Mr. G's Lit Blog

Monday, December 1, 2008

floccinaucinihilipilification

Dictionary Entry:
Spelled: floccinaucinihilipilification
Pronounced: flak-si-na(w)-si-ni-hi-li-pi-li-fi-'key-shên]
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: holding or judging something to be worthless
Origin: 1741 England

Bayle

The Minoan Civilization

Music Video: The Mycenaeans

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Linear B

Linear B
A Historical Poem
By
Bayle James

A writing system there used to be
By the name of Linear B
It was used by people from yesterday
It was written on tablets made of clay

No one knew what it meant
The archeologists didn’t make a dent
The coded words were not cracked
The symbols all seemed so abstract

They needed someone to break the code
No one knew how it flowed
They looked around Knossos for a clue
But no one could figure out what to do

Minoan was the language they thought it would be
The clay tablets did not give away its history
Everyone was stuck on this one thought
And they were all becoming very distraught

Along came a boy who knew what to do
He studied at home and found a clue
He loved to learn languages all the time
Solving this puzzle made him feel sublime

He knew Greek, French and Swiss
This to him made him reminisce
‘These letters look Greek.’ Said the boy
He was right and full of joy

The tablets were translated into English from Greek
He had to explain his amazing technique
He got published, this boy was a star
He would walk around while smoking a cigar

Michael Ventris solved Linear B
All the archeologists were so full of glee
The 4360 tablets were found and translated
In English they were created

The Dorians

The Dorians lived in villages in the mountains of northern Greece. They shared a place called Hellas with the Mycenaeans for 500 years. The Mycenaeans were allot stronger than the Dorians. Their cities were well protected and they had no interest in the poor Dorians. The Dorians were the weaker ones and couldn't win battles.

This all started to change when they discovered iron. In 1200 B.C. they started making weapons out of it, like the iron slashing sword. The iron was allot better then bronze. It was lighter and sharper and could even go right through a bronze armor. This was the begining of the Dorians becoming strong.

They weren't the only ones who started to use iron. Lots of the world was using it too, except for the Mycenaeans. One ingredient you needed to make the iron could not be found in the south were the Mycenaeans lived. They did have lots of bronze, but it wasn't as strong as iron. Since the Dorians had stronger weapons, they were able to defeat people that they couldn't defeat before.

They had conquered most of Hellas by the time 1150 B.C. They burned cities and scared people away. They fled until there was no one left. They destroyed the Mycenaeans civilization and started to rule Hellas.

The Minoan Civilization

The Minoan Civilization

The Minoan Civilization existed from 3000 to 1400 B.C. It was established on the island of Crete. The Minoans were remarkable people with many special skills which included pottery, weaving, art, building and engineering.

A very common way that people have learned about the Minoans ways of life are from frescoes. Frescoes are wallpapers that show the Minoan way of life. Through these frescoes people have found many interesting facts about Minoans and how they lived.

Through frescoes we have discovered the many activities that the Minoans participated in and enjoyed. These activities included gymnastics, wrestling and boxing. They even played an ancient version of backgammon. Woman played important roles in all of this. The Minoans were civilization traders. They were the earliest people to trade throughout the Mediterranean. Woman took part in religious ceremonies, sporting events and even working jobs.

Frescoes have also taught us that the Minoans also made a living through farming. They grew grain crops, olives and grapes. They also raised a variety of animals including herds of sheep, goats and pigs. Plow carts were pulled by oxen.

It is said that much of the religion of the later Greeks may have started with the Minoans. The Minoans had a very different way to worship their gods. They thought of god as mother earth. Instead of a temple or a church, the Minoans had small shrines to worship their goddess in. Worshipers would bring gitfs to the shrine. They would often bring food or wine. Sometimes they would even bring their most valuable Jewelry or artwork.

The great Minoan civilization lasted about 1600 years. It ended dramatically with a volcano eruption. This explosion was the largest in human history. The Minoans civilization never recovered from this disaster. Once Knossos, the largest gathering sight on Crete was rebuilt after the volcano, invaders from the mainland called Mycenaean’s had conquered Crete.

-Aviva

Friday, November 28, 2008

Picture for Roo

The Mystery of Linear B By Danny Greenberg

In the late 19th and 20th centuries, an archeologist named Sir Arthur Evans found strange tablets while digging in the ruins of Knossos. The tablets were made out of clay, and there were clearly two different styles of writing on some of them. Because of their discovery they separated them in to two categories: Linear A and Linear B. Evans devoted his whole career to discovering these tablets, and because of what he found, he created the concept of Minoan civilization.

Although Evans found these remarkable tablets, nobody could understand them. Many archeologists tried to decipher the writing on them, but none of them succeeded. Then in 1936 a boy named Michael Ventris was listening to a lecture on the Minoans. He was very fascinated by them, but as he was leaving the lecture, the only thing on his mind was, “what exactly did the Minoans write on the tablets?” After the lecture he promised that one day he would solve the mystery and crack the code of the tablets.

Sure enough, after World War II, Ventris became an architect and a detective. Michael Ventris and a man named John Chadwick started to study the mysterious tablets. They noticed that the writing on the tablets looked a lot like Greek. They started to translate the symbols, and it worked. They were able to translate more and more of the different words, until they had a full tablet deciphered. Together, Michael Ventris and John Chadwick had uncovered the mystery of Linear B in 1952. Michael Ventris had fulfilled his promise that he made in 1936.

Scientists all around the world were amazed by this discovery. Eventually all of the Linear B tablets were translated. They ended up listing information on names, numbers of soldiers, taxes, lists of gods and they even mentioned information on cows. Although all of the Linear B tablets were discovered, Linear A tablets are still a huge mystery. There have been many theories of decipherment for them, but none of them have fully worked. The work that Ventris and Chadwick did has hugely helped to improve our knowledge on Ancient Greece.

Danny Greenberg 7A

These are some of the symbols on Linear B tablets.