Hannah+G.

__ Unit 3 Primary Source __

The Fra Mauro Map 1450's
The Fra Mauro map is a map of the world that was made by Fra Mauro at around 1450. Fra Mauro was a Camaldolese monk who lived in the Republic of Venice. When he was younger he had travelled around the world as a merchant and soldier. It wasn’t until later in life that he joined the Monastery of St. Michael’s where he became a mapmaker. Mauro had great knowledge of the Middle East from his travels earlier in life but he wasn’t able to travel anymore due to being a monk. Mauro was able to get the information to make his maps from talking to merchants in the city when they would return from their voyages.

In around 1450, he started making a world map of the old world that was astonishingly accurate. On his maps he added many informational comments about the different geographic lay out that where known during his time. The map came to be known as “the greatest memorial of medieval cartography.”

Mauro was ordered to make the map below by King Afonso V of Portugal. The map was finished on April 24, 1459 and was sent to Portugal to be used for exploration. The map did not survive to this day, but replicas have been drawn. The historical significance behind the map is the extensive knowledge behind the world and what they had known about it at the time. This map helped make for future maps to be more detailed and accurate based on Mauro’s studies. = = =  =

= = It is so interesting seeing the differences between maps from the 1400s and present day ones. Was cartography common amongst mapmakers? Or was it just something that Fra Mauro happened to find particularly interesting? - AK = = = Diagoras of Melos: =

= School of Athens =

Diagoras of Melos was a poet and sophist in the 5th century BCE. He was mostly known as “The Atheist” after he began speaking out against the beliefs of the Greek Church and was offended by their views of the gods. He strongly believed in his position and was able to back it up. An interesting story I found about Diagoras was when one of his friends was trying to convince him that the gods did exist.

//“//A //friend of Diagoras tried to convince him of the existence of the gods, by pointing out how many votive pictures tell about people being saved from storms at sea by "dint of vows to the gods", to which Diagoras replied that "there are nowhere any pictures of those who have been shipwrecked and drowned at sea."// // -Cicero // The reason I choose Diagoras of Melos was because I thought his views on religion were interesting. It would have been hard to have been an atheist at a time when the church had such a great influence on everyday life. Diagoras’s life relates to the Renaissance Period in that he was an out spoken proponent of atheism. Because of him and his beliefs, the idea of atheism became more widely known in the Renaissance Period. During that era, calling another person an atheist would have been seen as an insult. Being known as an atheist could possibly get a person killed.

One person that the artist could have included in the painting was Protagoras. He was a student of Democritus in philosophy who ended up becoming a philosopher himself. Protagoras also questioned if god really existed or if he was just an idea of humans. Great discussion HG. Well done. -SW =**The Mayan Calendar**=
 * Primary Source Unit 2 **

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The Mayan calendar is a stone calendar that was engraved with different symbols representing different days of the month. It is said to have started approximately August 11, 3114 BCE and is based on the solar cycle instead of the lunar cycle. The calendar is made up of different cycles with one of the cycles called the longer count. This count was mostly used for historical purposes because it could define any days in the past or future and was meant to identify one event in relation to another. The Tzolkin is a 260 day count of time and is usually combined with the Haab’ which is a count of 365 days to form the Calendar Round.======

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The historical significance behind the calendar is to show that the Mayan civilization had a form of keeping track of the days and a greater thinking of their outside world. They had an elaborate system of mathematics that included a base of zero and was a great contribution in the making of the calendar. In the article, the authors discuss facts about the calendar, give a great explanation of how it works, and try to prove the world won’t end. It is obvious that this article is mainly written for historians and people who worried about world ending in 2012. The authors inform the readers that the world is not going to end by providing reasons such as the calendar being in use for a long time and also that the calendar has a base of 20 instead of 10 like it was originally calculated out to be when they discovered the date of the “end of the world.”======



Hey there! First of all, love the comic! :D Anyway, it is intriguing that the Mayans developed such advanced ways of thinking while people in Europe were suffering from a lack of inventions and innovations. Do you think the Mayans were more "civilized" than Europeans during that time period? My personal opinion is that they were. Also, did you believe the world was going to end in 2012, or did you have the same vast knowledge about the Mayan calendar as you do now? In addition, I'm a little bit confused about the base 10/20 information you were discussing at the end of your primary source. Could you please explain this further? Thank you Hannah! You had a lovely primary source. Have a nice rest of your day! :)

//A section of the scrolls// The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in caves near the Dead Sea by a shepherd in the 1940’s. Archaeologists found about 972 different scrolls that where written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataea over many years. These scrolls where the earliest known manuscripts that had affects on the Hebrew bible and other biblical manuscripts. ‍‍‍They show the diversity of religions through the Second Temple Judaism and were believed to have been written by multiple groups of Jews, not just one specific group‍‍‍.
 * Primary Source Unit 1 **
 * The Dead Sea Scrolls **

The Dead Sea Scrolls were written mostly on parchment paper, but, some of the scripts where written on papyrus and bronze. The dates of these texts spanned many years (408 BCE and 318 CE) and were mostly identified by the money that was with them. Due to the poor condition of the scrolls, all of the words are not readable. So far, scholars think that the scrolls were divided into three parts.

1) About 40% of the scrolls have been identified as just plain copying from the Hebrew Bible. 2) 30% of them are texts from the Second Temple Period. 3) The last 30% of the scrolls are Sectarian Manuscripts which are the rules and beliefs of groups within greater Judaism.



//A view of the Dead Sea from within one of the caves where scrolls were found.//

Hey! I thought this was fascinating, and love to know that we have documents like this today to see more about past lives of ancient civilizations. Do you think that these scrolls are linked to any other past religions, or even were written by a leader in Hebrew society? What exactly is the second Temple period, and what were the sectarian manuscripts?


 * Hindu Buildings in India**

//“The great secret of true success, of true happiness, is this: the man or woman who asks for no return, the perfectly unselfish person, is the most successful.” - Swami Vivekananda//

The Indian buildings where mostly related to the history and religion in the regions where these magnificent buildings where built. They also where influenced by the geography of the land and invasions by foreign powers. Together these elements created amazing architecture that are some of the most beautiful buildings on earth.

The Hinduism religion built some of these great architecture buildings in order to worship gods. The ancient text, Vastu Shastra, meaning the science of construction, outlined the traditional views on how the law of nature affected human dwellings. These laws were applied in the Hindu architecture, especially their temples.

The Hindu temples consist of an inner sanctum where the religious idol is kept, a congregation hall, and sometimes an antechamber and porch.


 * __Parts of a Hindu Temple:__**


 * Jagati**- a raised platform where the temple is placed.


 * Antarala**- a small antechamber of foyer


 * Mandapa**- a pillared outdoor hall


 * Sreekovil** or **Garbhagriha**- where the idol is located


 * Śikhara** or **Vimanam**- rising part of the tower (most visible part)


 * Amalaka**- stone disk that sits on top of the temples main tower


 * Gopuram**- gate way


 * Urushringa**- lower and narrower mountain peak





//Dodda Basappa Temple in southwest India//

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