Hammurabi's Laws

Book: The Babylonia's
Hammurabi's Babylonia
by Elaine Landau


             Hammurabi was one of the kings of Babylonia and while he was in his throne Babylonia flourished. They developed mathematics, algebra and geometry. They also developed trade and agriculture. But this big community needed laws to obey so the order would be kept. Hammurabi's laws were no more no less than 280 but they were not all fair. Some of them had a really tough punishment. They were so strict because they said 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'. That means that they did to the person the same thing as he did and sometimes it was really unfair. For example, a rule was (according to the author) "A builder who sells a poorly constructed house that collapses and kills its owner may be put to death. If the owner's son rather than the owner is killed in the collapse, the builder's son would be killed." In my opinion this is not fair because the builder didn't do it on purpose (probably) but that is sometimes good because builders make sure that the houses are constructed carefully and are safe.

         They  were a lot of unfair rules like this but most of the rules were fair. Don't you think that if a son kills the dad his hand may be cut of? I think it is fair but a little bit strange and tough for this days. Hammurabi was trying to be fair to all of the people but I don't think he really made it cause sometimes the rule was not fair to the person that stole but it was fair to the person that was robbed!  So in my opinion some of his rules were fair but some of them weren't but it doesn't really matter now because laws and governments have changed (most of the countries don't have kings) but the greatest thing is that there are not as many slaves as they were back in that time.
      

The Bronze Age: A trader's daily day

A day of a trader

It was a quite hot day of the summer. Everybody was outside from their houses and went to the ‘market’ and trade things. Everybody was really upset because there was no space for everyone in Daren’s place. Everybody was there since there was no one else that traded bronze weapons. He was so lucky that day because the things that they gave him were really precious to him, since the two days before it had rained just a bit and the crops grew more quickly than the farmers expected, the fishers got more fish the day before and the artisans had just finished their pottery.

            Daren is a 45 years old man that had just moved from a nearby village to the city and he was so proud of himself for ‘bringing’ the idea of how to make a bronze weapon. His family was also proud of him (especially his wife, Laura, who helped him trading). Since they leave in the year 3500 B.C. often “rich” people asked him to bring the weapons at their home instead of them going there but this was something good for him because people gave him in exchange something more valuable than the weapons cost. The movement was really a hard thing to do because he used the wheel and the axel (thing that was new to the city).

            After the crowd had left and he sat down and started talking with his family. Joana (his daughter) was really excited because she saw for the first time in her life a ship, which transferred goods from place to place. Her father had talked about it once, since he was there all day, and she was so anxious to see one. As they walked to go to their house, they saw a group of man digging down the ground. Daren asked with great curiosity what they were doing and they answered that they were digging up a canal! This was really new for them and they super excited. After a minute or two, three mans came with a quickly walk and with some baskets in their shoulder. They placed them down and started putting into them dirt from the canal. Daren and his family were so impressed. Their civilization finally started growing and new things came into their lives.

                

Becoming Human: Last Human Standing

  Human: Last Human Standing
(PBS NOVA)
Have you ever wondered why are we the only of our 20 ancestors that are still alive? Well I did and I have the answer! Homo erectus appeared 2 million years ago in Africa and they were just like us: Hunter and Gatherers. They were also the first specie that left Africa. So that means that they where smart. Why weren't they the ones that didn't vanish over the years? Archaeologists found a full skeleton of Homo heidelbergensis in a cave of Germany and they named it Turkana boy. Turkana boy gave the most important  information about his specie. His teeth told us a lot about the food they ate and his skull said that his specie had a small brain thing that didn't make him as smart as other species. Is this really why they didn't survive threw years? Now about homo sapiens, the found evidence that archaeologists found by the sea , made necklaces from shells and used paint.They were talented so why couldn't they survive? After they analyzed homo neanderthals DNA they found out that they could speak. Did this fact gave him a chance to survive? I don't think so!
        Finally, scientists and archaeologists have the answer. When homo sapiens spread around around Europe and Asia, animals and all the other ancestors because they killed them!But evolution never stops...

" Last Human Standing." Becoming Human. PBS NOVA. 31 Aug. 2011. Television. 

From Grunt To Grammar: The Evolution Of Language

From Grunt To Grammar: The Evolution Of Language
by Jeanne Miller
October 2009
Odyssey magazine: Adventures In Science
page: 34-36

"When did we start speaking and why?" This is the question all scientists try to solve and they have some answers. Our brains didn't only change size but also they became more complex so how could we speak and other animals couldn't? Because animals according to the article "Can breath and swallow at the same time so the range of possible sound is limited". It is difficult for scientists and paleoanthropologists to find if they were able to speak or not because "Spoken words don't leave fossils" according to the article but they believe it started at about one million years ago. The reason we are not sure yet is because scientists and archaeologists find older and older fossils that are evidence for the use of language.

Miller, Jeanne. "From Grunts to Grammar: The Evolution of Language ." Odyssey :Adventures in Science 

     Oct. 2009: 34-36. Print. 

                                                     

Taming Fire: The first scientist?

Taming Fire: The first scientist?                                                  
by Mary Betb Cox
Oddysey: Adventures in Science
October 2009
Pages 29-30

Playing with fire it was and it will always be risky. But one person thousands of yeas ago wanted to 'play' with fire and he/she changed the way we live. This 'scientist' he/she invented it approximately 250,500 years ago. But how do we know that they  used fire? According to the article "A quarter of a million years ago, hearths began to appear as regular features of prehistoric  campsites in Europe". Why did they used them? For almost the same reason that we use fire. It was used to heat objects or even to warm themselves. At last, the evidence that scientists had for the use of fire in olden days are the  human and burned animal bones at Swartkrans caves. So that means that the humans cooked the animal. And to cook them they needed fire.    

                       

Cox, Mary Betb. "Taming fire: the first scientist?" Odyssey: Adventures in Science Oct. 2009: n. 

pag. Print. 

On our two feet

On our two feet
by Stephen Whitt
Odyssey: Adventures in Science
October 2009
pages 26-28


Article summary:

Humans. Humans is a specie that can walk in their two feet (some animals can actually walk in their two but in a clumsy way). Anthropologists have many answers at the question " From where did we took our different walking?". According to the article two things are for sure "Upright is very old and it came long before we modern humans evolved our big brains". We are similar to chimpanzees, apes etc but we are not kins. Our relationship is that we share an ancestor similar to both species. One of our differences with all animals and especially with chimps and all this kinds, is that we have a larger brain and that out skull construction is quite different. Scientists can tell how they walked by looking at the foramen magnum in the skull. Sot they did to compare a chimp's, an A.afarenhis's and a human skull. The chimp's foramen magnum looks up (walks on four legs), ours is looking horizontal (we walk on 2) and at last A.afarensis foramen magnum is looking horizontal (just like us). A theory of why we walked on two (according to the author) is "We started walking on two,he says, to free our hands and arms for carrying food to our arms". Another theory is that we stood up in two for to cross hot desserts. But which one is rue and basically why we walk upright(on out two)?

Whitt, Stephen. "On our two feet." Odyssey: Adventures in Science Oct. 2009: 26-28. Print. 

Who is who among Early Hominids?

Who is who among early hominids?
by Randall Susman
Odyseey: Adventures in Science

Article summary:

" Ape-men" is the name that we use for to name early hominids because of their relation to apes but also to humans. Sahelanthropus tchadensis was found at the beginning of the 21st century in Africa. We can tell that it is 6-7 million years old and there are many opinions of whether it was more ape or human like. Orrorin tugenesis is one of the oldest anthropoids about 6.1-5.8 m.y.a and it was found in Kenya. He have been placed in the austrolopithecines group. Ardipithecus is 4.4 million years old and it was found in Ethiopia at the year 1994 and depended on scientists it is more ape like. Kenyapithecys platyops was discovered as the same time as sahelanthropus (2001) in Kenya. The splited skull was more like 3.5 m.y.a. Paranthropus (similar to man) it is estimated that it is as old as the homo species (around 2.5 m.y.a) and it was found Kenya. As scientists can tell they spend more time to the ground.
Early homo are part of out class. The first found fossils are around 2 millions years old. Our "relative's" first found skull was discovered in South and East of Africa. According to the author "paleoanthropologists had thought that all the early Homo fossils that date from around 2-1.6 m.y.a belonged to the species  Homo habils". Homo habils( handy man) fossils were found in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. Their basic difference with all the ape-men is that they have a larger brain but it is not more human like than australopithecnes. The more advanced specie of Homo is H. erectus. It was found in Asia, Europe and Africa and it dates 18 m.y.a. The specie of homo between homo habils and homo erectus is homo georgicus (named by a scientist) and it is dated around 1.8 m.y.a. At last, a recently discovered hominid specie is homo florensis which is dated around 18.000 years before present.

Susman, Randall. "Who is who among early hominids?" Odyssey: Adventures in Science Oct. 2009:

22-25. Print.