many religions practice polytheism including Hinduism, Taoism, Shenism, and many more. What I liked most of polytheism is that one of the main reasons for having multiple gods and goddesses is so that everyone in the religion has a god/goddess to look up to and it isn’t as forced for people. Below is an example of some gods worshiped in Hinduism.