PRESENTATION OUTLINE
"On a regular day, an orphaned child with no name and a great imagination wandered through town. He carried with him nothing but some food and money. And those few dollars mattered much to him; it was his birthday. He obtained the money by picking up loose change.
Gaining inspiration from a book store, the bright minded orphan attempted to build a time machine with loose parts named "The Traveler." The time machine had an accidental failure, and the boy was drawn to the age of the Assyrian Empire. Here are some of his journal entries.
Sept. 28, 2054
The Babylonian Empire was a successful empire, with many fair laws and rules, set by King Hammurabi, its ruler. Towards the end of this empire, Babylonia began to grow weaker, and a series of kingdoms took over areas of Babylonia. For a short while, Assyria ruled over Babylonia. Finally, Babylonia's central government collapsed leaving them to separate cities. In between the Old Babylonian Empire and the Assyrian Empire, the dark ages pushed in. The Dark Ages, in this case, refers to the period with a shortage of scribes; there would be little writing about this era. Many nations of this time including Assyria and Babylonia, experienced the Dark Ages. Years later, the Assyrians broke through, starting a new empire, the Assyrian Empire.
Sept. 29, 2054
The Assyrians were war experts; they had a reputation for being a cruel nation. Actually, they weren't just a reputation; they were a feared nation! After the Assyrians conquered the Babylonian Empire, they were extremely feared for their advanced military strategies and tactics. They used battering rams to break down the walls of other empires. They also used rolling towers to get over high walls and defeat them. In fact, part of the Assyrians' battling strategies was developing fear of themselves throughout other nations. The Assyrians used their cruelty in later battles, defeating many nations. It's no surprise that the Assyrian laws were extremely cruel as well, since the Assyrians themselves were brutal fighters. These laws display a variety of punishments for various sins including m…
Sept. 30, 2054
Lately, the king has allowed me to stay as a guest in his own home - every day he occupies me with cleaning the rooms, but in the few hours he spares for me, I try to put more of the information I am seeing into my journal. Each morning, I am still sleeping when one of the king’s soldiers comes in and wakes me up. The soldiers put a meal in front of me, then half an hour later they come back and lead me to a temple, beautifully decorated with I found out that this is one of the daily ceremonies held at the temple. I also found out more about how religion works in this society.
The Assyrians’ religious system is similar to the Babylonian system. This system consists of a supreme or high god, then under it would be lower-level gods who own authority over different parts of the world and beyond. One of the few differences between Assyrian religion and Babylonian religion is the conflict between which God is the supreme god. For Assyrians, it is Ashur, for which the word “Assyria” is derived from. For Babylonians, it is Marduk. In applying their religion to their cultural and social living, Assyrians attended ceremonies daily in temples. Besides daily ceremonies, monthly and yearly ceremonies were also held, but they were even more important than daily ones. Temples would be built throughout the empire, the greatest ones known as ziggurats. In a temple, a courtyard would be located on the outer area, with an altar for sacrificing. The Assyr…
Sept. 31, 2054
At the king's palace, I noticed their type of writing; it was finely carved onto the walls and beautifully drawn on the bowls. I was very curious and asked one of the guards to tell me about it. He informed me that it was actually the newest form of writing so far, and it was called the Aramaic Language. He told me that the language was their second official system of writing and that the advancement of it over the years was incredible. The former system of writing, known as cuneiform, was the ancient Sumerians’ language which involved carving out symbols on a tablet of wet clay which took a long time.
For ancient Sumerians, the development of writing and literature was an important aspect of their lifestyle. Cuneiform was their writing way. Etching out symbols onto a wet tablet of clay, then letting it dry, would make the writing a permanent piece. With a reduced number of symbols, the cuneiform writing system was the well developed. However, as time went on, so did most everything else. When the Akkadian Empire came to power, King Sargon set a new language for the people of Mesopotamia,, known simply as the Akkadian Language. During the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the Assyrians were introduced to the Aramaic Language. This language now became the Assyrians’ second official language; still influenced by King Sargon’s previous language, Aramaic was heavily blended.. Scholars can now identify this language as the Assyrian Akkadian Language.…
Oct. 1, 2054
When I was awakened today, the whole city around me was wide awake, so I did the most obvious thing to do: be curious and wonder why. After listening in to several conversations, I realized that today was the beginning of the month; there was a special ceremony. I was taken to a temple, but this time it was different.
Ziggurats are majestic temples, built as a home for the gods. These temples, towering over everything else, were built by stacking mound upon mound, making it resemble a staircase.
Over the course of a few days, I am getting used to life in this age. Though this trip had been quite adventurous, I still miss my orphan friends who are living in the future world right now. However, I saw that there was no way to get back; the time machine was gone, and - but wait! Given enough time, it would be possible to construct a time machine! I excused myself from the king and his palace, and the king was good to let me leave.
A year passed, and my machine had been constructed. I stepped into it, but it was the orphanage gates I was stepping into a moment later. Returning back to my normal life was necessary, and I was relieved to be able to walk into these gates again. “
"So, Son, how’d you like that story?” asked Dad, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“It was nice, but I’m worried about—”
“Worried about your history test tomorrow, aren’t you? Well, you’ve just had a history lesson!”
THE END
