Room 613 Student Blogs - 2005/2006

I’m sure you know some of America’s history, but do you know about India’s history? In this post you will be learning about some of India’s history.

About 4000 years ago in 2000 B.C. the first Indian civilization built cities along the Indus River valley in present day Pakistan. There are three different names for the first Indian civilization. The first one is the Harappan Civilization because it was named after the city of Harappa. The second one is the Indus-Sarasvati civilization because a lot of the features of it were discovered at the banks of the Sarasvati River. The last name is the Sindhu-Sarasvati civilization because of the Sanskrit name of the Indus River, the Sindhu. This civilization was also along the Ghaggar-Hakra River as well as the Indus River. The people of this civilization could read just like us and they spoke in Dravidian language. A lot about this civilization is still unknown. Archaeologists only have deciphered a small portion of this language. They traded with Mesopotamia, Southern India, Afghanistan, and Persia for gold, silver, copper, and turquoise. They were the first people to grow cotton to produce cloth. Also they grew wheat, barley, peas, melons, and Sesame.

Doing this project added to my previous knowledge because I learned a lot about the first civilization of India. I learned that researching online is easy as long as you use the right key words. I learned how to get back into a post if you haven’t finished it. I realized that learning about other places around the world can be more interesting when you learn about them online. Finally I learned how to put in a picture because I wasn’t exactly sure how to.

So now you know about some of India’s history, about the first Indian civilization. I hope you enjoyed it.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization and http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/India/Harappa.html

The Indus Valley civilization

Photos from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c1/Indusvalleyexcavation.jpg/350px-Indusvalleyexcavation.jpg

Dear American friend,

All of us men in Turkey have been wearing a hat called a Fez for almost a century. It is a circular hat with a flat top. Since there was no brim on Fezes, it made it easier for Muslim men to touch their foreheads to the ground when they were praying. In 1925 Mustafa Kemal, the presedent of the Turkish republic, was wearing a Western style hat with a brim. He told all of us that we had to wear the Western style hats. Many of us were very upset with this new law. The lives of women were also changed. Turkish women wore veils to cover their faces in public. Then Kemal told all Turkish women that they could not wear veils anymore. Girls in Turkey used to go to school in their homes. Kemal made them go to school outside their homes. Kemal wanted everyone to have equal rights. He gave all women the right to vote and the right to take jobs in business and government. Kemal wanted to make everything modern. That’s why he made all of us stop wearing Fezes. He changed many more things like moving the capital from Istanbul to Ankara, and introducing an alphabet based on the Romen alphabet. All newspapers, books, and street signs were printed in the new style. Mustafa Kemal was eventually called Kemal Ataturk. Ataturk means “father of the Turks”. In 1938 he died. My life and everyone else’s has changed a lot because of Kemal Ataturk.

Sincerely,

Your Turkish friend

If I could go anywhere in the world I would go to Rome. I would go to Rome because Rome has so many historical artifacts like the Roman Coliseum,and a bunch of other cool buildings. It would be a long and expensive trip,but it would be worth it. I would also want to go to Egypt and Greece because they have historical buildings too. Especially Egypt because of the pyramids and the big statues of the Pharaohs.