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Saturday, 30 May 2009

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

Hahahahahahaha. You are so desperate. You just HAD to look it up.

I have won.

Monday, 11 May 2009

History Project - The Best Thing I've learned this year

I would say that I have three favorite topics I've learned about in history. They are Greek culture, Mount Vesuvius, and diseases that struck ancient cities. They were all fun to learn about and struck my personal interests. I will explain briefly all three of these. First, let's start off with Greek culture.

I personally love the Greeks because they liked music, philosophy, and art. Their most interesting aspect, however, was their gods. They had so many of them, and they were very odd. They ate their own kin, made mistakes, and got into fights. It's funny they saw their gods as so human. That was a fun thing to learn about, but on a more serious note, Mount Vesuvius was a cool topic.

Mount Vesuvius caused so much destruction, it couldn't pass my notice. It engulfed Pompeii in many feet of different materials and ash. It was total destruction and fun. The whole city was beyond repair. I like learning about these things that involve such damage. Ancient diseases are even better, though.

Dysentery, malaria, and cholera are always interesting. I love to study ancient diseases, especially because I want to become a doctor. I also find it interesting how the people dealt with it. They thought it was from a god or something, so they would perform painful rituals to try and rid themselves from the disease. That's awesome!

I chose these three topics because they caught my attention and were interesting. I really love when a culture is interested in arts, but destruction and plague are awesome too. These are my favorite things i learned in history.

Tuesday, 05 May 2009

History Project - Why Rome Fell

Why Rome fell is one of the most common and questions asked in history classes worldwide. But it turns out that it wasn't one sole thing that caused Rome falling, there were many different things. I will be focusing on 3 today, which are disease, poor leadership/finances, and outside attacks. Are you ready for the blogging experience that will last you a lifetime?

Sickness was commonly rampant in Roman times. Although sanitation in ancient Rome is considered good relative to the technology available to produce it, there were still many things that were not sanitary, like the sponges used in place of our modern toilet paper. Those sponges attracted a lot bacteria. Also, malaria was common during the summer months, and STDs were spread quickly due to the immoral ways of the Romans. People often lived close together, and just about everyone capable used the public baths. What is little know is that the sick and healthy would bathe together, even though the water was not cleaned very often. Because of all this pestilence, many would die each year, and the death rate grew and grew. The economy was horrible at this point, and many people who didn't die would flee the city because of it. This was just one factor in the economic decline of rome, others were in the areas of finances and leadership. (Cartwright & Biddiss, 93)

Roman emperors at the middle/end of the first century on raised taxes for the Romans significantly. Nero, Claudius II Gothicus, and Commodus mainly were responsible, but out of those, Commodus did the most damage. He almost completely took all of the money out of Rome's pocket by the time he was done ruling, which marked the end of Rome's line of good emperors. One significant way Rome got money was by obtaining new land, and by the time of Trajan, the Empire had reached it's limits on land and had to recede. This cost Rome a lot of money. Disease, poor leadership, and financial problems were all part of the economic downfall of Rome, but there was one final thing that settled Rome's death, and that was outside attackers kicking Rome while it was down. (Scarre, 173)

In A.D. 284, Emperor Diocletian split Rome into the eastern and western empires. It was necessary at the time, for Rome was simply too hard to rule as a whole, but it came back to destroy them later. Once Rome split (and while it was splitting), it was attacked by the Huns, the Goths, the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, the Franks, and the Burgundians. In 410, the leader of the Visigoths, Alaric, took the capitol city of Rome, and the Roman Empire finally fell apart. The Empire was gone.

The Roman Empire lasted a very long time, over 400 years, but it just wasn't strong enough to deal with all of these problems. Some in America say we're on the same path, and with California's horrible financial trouble, controversially bad governing choices (as in the ridiculous school budget cuts), and disease (Oh No! The Swine Flu!), that could be quite believable. Let's just hope America learns from Rome.

Work Cited

Scarre, Christopher. Chronicle of the Roman Emperors. Thames and Hudson Publishing, online book, 1995.

Cartwright, Frederick Fox & Biddiss, Michael D.. Disease and History. Crowell inc., online book, 1972.

Monday, 20 April 2009

Pompeii's damage by Vesuvius, History Project.

In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius went off and damaged the city of Pompeii beyond repair. How bad was it, though? How far did the damages go? Well, that's what I'm here to explain. First of all, though, what initial damage was done?

Before Mount Vesuvius actually erupted, there were several earthquakes most likely caused by seismic activity from the volcano. These earthquakes shook buildings in both Rome and Pompeii to the ground, and giant waves crashed on Rome from those quakes. But that was just the beginning.

"The eruption began the morning of 24 August, one day after the annual celebration of Volcanalia, the festival for the god of fire and forge, Vulcan. A cloud of ash and pumice 12 miles high shot from the central cone as if from a canon. Midday became like midnight as the city of Pompeii, just 5 miles from the volcano, was covered with six inches of ash and pumice within one hour. Herculaneum was even closer to the mountain but being upwind of the volcano it was covered with a light coating of ash. Around midnight, the column from the volcano collapsed and the mountainside was filled with a glowing avalanche of boiling gases, pumice and rocks which flowed over Herculaneum burying the city under 65 feet of hot volcanic matter. The town was sealed as if a layer of concrete had been poured over it."

SOURCE

Now that is some horrible damage. The entire town solidified in a lavaflow. But there was even more damage to come.
"The following morning, a fourth avalanche sent hot gases and more ash to bury Pompeii and its inhabitants to a depth of 12 feet. Other areas in the region such as Stabia and Oplontis were also buried in the ash and pumice."

Same Source. So far, there were four avalanches. Wow. The ash and pumice spread to regions beyond pompeii as well, including the bay of Naples. (Movie in Class)

"Two more surges (avalanches) followed, the sixth and last, causing Pliny the Younger to flee Misenum as he and the other residents watched 'a fearful black cloud...rent by forded and quivering bursts of flame' move across the bay. The earthquake stirred up huge waves in the bay and fallout from the eruption covered the area with what looked like heavy dust. Misenum itself was not damaged. "

SOURCE
7 avalanches, fire, a solidified town, flying rocks, and ash. Aside from the first 4, people die when they inhale ash.
"...this district was on fire and had craters of fire and then because the fuel gave out, was quenched..."

-Pliny the Elder, as cited in (Wilhelmina Mary Feemster Jashemski, 32)
Pliny actually went up closer to the volcano to study it, and then he died by the too-thick air trying to analyze it. Not very smart (Movie in class).
In the end, the destruction was terrible. It was the worst natural disaster Rome had ever seen. It hadn't seen very many until then, which made it all the more horrible. It's going to erupt again someday soon, but many still live there. Let's hope the next explosion isn't as bad.

Work Cited

Wilhelmina Mary Feemster Jashemski, Frederick Gustav Meyer. The Natural History of Pompeii. Cambridge University Press, England, online book that didn't say the date.
Roman Empire in the First Century video in class