Hammurabi's Babylonia

Landau, Eleine. "Hammurabi's Babylonia." The Babylonians. New York: Holt,RInehart and Winston, 2010. 

pg 39-44. Print. 

The first Babylonian king, Hammurabi, created the book of over 280 laws. 

Some of his laws are fair and some are unfair. For example, it is fair to

kill a person if he is supposed to put out a fire, but instead he gets

into the fire and steals things from the inside. This law is correct.

But then, there are some laws that are not that fair. For example, if

the builder builds a house and it collapses and kills the owner,the builder

should killed.Not fair. Or, it the owner's son gets killed, the builder's son

should be killed. It's not his fault that the building that his father built

and collapsed. But on the other side, the builder didn't know that he made 

a poorly built house,it's not his fault. So, as you can see, the justice,

law and order weren't so fair at that time. People that lived in ancient

Mesopotamia couldn't have been so great and the people didn't have much

freedom. 

A day in the life of a Bronze Age Trader

    I wake up on a sunny morning, go to the river and wash my face, and then I go off to work. My job is a trader. I work in a little town square, where most of the traders do their jobs. I sell bronze artifacts. There comes my first customer. He wants that nice bronze pot. Yes, first thing sold today. I traded the pot for a nice necklace. Now, there are two kids playing with stone swords. Ouch, one boy broke another boy's sword. Luckily I have a bronze sword so I traded it for a hat he was wearing.
    It is almost lunchtime, so I  go on a short break and visit some if my friends. We had lunch outdoors. After I ate, it's time to go back to work. I come to my stand and in front of it, a lady is waiting. She has a beautiful scarf around her neck.  " Hello, ma'am, what can I get you?" She wants a wheel. I gave her one of the two wheels which I have. I got that scarf just in time, it started snowing outside.
It's almost sunset, so I should close my stand, soon... However, a very weird looking man came toward me at that time. " What can I get for you sir?". He was a stranger from a little city close by. And one thing which was unusual about him is that he actually didn't want anything. He was drunk and didn't know what he was doing. I quickly took him to a witchdoctor who lived close by and left him there. I had to go back to my shop because there are many thieves who might steal my goods while I am away. 
Just before closing time, I heard screaming and  I saw a man running away from a group of people mounted on their horses. They had bows and arrows and some even had axes. The fugitive ran past my stand. I had another bronze sword, so I tossed it to him. To help him, there was a rock on the ground and I took it, threw it at the gang and they ran away. The flee awarded me with one of the most precious pots. I will try to keep it, but if necessary I will be able to trade it for many other useful goods.
     It is closing time, what a day! I had many customers, but for the last two, I put my life  in jeopardy, in order to save their lives. 

PBS NOVA: Becoming Human: Last Human Standing

"Last Human Standing." Becoming Human. PBS. Nova, n.p., 31 Aug. 2011. Television. 

As we know, we are the last human standing. But why?  What happened to all the others? Why are we the ones who

are the last humans standing? To answer these questions, some deep investigation needs to take place. But now, the 

answers are revealed. The key laid in Africa, the place where it all started. In the beginning, over 20 types of humans 

lived before us. Then came the Homo Heidi. They lived for many years. And then another species started to show up, 

the Neanderthals. They were more closer to us than the Heidi. But then scientists found something extraordinary,

a Neanderthal that was so close to us, he might have even spoken. This boy was called Skladina Boy, after the cave it's 

bones were found in.

     This was the time we started living. And now we are the only ones standing. To find out why, scientists need to go to 

the seaside, and the answer to this question was found on the seaside of France. The answer is we changed our diet.

The neanderthals ate only meat, so if there was lack of meat, the neanderthals would have nothing to eat and they would 

die out. So, we decided to change what we eat, and make our food opportunities broader. That means we ate more stuff

then our ancestors.  So slowly, one by one, our ancestors died out, and we are the last humans standing.

From Grunts to Grammar: The Evolution of Language

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

Oct. 2009: 34-36. Print. 

Language is a crucial part in our living. Half of the things we do includes language.

It is different to say "crocodile ate the man" and " The man ate the crocodile. But

when did we start using language?  Our ancestors had a smaller brain than us, but 

they are the ones who started something like speaking, but it was much less advance,

it was just a couple of words, and they didn't sound like this. We don't know if they

knew what they were saying. Something changed the way we speak and our ancestors way.

There is a part called the larynx, it is the top of our mouth. It changed. 

Taming Fire: The First Scientist?

 Cox, Mary Beth. "Taming Fire: The First Scientist?" Odyssey: The Adventures in Science Oct. 2009: 

     29-30. Print.

      This article talks about who and when started using fire. The answer to this question is hard to answer, but it is estimated that it started 250,000 years ago. At that time, people were afraid of fires. No one knew what it was. Some remains of objects which could be used to make fire were found in Europe. Hearths were found; hearths are rudimentary fireplaces, surrounded by a round rock ring. Hearth fires are higher temperature than wildfires.

   In the Swarkans caves, in South Africa, human remains were found together with burnt animal bones. These remains and bones are 1,000,000 years old. A large Hearth fire put these early humans to sleep, not a wildfire. Thi accident might have occurred, while they were cooking the meat. “ They may have known how to cook, but that doesn’t mean they could start a fire from scratch.”

On Our own Two Feet article

Whitt, Stephen. "On Our Own Two Feet." Oddysey: Adventures in Science Oct. 2009: 26-28. 

Print. 

As you most probably know, apes are our ancestors, because they walk on two feet. Well upright walking is very old. 

It started existing hundreds of years ago. As you might know, it was till not long ago a mystery are monkeys or apes 

and the answer turned out to be apes. But in all three skulls there is a little part called the foreman magnum which 

is used for connecting the brain to the whole body. In the mans and the monkeys skull it is in the back bottom right corner and 

in the center of the skull. 

Who's Who among the Early Homonins

    There are many ancestors who lived on this world  before us, and one-word name for them are hominins or hominids. In this article there is a list of them. The oldest hominid that lived is called Sahelanthropus Tchadensis.The remains of this hominid was found in Africa in 2001. The second oldest hominin is Orrorin Tugenensis and it was found in Kenya. One interesting fact about this ancestor is that it had positional behavior, which means it indicated a different type of movement. Next, there is the Ardipithecus which means ground ape. The next one is Kenyapithecus Platyops. It was found in 2001 near Kenya, it is how it got it's name. Next on the list, and maybe one of the most famous hominins is Australopithecus, it means southern ape. Then comes Paranthropus which means that it has a skull similar to men. It is the same shape as us. Now, it's time for Early Homo, which means early men, this is the time that we, humans came to life. There are two types of Early Homos. The first is Homo Habilis, which means handy man, and this is still not totally us. But then Homo Erectrus came to life, and that's us.