Dylan+W.

Hi I'm Dylan Wimer, and I'm looking forward to experiencing my first AP class this year.

__**‍The Hanging Gardens of Babylonia‍**__

Babylonia used to be an Akkadian -speaking civilization. It was a cultural region located in Mesopotamia or present-day Iraq. It became completely independent in 1894 B.C.E. Even though it’s language was Akkadian it fought very often with the Assyrian civilization in northern part of Mesopotamia. Later Babylonia became a major piece of Mesopotamia after Hammurabi in 1792 - 1752 B.C.E. One of the many attractions was the Hanging Gardens of Babylonia.

I t has been said they were created d uring the rule of Nebecanezar, because his wife was from some area with mountains. The desert climate, plus the flatness of babylon made her homesick. So as a gift he created a manmade mountain that would be a garden that consisted of many terraces. These terraces were filled with trees, flowers, and many other green plants. However this was difficult because there was little stone or other common building materials in Babylon, but they did have clay. Although this could not create the whole mountain because the mountain had to be watered and the clay would erode away quickly. So they used the little stone, tiles, asphalt, reeds, and lead they had to make layers between the mass amounts of clay and soil. Another challenge was getting the water up to the top of the mountain. Historians today believe they solved this by using a chain pump instead of a screw pump simply because it was not invented yet. The gardens have been gone for over 2000 years and we do not know how they were destroyed, some believe it was an earthquake, others believe the mountain simply eroded away. However it happened it must have been magnificent because people all over the world made many positive written accounts.

It's no wonder Babylon is mentioned in many different places, including the bible. One of the earliest mentions of Babylonia though can be found in a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad (2334- 2279 BC), this being back all the way to the 23rd century B.C.E. Although at the time it was only a small cultural center, but not an independent state with flourishing gardens. After the Akkadian empire fell, south Mesopotamia was ruled by the Gutians. It took a few decades before the rise of the third Sumerian dynasty(included the city of Ur),which led to all of Mesopotamia, and of course Babylon.

sources: [] http://www.unmuseum.org/hangg.htm

samurai and seppuku [| Edit] [| 0] [| 4] [|…]   Seppuku or also called hara-kiri by manny foreigners was an honorably act of suicide in Japan. This common act of suicide was often used by the feudalist class(military), this included samurais of course. Seppuku was recorded for the first time in the Heian period(around the same time as the dark ages). The man who preformed it was a samurai from Minamoto and was in a losing a battle so he purposely fell on his sword. That being an alternative to being captured and tortured which would be dishonorable.

This act evolved into one stabbing them self with a short blade or a sword wrapped with cloth halfway down the blade, in the left side of the abdomen then drag the blade across to the right, and then turning it upwards. Turning the blade and pulling it upwards toward the head created a flap so your organs could fall out. When this was preformed the samurai would have to arch there back and lean forward so their muscles would not tense up and make it more difficult to cut through. Once the person had emptied their organs from their stomach, their head would be cut off. Here they also would have to lean slightly forward so it was easier to cut through the joints in their neck.



After that it was thought to be even more courageous and honorable if one were to preform a jumonji giri which was stabbing them self again below the chest, and cut down over the first cut, making basically a plus sign. Then after making the plus they were expected to pierce their throat, making their death slow and incredibly painful. Preforming these actions were supposed to show one had courage, self-control, and acted like a true samurai. Although in battle soldiers only had so much time to kill themselves before being captured. So soldiers made what they could out of it, sometimes simply slitting their throat to conserve time before being taken.



Even though most seppuku was voluntary it was sometimes forced upon a samurais by the Daimyo(a feudal lord and land owner under Shogunate Japan) as a punishment under the bushido if they carried out certain infractions. The daimyo's could also be ordered by the Shogun to preform seppuku for similar actions. The Bushido was the samurai's code of conduct and emphasized principles like courage, honor, and loyalty to one's Daimyo. A samurai's duty was to protect his Daimyo's land and the lives of the people settled on it. Under this code if a samurai failed in battle and or was cowardly during the fight they could return to their home, and go through various rituals then preform seppuku to regain their honor. These rituals included dressing in all white to symbolize purity, writing a short poem to present their state of mine, bathing, and eating their last meal. Although it was viewed as an honorable act it was sometimes used in judicial system as punishment during the Tokugawa Shogunate(the Tokugawa Shogunate took power after the lawless times or the Warring States period). When a person's seppuku was planned wooden dais were commonly placed under their buttocks to prevent them from falling on their back after they were done.

Seppuku was still practiced during the 1900's and was commonly used in World War II so Japanese soldiers would not become prisoners of war. The latest it was formally preformed was as late as 1970 by a writer and patriot named Yukio Mishima who disagreed with Japans actions as a country of subverting itself from the rest of the world. He knew several politicians and was allowed and encouraged to create his own private military squad, then invaded Japan's Self Defense Force and committed seppuku. Although this is the last known formal Seppuku it is not impossible that some people still use it today.

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Primary source 2

The Hippodrome of Constantinople was the largest stadium every built in all time. The upper of the stadium is gone but some pieces still remain, the lower half is still under the ground, intact, awaiting to be excavated. When it was it was intact and functional it held various events, but mostly chariot racing involving different colored chariots for different teams. At first there was four teams that represented four different politicians, and had four bronze horses at the entrance of the stadium to represent them. During the reign of Justinian the people loved their chariot races so much a the giant riot called the Nika Revolt or Nika Riot was created. To solve the problem Justinian, convinced my his wife, led 30,000 citizens into the Hippodrome and massacred them.

Parmenides was a philosopher from Elea, Greece. He was active in the beginning of the 5th century and is considered one of Greek philosophy's most profound and challenging thinker. One the of the reasons he earned this title was because of a poem he wrote that combined Greek natural philosophy and metaphysics. He helped the renaissance expand with the thought of combining two different things to progress. There are many innovators from China that deserve to be considered to be in this picture.

Parmenides on the right in yellow and red.

Pictures? What else for this? Which people from China. More to do here. -SW

__**Unit 4 Primary Source : The Boxer Rebellion**__

 The Boxer rebellion began to form in 1898 when groups of peasants from northern China started to band together in a secret society. This society was named I-ho ch'üan, which translates to righteous and harmonious fists. The society practiced martial arts and other rituals that they though would make them invincible to bullets. When the Americans saw this they considered it boxing, and gave them the name "Boxers." At first the Boxers wanted to destroy the Ch'ing dynasty and rid China of all foreign influence. This changed though when China's empress Dowager started to support them, after that the Boxers focused on only foreigners. By 1899 the Boxers were murdering Christians and Christian Chinese. In May 1900 the Boxers were out of the countryside and in the city, signaling the Eight-Nation Alliance(America, Britain, Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, and Austria-Hungary) to send a combined army of 2100 men to put down the rebellion. By the time June came around the empress ordered all foreigners to be killed, the international forces did not take Beijing until August after several foreigner were killed.