Ancient Greece

Here's a seven minute video about the Parthenon.

More about Mesopotamia and Egypt

If you learned something additional about the reading, post it here. Put what you learned into your own words and explain briefly why you think it's important and/or how it helps us make more sense of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

For instance, there is a cool decorative wall carving, or frieze, at the U.S. Supreme Court that depicts famous lawgivers such as Menes (of Egypt unification fame) and Hammurabi (from the reading you just did this weekend) and Moses.

Here's a map of the Fertile Crescent (from comment #1).

And here's some more information about women in Egypt (related to comment #2)

Here's a great link to many civilizations that Alex T. found (see comment #9)

One point about the timeline I provided: That timeline says the Hyksos came into Egypt in 1640 BCE, but the reading says the invasion happened in 1730 BCE. How could both be right? Keep in mind that dates are kind of shaky for this long ago. We have limited evidence, and different historians have different interpretations of the evidence. It's safe to say that "around 1700 BCE," the Hyksos invaded. Our book makes this point on p. 80 (p. 126 electronic version) when it says that "nothing in ancient Egyptian chronology is certain."

As we move along in the course, dates will become more certain. For instance, we have tons of evidence that tells us that Charlemagne was crowned emperor by the Pope on Christmas Day in the year 800.