Enheduana (the first non-anonymous writer) Part II, summary

Enheduana was the first non-anonymous author in the world, and she was born as the princess of Akkad, but later percieved to become the high priestess, and moved to the south of Ur.
Back in Enheduana's time, 4, 300 years ago,  very few people knew how to write, and those who did know were mostly men. Knowing how to read-write was a very big deal during the time of Sumer. Enheduana lived in the city-state of Akkad with her father, king Sargon, and her twin brothers Rimush and Manishtusu. Sargon was the son of Mesopotamian farmers, and started climbing the social ladder as a cupbearer in Kish. No one knows how Sargon got the throne, but he did. Sargon expanded his rule over Kish and Akkad, and made them the supreme cities of Sumer. When Enheduana was a teenager, her father made her the high priestess to Nanna, the important moon god. Enheduana had to move to Ur, and live in the room on top of the grand ziggurat. As the high priestess, Enheduana performed animal sacrifices, and prayed to the gods. However, Enheduana had a passion for writing, and wrote about Nanna and other gods, as well as the everyday life in Sumer. Enheduana's poems and hymns became extremely popular.
However, when both of her brothers were killed by palace enemies who hated them, Enheduana's nephew became the king. Her nephew exiled Enheduana and kicked her out into the dessert, making his own daughter the high priestess.

Enheduana (the first non-anonymous writer) Part I, questions + visual

1. The books during Enheduana's time were nothing like books we know today. During the time of Sumer, and Mesopotamia, 4, 300 years ago, paper didn't exist, and neither did ink. So, people wrote on soft clay with a tool called the stylus. Then, they let the clay harden. Books looked more like small clay pillows.
2. Enheduana's father was called Sargon, and he was the ruler of the new-rising city state Akkad. Her father was born as a son of Mesopotamian farmers, and began to work as a cupbearer in Kish. No one knows how he became a king. Enheduana and her family lived in a hige palace, until Enheduana had to move to the south of Ur, to serve as the high priestess to the moon-god, Nanna.
3. Enheduana was a high priestess, and she had several duties. She had to move to the south of Ur, to live in the top room of the ziggurat, to be closer to the gods and godesses. She offered prayers, and did various rituals during the year. On top of the ziggurat, she performed animal sacrifices to keep the gods happy. Enheduana also burnt different perfumes, sending the sweet scent to the gods and godesses. Enheduana lost her job once her nephew became the ruler of Akkad, and threw Enheduana out, making his own daughter the high-priestess. Enheduana was exiled from the city-state.
4. Going platinum, or being a best-selling author, during the time of Enheduana, meant many people trading their goods for the clay tablets with the poem/short story on them. Archaeologists found more then 50 tablets with the same Enheduana's  poem on them, and that was A LOT, for that time.
5. Enheduana wrote a very long story/poem about her father, who was the king at the time the poem was written. A lot of the city-states that the king has taken rebelled against him, exiling the goddess Innana from the temples. However, Sargon beat the rebels, broke the protests, and made them see Innana as the supreme, all-powerful goddess.

From earliest times, people have changed their environments. How have people today changed their environment? Discuss both the good and the bad.

People have been looking for ways to change their environment and make it more adapted to them, ever since they started to roam the Earth. Some of those changes are very positive, and have helped our everyday lives, but some of them are very negative, and are majorly affecting our environment.

As I mentioned above, people have started changing their environment a very long time ago, and most of those changes were still quite positive. Changing the environment also means changing the creatures that live within it. When people started farming, they started domesticating plants and animals. Over time, animals got different adaptations, because they no longer had to go out hunting, and worry about surviving in harsh conditions.Both plants and animals had to rely on humans for survival, who provided them with everything they needed. This environmental change was good, because it didn't harm the animals, and it helped humans, because now, there was a stable food supply.
Another environmental change is people starting to build houses, when they started having permanent settlement. Building houses required material such as wood, stone, etc. This meant taking some of te natural resources from the environment. However, I think that this environmental change was positive. Humans didn't take large amounts of natural resources, they just took as much as they needed, so the environment wasn't harmed. This change benefited humans, since they could now protect themselves, start farming, etc.

Nowadays, in the modern world, people have started making much more NEGATIVE environmental changes. Firstly, people have started building factories in order to make transportation devices, jewelry, food, etc. This is really bad for the environment, because not only are we polluting the air with carbon dioxide, we are also making much more then we need. Let's take the food industry, for example. We are making much more food then we need, and we are throwing much of it away. We are genetically modifying the cows, chickens, etc, to become plumper faster, and to give much more meat, milk and other products.
Also, in order to build those factories, aeroports, highways, we are ruining the environment, and are causing deforestation, killing the habitat of many animals and plants. Because of how much carbon dioxide we let into the air, we are melting ice bergs on the North and South Pole, and therefore, endangering species such as polar bears, seals and other animals and plants.

Why was Çatal höyük such an important archeological find?

There are many reasons why Çatal höyük was such an important part of our past, and an immence influence on the societies at that time. Çatal höyük was a big Neolithic town, that stood in modern day Turkey around 6000 B.C., and covered around thirty two acres of land. It was a home for between five and six thousand people, and it contained around 1000 houses. Çatal höyük had absolutely no streets, but consisted od small clay houses, whose doors were placed on the rooftops. The clay houses were all on different levels, to let the light pass through. People got around by using the ladders, which led from one layer to the next. Houses had two rooms. One contained the stored food, or the surplus, while the other room was the kitchen area (consisting of a clay oven and a hearth) and living quarters, that included clay chairs and tables, that were used as beds at night.
One of the reasons Çatal höyük is very important is because some of the first farmers lived there. Farming was and still is a very important part of human communities, because it enabled people to do many different things. Firstly, farming enabled people to learn and observe their environment more, and that includes learning about the conditions plants need to live in, noticing the habits of the animals that they domesticated, etc. Farming also started the division of labour. Not all people in one society spent their time farming full-time. That enabled them to start new hobbies, and occupations, which included fishing, pottery making, and of course craftmenship. People started making tools, beads, pouches, hairpins, bowls, etc.
The Çatal höyük people were also one of the first ones to start trading. They traded their valuables possesions for items they lacked of. One of the most valuable things that the the town of Çatal höyük traded was the black volcanic glass, called obsidian. This glass was made when the hot volcano lava cooled down, and was used for making fine tools. It was so valuable, that the people in Çatal höyük traveled up to 120 miles to get it. Then, they transported it back to Çatal höyük on the backs of their domesticated animals.
The people of Çatal höyük were amongst the first ones to develop culture with much detail. In the town of Çatal höyük, archaeologists found what seemed to be a shrine, or a sacred worship place. The clay benches inside were decorated with bull horns, and plaster sculptures of different animals decorated the walls. The people that lived in Çatal höyük also had burial practices. They buried their dead relatives under the floors, because they were still considered a part of the family, and they were kept within the household.
Another thing that made the Çatal höyük very advanced was the fact that they were very self-sufficient. That means that they did not need others in order to survive. They had a steady supply of food from their domesticated cattle and crops, as well reliable homes, and amazing crafts, which led to flourishing trade with other cities, and nations.
The people of Çatal höyük were very advanced for the time period they lived in, and without them, we would never know for sure, when did people first start permanently settling, and when did people develop from hunter-gatherers to self-sufficient farmers, traders, and crafters.