Ancient Egypt Compare Old Kingdom to Middle Kingdom free essay sample

On October 29th, 1929, a day otherwise known as â€Å"black Tuesday†, marked the United States of America’s largest fiscal battle. Black Tuesday was the beginning of The Great Depression. The stock market plummeted on this day and the nation trembled in fear. This fear propelled Americans to withdraw their money from banks, for they anticipated the banks to plummet as well. The insufficient funds within the banks forced them to close their doors. The credit system that was developed in the ‘20s failed due to the incapability to repay loans. The following ten years are referred to as The Great Depression. The president at the time was Herbert Hoover. His approach to the economy was extremely nonchalant. Hoover considered this depression to be â€Å"a passing incident in our national lives. † His attitude did very little to stabilize the country’s economy. In 1932, the economy was at its worst and unemployment was at 25 percent. We will write a custom essay sample on Ancient Egypt: Compare Old Kingdom to Middle Kingdom or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This was around the same time that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected. FDR attacked this depression aggressively with a series of programs and economic stimulus plans called The New Deal. After earning the trust of the citizens of America, the people felt comfortable again. This level of comfort liberated citizens to spend money again. At this time, the economy was as good as it ever was. President Barrack Obama took office in 2008 in the midst of a recession. While this recession was nowhere near as severe as the one that took place in the ‘30’s, he most definitely had a lot of work to do. By using techniques similar to those of FDR, he has been able to stimulate the economy and slowly, but surely, stabilize our economy. Without the knowledge of history and the actions of FDR, today’s economy would have been impacted more severely. This all may seem irrelevant to Ancient Egyptian studies, but this goes to show how difficult it must have been for the first leaders of the world to succeed. The rulers of Ancient Egypt had very little history to regard, contrary to the leaders of today. Almost everything that the Ancient Egyptians did was based on trial and error. Often times, decisions resulted in success; even more often did those decisions result in failure. The Old Kingdom in Ancient Egypt took place in 3100-2200 BC. The Middle Kingdom took place in 2050-1700. The 150 years separating the two kingdoms is called the First Intermediate Period. These three stages of Ancient Egypt are amongst civilization’s first documented historical events. Ancient Egypt took notes of the very few civilizations that preceded them. Mesopotamia was the very first civilization on earth and influenced Ancient Egypt in many ways. Much like Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt began with the accumulation of city-states within the region. These city states were referred to as nomes and there were 42 of them within the expanse. These 42 city-states often battled each other for resources, land, and power. It wasn’t too long before the fittest nomes ruled all of Egypt. These nomes divided Egypt in half and were called Upper and Lower Egypt. After Upper Egypt defeated Lower Egypt, the two city-states merged. This unification marks the beginning of the Old Kingdom. This kingdom was actually a serene and affluent period of history. The first pyramid ever built was constructed for King Zoser at this time. Pyramids were initially used to harbor the tombs of the deceased and shelter the corpses of the departed so that they may return for the afterlife. Common misconception alludes to the idea that slaves built these pyramids; however, it was peasants that did the constructing in hopes of being honored with an afterlife of their own. The Great Pyramid of Gizeh was unanimously the largest and most elegant of all pyramids. The Pyramid was comprised of 2. 3 million limestone blocks. This structure was expensive. The Construction of this pyramid negatively impacted the economy but wasn’t the driving force behind the struggling monetary system of Egypt. The toll the pyramid took on the economy played a minimal role in the decline of The Old Kingdom. Severe drought struck Egypt at this time and the lack of water forced Egypt into famine. During the Old Kingdom, the king was looked upon as a god. This idea gave the Egyptian people the perspective that their king was divine and can control the climate and environmental factors. Once severe drought occurred, the people began to question their king’s power. The Egyptians turned their faith toward the sun god, Re. This shift in religion becomes prevalent in Ancient Egyptian art and architecture. The political, religious, and economical shift drives The Old Kingdom into the ground. After the weakening of The Old Kingdom’s centralized monarchy, the unity between Upper and Lower Egypt dissolved as they separated from each other yet again. The First Intermediate Period, otherwise known as the First Disruption, was chaotic. Manetho, a Graeco-Egyptian priest, claims this period was â€Å"composed of seventy rulers for seventy days. Scholars assume this hyperbole describes the disorder of The First Intermediate Period. In 2055 BC, Mentuhotep II took Theban Throne. Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt, took advantage of Lower Egypt by attacking in the midst of a Lower Egypt revolt. The inability to prepare due to the revolt allowed Upper Egypt to dominate and take over Egypt as a whole once again. The fusion of the two lands initiates The Middle Kingdom. Mentuhotep II reestablished order in Egypt and laid the foundation for more prosperity to come. Trade, art, and literature thrived once again; people had faith in their culture. The once flawed irrigation system was corrected as the Nile flowed regularly again. Egypt established a military to fend off foreign countries. At this time, pharaohs were thought of as good kings and wise leaders to their people. Pharaohs of this age seem to be more humble and no longer refer to themselves as gods. Instead of building massive pyramids for the deceased pharaohs, they were buried in tombs hidden in the hills. Not only did the land and people of Upper and Lower Egypt unify, but as did their cultures. Amun was the god of Upper Egypt as Ra was the god of Lower Egypt. After the unification, the two gods become one: AmunRa. The unification of the two gods lessened the likelihood of civil war between cities based on belief. The Middle Kingdom took a more conservative route than that of The Old Kingdom. While it didn’t last forever, by acknowledging the past mistakes of Ancient Egypt, The middle Kingdom prevented history from repeating itself. The arrogance of the pharaohs in the Old Kingdom applied a lot of pressure on themselves to be perfect. By being humble in The Middle Kingdom, the pharaohs retained the respect of the people even through times struggle.

Recent Discovery In Mesoamerica Example

Recent Discovery In Mesoamerica Example Recent Discovery In Mesoamerica – Article Example Recent Discoveries in Mesoamerica Recent Discoveries in Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a term used to refer to a region in the Americas that shares some common cultural practices among other things. It extends from central Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and finally to El Salvador. These places are historically united by the fact that they were occupied by pre –Colombian societies before their colonization by Spain in the 15th century. In this essay we will explore some of the recent discoveries that have occurred in this region that have resulted to a change in the mind set of scholars about the perceptions that they previously held about this region (Lindsay 2002).Recent discoveries have revealed that Mesoamerica to be the only place in North and South America where written language existed during the ancient times. Different writing systems have been discovered in this region dating back over 1000BC and some of them remain undeciphered up until today. For a l ong time, scholars believed that ancient Mesoamerica to have been a peaceful region but due to recent discoveries have resulted in a paradigm shift about this believes. In 1970, a fortification was discovered at Becan by archeologists studying this region. This was a defensive fortification that aided the inhabitants of this place in their warfare activities hence presenting us with the evidence on the prevalence of warfare in this region. Furthermore there have been recent discoveries of structures that resemble palisades which might have been used during warfare. The discovery of Maya city also presented us with evidence of the level of civilization that was already in existence in Mesoamerica during the ancient times. The city had thousands of structures including roads, terraces and caves. The gigantic structures discovered in Mesoamerica such as the Great Pyramid of Cholula located in Puebla Mexico is one of the largest structures of its kind and it. It is the world’s la rgest pyramid and also regarded as the world’s largest monument (Lindsay 2002).ReferenceLindsay, J. (2002). Mesoamerican history. London: Harold Robbins Publishers

The Conformist,cinema paradise,life is beautiful,marriage italian Essay

The Conformist,cinema paradise,life is beautiful,marriage italian style - Essay Example In film, fantasy is very much difficult to define since fantasy is both broad enough to include any fictional films that may happen in real life and narrow enough to remove other works that may actually belong to the said genre (Walters 1). At any rate, fantasy is still any form of departure from an individual's reality or every day existence (Walters 1; Fowkes). Bulgarian philosopher, Tzvetan Todorov, says that fantasy films are simply any plot that goes from marvelous to uncanny to fantastic (Walters 9-11). Marvelous refers to the self-containment of the story wherein the viewer would not be questioning the reality of the film. Uncanny would be the ability of the plot to be explained psychologically despite being unreal and fantastic refers to the ability of a character or a viewer to experience hesitation when faced with an impossible situation. This essay focuses on the comparison of Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful and Guiseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso under the idea that both films can be considered as fantasy films. In line with this, Todorov's marvelous-to-uncanny-to-fantastic definition would be considered as the backbone of the comparison. Marvelous Basically, when it comes to questioning the reality of the story, Benigni's Life is Beautiful is quite difficult to ask. ... If one would think about it, how is it possible for anyone not to notice the stranger child on the table? Since these children are actually sons and daughters of important people in Germany, it would of course be obvious that they have dined together for more than one occasion. This would mean that they were actually familiar with one another. However, Guido's son still passed as one of them. Apparently, the story-telling and the idea of the film seem to be flawless making the viewers not question the events in the film. Therefore, by Todorov's definition, Benigni's Life is Beautiful has passed the first stage of a fantasy film—it is marvelous. On the other hand, Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso, is also quite similar to Benigni's film. Basically, in Cinema Paradiso, events such as the scene where the movie-house burned down may have left one thinking a to how such small fire glare in the entire room. Realistically, of course, movie films are known to catch fire very fast, making t he scene of real-standards. However, going back to the scene, the only movie film in the room was the one playing. It caught fire probably due to the overheating of the equipment. But, how it spread out would be a matter of question seeing that it did not actually touch anything that may cause the flames to emblazon. But, unlike Benigni's story-telling, this scene in Torante's film could easily be looked over since it is hidden by facts, making this film also marvelous. Comparing the two films under such definition, however, Torante's would be more marvelous compared to Benigni's. This is because, Torante's ability to tell the story is quite more convincing since the marvel of the audience would not be left hanging compared to Benigni's. In this sense, since Benigni's