Pottery and Cuneiform in Ancient Mespotamia!

After Adele went back to 10,000 B.C. to the area that would become Mesopotamia, we decided to go back. We went back to 3,000 B.C. because we wanted to see Mesopotamia when writing was forming and pottery was being made. We were particularly interested in writing because we are time travel journalists. We also got interested in learning more about ancient pottery when Gary Rith left an informative comment on Adele’s post. We went to the city-state of Ur, which was the capitol of Sumer in ancient Mesopotamia. Ur was located on the Euphrates River. We got to see Sumerian pottery and clay tablets. The most exciting part is that they let us learn how they made pots and write on tablets in cuneiform. We brought back some samples.

Adele's Cuneiform Tablet

Cuneiform is one of the earliest known forms of writing. It originated in Sumer around 3100 B.C. In its first stages, cuneiform writing was based on pictographs, but for functional reasons, they changed to straight lines. As the pictographs changed into symbols made from straight lines, over time they lost their original resemblance to the objects they represented. Numbers were represented by repeated strokes or circles. In order to write in cuneiform, a reed stick or stylus was used to make impressions in clay.

At first every character represented one word, but many words lacked their own symbols. For these, symbols of related objects were used. In the beginning, cuneiform was written from top to bottom. Then they changed into writing from left to right because their arm would smear the written words below. The signs also changed to being turned on their sides. There were 600 signs in the fully developed cuneiform system.

Ace's Tablet (from L to R):
Fish, Heaven, Water,
Sun, Bird, Barley,
Bread, Day, Hand,
To Walk, Head, Mountain,
Man, Ox, "Ace"

Thank you, Ace, for that wonderful information about cuneiform writing. I have some things to say about pottery! The ancient pottery of Mesopotamia was a lot different than most people think. Some people think that decorations or writing was painted, but most historians know that it was usually etched like this:

Adele's Pottery Etched with a Bird Symbol

Decorating or marking pots with paint may have dated back to around 5,000 B.C. However, when Ace and I were in Ur in 3,000 B.C., they mostly used engravings. Only their ceremonial pots had paintings. Examples of ceremonial pots included their urns. We saw pots engraved with the symbol for crops; for example, the barley symbol might be on a pot that was made to contain that grain. Barley and wheat were grains common to that time and region. Some pots do not even have engravings.

Ace's Pottery

Although the Sumerians had pottery wheels by this time, the pots that we made were coil pots. A coil pot in progress looks like this:

Coil Pot Example

Ace and I had so much fun in the city-state of Ur. Something else we learned about in Ur is that only wealthy boys could go to school. We also got to visit a ziggurat. In Sumer, ziggurats were temples dedicated to the city-state’s most important god or goddess. The one in Ur was the temple of Nanna, the moon deity in Sumerian mythology.

Ace and I had to hurry back home because we saw our Mac battery levels were running low. We did not want to get stuck in the past like Marty McFly. We grabbed our tablets and pottery, and clicked our time portal links. We are looking forward to our next adventure. Meanwhile, do you have any questions about Mesopotamia?

By: Ace and Adele Wells

Sources Used:

"Mesopotamia." The British Museum. n.d. Web. 27 September 2011
"Cuneiform Writing." LookLex Encyclopedia. n.d. Web. 27 September 2011
(Coil Pot photo courtesy of Google Images.)

Movie Review by Ace: Back to the Future

Dr. Emmett Brown's Time Machine

Ace and Adele's Time Machines

Since Adele and I discovered how to create a time machine, I decided to do some research on some other time machines in movies to get an idea of how to improve ours. I watched Back to the Future for the first time. Back to the Future was released on July 3, 1985. Many famous stars were acting in this movie including Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly. Crispin Glover plays George McFly, Lea Thompson plays Lorraine Baines, Thomas F. Wilson plays Biff Tannen, and Claudia Wells plays Jennifer Parker. Dr. Emmett Brown aka “Doc” is played by Christopher Lloyd. Back to the Future is a comedy adventure. The film is rated PG13.

Why is it called “Back to the Future”? Keep reading to find out.

At the beginning of the movie set in the 1980s, high school student Marty McFly does not have the most pleasant of lives. The principal at his school thinks Marty is a slacker. Marty also has a nerdy father (George) and a mother with problems of her own. In high school Marty’s parents suffered bullying by peers. The main bully, Biff, is now George’s supervisor at work. One weird character in Marty's life is a scientist named Doc who is working on a time machine powered by plutonium. Accidentally warped back into the 1950s, without enough plutonium to get back, Marty interferes with his mother and father’s history the day they met and fell in love. Marty must now reunite his parents or else he will not exist in the 1980s. Marty also has to figure out a way to get “Back to The Future”, therefore giving the movie its name. Getting back to the future won't be easy though, especially because Biff, now also a teenager, is making matters worse.

Although Back to the Future came out twenty-five years ago, I still really liked it because the topic is current with bullying in schools that we read about in the news. Also, the clothing and hairstyles are very amusing. I think Back to the Future is still relevant today, and is a great movie for adults and teens but has some strong language and themes. Have you seen this movie in the past few years?

By: Ace Wells

Adele Visits an Early Settlement in 10,000 BC

Hello again! This is Adele. Have you all read about my brother Ace’s trip to Machu Picchu? If anyone was wondering what I was doing while Ace was there, continue reading this post. Originally, I was supposed to go to Machu Picchu with Ace, but before we left, we decided to download some photography, map, and calendar software programs onto my Mac so that we could upload photos onto our website during our trip. While the software was downloading, Ace noticed that the uploading bar description said “creating vortex,” and then it said “opening time portal.” We didn’t fully realize it yet, but we had accidentally created the first time machine. Before I could say anything, I got sucked into the vortex holding my Mac, leaving Ace behind holding our plane tickets. Thinking fast, I bookmarked the time portal link, so I could return. Since Ace was probably wondering what to do, I quickly emailed him (our time travel technology enables us access Wi-Fi and 3G during time travel) and told him that he should go to Machu Picchu without me because I wanted to stay and travel in time. Immediately I got an email from Ace saying that his plane had reached 30,000 feet safely. We were each ready for our adventures.


I had been sent back to the year 10,000 BC to the place that would later become Mesopotamia (which is now modern day Iraq). I met some very interesting people that I will tell you about. The first person I met was an old woman wearing an animal-skin skirt. She told me that when she was a little girl her father hunted and fished, and her mother gathered plants and berries. They were called nomads. With a good supply of game and a nearby water source, she and her children and grandchildren were able to settle in one place. As soon as the people settled in their village, they were able to begin specializing in certain things such as taming animals, building shelters, making pottery, weaving, using metal, and hunting. Later that evening, I met a farmer and a potter. The farmer told me that his father realized that when you drop a seed on the ground it grows into a plant. Later on he learned to choose the best seeds to grow a bigger harvest. I also met a girl about my age. She said her name was Uganaga, their word for flower. Uganaga made cooking pots. She learned from her mother who made pots for storage. Uganaga invited me to stay with her until I left.

Example of Pottery Seen at an Early Settlement

That night I ate berries and grain by the fire because I am a vegetarian. Instead of knives, they used stone axes to cut their fish and meat. I helped them prepare the fish and accidentally cut myself! They helped me clean my wound with water that they carried over in a clay pot. I also saw pots that were used to store seeds and grains. I got to help scratch a design into one of the pots that they were making. Uganaga traded a pot for a woven blanket made by another girl. We slept on her blanket together. Luckily I had a jacket since I thought I would be getting on a plane, so I used that for a pillow. In the morning I left before breakfast since I didn’t feel like eating berries again. After everyone said goodbye, Uganaga and I walked away from the settlement. We found a nice shady tree, and I pulled my Mac out of my backpack. Uganaga was curious and a little shy about it. I let her look at some of my photos. She was amazed. I said goodbye to my new (ancient!) friend. I opened the time portal link that I had bookmarked and soon I was back at home. The first thing I did was to eat a waffle with chocolate chips! I plan to time travel again soon. The next time, I plan to go with Ace and pack some food.

By:  Adele Wells




Sources Used:
Millard, Dr. Anne, and Vanags, Patricia The Usborne Book of World History. London: Usborne, 2008. Print.
Bauer, Susan Wise, The Story of the World: Ancient Times. Charles City: Peace Hill Press, 2006. Print.
Horwich, Steven David, Connect the Thoughts: Early Civilizations. 2009. Print.
(Pottery example photo courtesy of Google Images.)

Ace Visits Machu Picchu!

Although I am a time traveler (using my Mac), I sometimes go to places in the present time (using a plane ticket). I went to Machu Picchu (which is near Cusco, Peru) last month. It was very fun and interesting, and I plan to go back in past times (around 1400 A.D.) to learn more and see if all the theories are true. Meanwhile, I would like to share with you some of the things I saw and learned.

Me at Machu Picchu with Huayna Picchu in Background

The Incas built many temples, towns and homes on the sides of mountains. On most mountains the Incas built terraces that are like giant steps. The purpose of the terraces is for a flat farm area to grow crops.

Terraces

A strange thing about the Incas is that in just 200 years they built tons of temples and towns that would take a long time to make! It seems like long time, but for the work that they did it is not at all. The work they did was amazing. They stacked rocks on top of each other so tight you cannot insert a piece of paper in between them! The rocks they stacked also could weigh up to fifty tons and they moved them miles over mountains and rocky terrain!

The Tightness of the Rocks

The Incas also carved in the rocks so that on a certain day the sun would shine through the carving and cast a shadow to make a particular shape to occur on specific days. On December 22, when the sun was directly above Machu Picchu (noon) there would be no shadows casted. On June 21, a circular shape shadow would occur. They used those dates because December 22 was the time when the sun was in the direct middle of the sky and June 21 because that was when the sun was lowest in the sky. Perhaps they carved these to mark the start of a planting season.

Machu Picchu was the most important temple because it was hidden to the Spanish therefore getting its nickname the Lost City. The Spaniards couldn’t destroy it because it was hidden in the backside of a mountain in a very remote location, far from other temples and villages. Machu Picchu is called the Lost City because the jungle had literally swallowed it by the time that Yale explorer Hiram Bingham III rediscovered it in 1911. When the overgrown vegetation was removed, the complex of ruins was revealed.

Because the Incas were acclimated (used to the height) they would run into the mountains with ease if they needed to retreat, leaving the attackers breathless.

The Incas also believed there were three steps to the world. The under world represented a snake, the puma signified ground level and the condor meant the air or heaven.

Fountain with Three Steps

Incas did not collect and display gold because they thought it was valuable; they only used it because they thought it was the sun god in physical form. But the Spanish on the other hand were the opposite. They took the gold because it was valuable and didn’t respect the spiritual importance.

The Incan cross is a very meaningful symbol. The Inca cross has twelve steps representing the twelve months. The cross also represents the steps of life that the Incan culture believed in. The bottom right corner signified the underworld where you are dead from a life before and being born again. The right upper corner represented growing older. The upper left hand corner signified dying and the lower left corner represented being buried. This supports one of the reasons the Incas believed in resurrection.

Incan Cross

I really enjoyed visiting Machu Picchu. I recommend climbing to the top of Huayna Picchu, which is an 8,924 foot, two hour climb to the very top. The summit of Huayna Picchu has a great view of Machu Picchu. If you have any questions about my trip, please leave a comment and I will be happy to answer them. Meanwhile, here are some more pictures that I took for you to enjoy:

The View of Machu Picchu from the Summit of Huayna Picchu

Stone Condor

Temple Where Incas Worshipped Their Sun God

Huayna Picchu

By: Ace Wells