admiral seymour elementary & writers' exchange: a travel guide to ancient civilizations

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A Travel Guide to Ancient Civilizations

Contents Introduction 2AnCient ChinA 3How Intelligent Were the Ancient Chinese? 3Housing Tips 4Cuisine 5Cultural and Spiritual Celebrations 6Weapons and Paper Cutting 8Hierarchy 9Trade and Commerce 10Festivals 12Government 13Attractions 14Inventions 14A Short, Dramatic Story 16Clothing 17Yummy in My Tummy 18Ancient Chinese Secret 19AnCient indus vAlley 20A Strange Awakening 20Inventions 22Sightseeing 23Food 24the inCA eMPiRe 25Shelters 25Economy 25Sightseeing 25Food 26Sacrifice 26AnCient ROMe 27Roam the Government of Brutal Rome 27Government 28Inventions 29Welcome to the Battle of the Gladiators 30The Latest Fashions 30A Menu Fit for a King and Queen 31The Roman Arch 32Housing 33AnCient MOngOliA 34Climate 34War 34Food 36Government and Social Hierarchy 36AnCient egyPt 39Home Sweet Home 39What’s For Dinner? 40The Nile River 40the AZteC eMPiRe 41Government 41Cultural Celebrations and Spirituality 41Tools and Technology 42Food 42the inuit 44Food 44

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introductionBrush off your time machine, pack a snack and tuck this handy travel guide to ancient civilizations into your pocket. Set the dial to the distant past and be confident that you’ll have all the information you’ll need to have a great time. This guide gives you tips on what to eat, where to go and who to know when you visit ancient civilizations. It was written by time-travelling explorers from Division 1 at Admiral Sey-mour Elementary, with help from volunteer mentors from the Writers’ Exchange. The authors hope that this guide will help you have a safe and fun journey as you travel back in time.


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how intelligent Were the Ancient Chinese?Wow! Would you look at that? The Chinese made many fantastic tools and inventions that will grab you into this travel guide. You will be surprised what inter-esting tools the Chinese made. I was really amazed about what tools they made. You can witness all these fantastic inventions if you continue reading this book.

First of all, Chinese people were very intelligent with the inventions they made. The first they made was silk. Silk was made from silkworms. You may think that silkworms making silk is disgusting, but silk is really soft. The silk is then used to make clothing. Back in ancient China, silk was very expensive and used for trading. Most rich people had silk clothing.

The next invention was paper. The Egyptians first made paper but the Chinese made the paper from trees. That kind of paper is the kind we use today. We should be very thankful for the Chinese for inventing paper.

Continuing on, they made gunpowder. Gunpow-der was originally made for fireworks and firecrack-ers. Now we use it for all sorts of things like guns.

The following invention is porcelain. Porcelain was made for pottery. In China, pottery is called china. It can sometimes be made translucent by stretching and burning the porcelain. Next, they made wheel-barrows. Wheelbarrows are made for moving many gallons of liquids. We still carry on using them today.

Continuing on, they made water wheels. Water wheels were used to push water into crop fields and

AncientchinA


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A Travel Guide to Ancient Civilizations A Travel Guide to Ancient Civilizations

to give water to villagers. Now-a-days, we use it to make hydroelectricity.

The following invention is the compass. The com-pass is used to find your direction. It was a very im-portant tool for travelling.

The next tool is the abacus. The abacus is like a calculator. It requires lots of skill in order to use it. Back then, most storekeepers had one. An abacus has beads instead of buttons. You would have to cal-culate the amounts of beads you have to move.

The following invention was really useful for finding salt. It’s the deep driller. The deep driller is used for searching salt wells. It used fuels to evaporate water from brine to produce salt. Once all the salt was dry, it could be used for cooking.

The next invention is one that I’ve been dying to get to. It is the blast furnace. The blast furnace was used to make pig iron. Pig iron is used to make cast iron. Once cast iron is made, it can be turned into tools like swords and hammers.

This next invention is actually very helpful with the blast furnace. It is the piston bellow. A piston bellow is a tool for cooling the heat of a blast furnace. You squeeze the piston bellow to blow cool air into the blast furnace.

The final invention that I will be showing you is the Chinese seed drill. The Chinese seed drill is used to plow land for all their crops. It is also helpful for turn-ing when plowing.

Ancient Chinese people spent lots of time making these inventions. It’s really impressive seeing what they made. I hope you enjoyed learning about an-cient Chinese tools and technology. Remember to read the other topics. We worked really hard to write these so enjoy!

J.G.

housing tips Ah! Those are the houses that ancient Chinese peo-ple used to live in! Would you want to live in one of them? Well, let’s see how the shelter was made! Shel-ters in ancient China were made out wood, brick and bamboo, and the floor was covered with tiles. The rich had their roofs built with tiles too.

Impoverished housing? The impoverished people in ancient China would live in huts made out of wood, straw, etc., almost like the three little pigs! If you were one of the impoverished people living in ancient Chi-


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na, would you want to live in those houses? Or would you want to live in the house that rich people live in?

The shelters that rich people lived in were called courtyard houses. Courtyard houses were made out of mud-brick. Mud-brick is made out of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a binding material such as straw. Mud-brick can take up to 25 days to dry. That can be a long time, huh? It almost takes up a month’s time! If you were to build a house in ancient China, what other materials would you use? Want to know? Okay then, many ancient Chinese houses were con-structed with wood doors and house frames. Those houses mostly had rich people living in them.

Courtyard houses look like a temple, yet it’s ac-tually shelter for rich people in ancient China! How about I let you pick? Which shelter would you want to live in? Interesting, right?

Aren’t you probably thinking about how many families could fit into the courtyard houses? Prob-ably about 2 to 3 families. What do you think? If you were to live a in a courtyard house, how many fami-lies would you want to live with? If there were big-ger courtyard houses in ancient China, more fami-lies could fit into the courtyard houses. Well, there are bigger courtyard houses in ancient China, but it would be too exspensive to own for ourselves.

Aren’t you wondering where ancient Chinese peo-ple find their materials for shelter? They find their ma-terials from places around where they want to build their shelter.

Any other questions? So, what do you think of ani-cent Chinese homes? Wouldn’t it be great if you were to live in a courtyard house? Or a normal hut for the impoverished? After all, ancient Chinese shelter can really be an interesting subject to learn about.

A.H.

CuisineMmmmm, delicious, ancient-Chinese food! The yum-my food has been around for thousands of years! It’s time for you to try some! What ancient Chinese peo-ple had to eat a long time ago, before we were even born, was tofu, steamed buns, noodles or pancakes with veggie soy bean products (for protein), pickles and sometimes meat, eggs or fish on the side.

Basically, mostly rich people in ancient China ate that kind of food, but all ancient Chinese people ate rice, millet, sorghum, and wheat. Sorghum is a


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syrupy sweetener made from a type of a cereal. The average people ate roast duck or chicken, fried fish, veggies, grains and soup. What they had to drink at that time was rice wine, warm rich beer, and the most common drink that people drank with their dim sum was tea.

Tea was also invented in ancient China. The green leaves had to be boiled with hot water.

What ancient Chinese people grew in their gar-dens was cabbage, soybeans (and other beans), peas, bamboo shoots, wheat and millet. They plant-ed veggies just for their rice.

China is number one famous for rice. Rice is a type of grain and the first grain that was formed in ancient China. There are many types of rice like black, long white rice, etc. Rice was one of the hardest things to grow in northern China. Rice grew in manmade ponds to protect it from weeds. Rice is very healthy for people, although brown rice is more nutritious.

One food they created which people eat nowa-days is tofu. What tofu is made of is curdled soybean, which is made from grinding soybeans with water and heating. Pressing action forms the curd into a tofu block that is known as bean curd.

The Chinese also created dim sum. Dim sum is a very tasty kind of Chinese food it is a cover-all term for a wide array of dishes in Chinese cuisine. The dishes vary in size, shape, taste and utilize a variety of ingredients that include both vegetables and meat like chicken, pork, beef, prawns, etc.

Lastly, another food created in ancient China was sorbet. Sorbet is a dessert consisting of frozen fruit or flavoured water and sugar.

Recently, around the world, Chinese restaurants are now made for people to eat dim sum. Now, go ahead and find a Chinese restaurant for some dim sum! I hope you enjoy what you eat!

N.Q.

Cultural and spiritual Celebrations“I can’t wait until it’s Chinese New Year!” I said. “There are going to be red envelopes, too, I bet! The red en-velopes hold a little bit of money called lucky money. When you get it, you’re supposed to keep it for good luck. I heard that in China, Chinese New Year is full of celebration and is also the most important festival. Everyone says there’s going to be Chinese dragons and lucky candy! The Chinese culture has so many events to celebrate!’’ I wonder how many celebrations


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they celebrate each year. “New Year in China is ac-tually January 21 to February 20!” I exclaimed. Did you know that Chinese New Year isn’t just about red envelopes?

There are many more celebrations that they cel-ebrated. I found out there’s also a festival called the mid-autumn festival. The mid-autumn is also known as the moon festival. “It’s where you eat moon cake and celebrate!” I said. I hope it’s going to have good weather! There are also Chinese lanterns. “I heard that the moon on mid-autumn festival day is going to be very big!” It was full and so big last year! I think that’s where the moon cakes came from, the big full moon, because it’s called moon cake and eaten on mid-autumn festival. My friend said that the mid-au-tumn festival is the most important festival in China, but I heard that Chinese New Year is the most impor-tant out of all festivals.

On dragon-boating day, people get together and row these boats called dragon boats. These boats are hand powered by rowing. This event has been held for about 2000 years, created by the Chinese, I think. In the fifth month of the Chinese year, dragon-boat races were held. They have dragon-boat races to honour a famous statesman named Qu Yuan. He drowned himself in 278 BC when his advice to his ruler was ignored. In his memory, rice dumplings were eaten at the festival.

Buddhism is one of China’s spiritual beliefs, al-though Buddhism actually came from India. There are many more spiritual beliefs that the Chinese be-lieved in. The Chinese didn’t believe Buddha at first, but after a while they started to believe. Pagodas were built in ancient China. They were built by Bud-dhist Chinese monks who had seen them in India. A main Buddhist belief is karma, which means what comes around goes around; for every event good or bad that occurs, there will follow another event. For example, if I share with someone, someone might share with me. Or if you steal, someone will most likely steal from you.

Another main belief of the ancient Chinese is rein-carnation. Reincarnation is a Chinese myth of when a person dies, they get reborn to be another person or an animal. If they become a human again or an ani-mal, it would depend on the person’s previous life’s actions.

The last main belief of the Chinese that I know is meditation. Meditation is often used to clear minds and erase heath issues such as high blood pressure.


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You sit in a crisscross position and put your hands over your knees and your thumb to index finger. People believe that meditation done twice a day for twenty minutes will help, but forty minutes altogether will also work. Meditation is usually done once in the morning and once in the day. Evening meditation will help people sleep more deeply and when they wake up they will be rested. Although many don’t believe in meditation, some do.

There are many more celebrations the Chinese celebrate. Even though some people aren’t Chinese, they might celebrate some of these celebrations. Many may enjoy celebrating these festivals.

A.W.

Weapons and Paper CuttingShouuuw goes the arrow when a gun-shaped bow that is made for war is fired. The ancient Chinese in-vented many technologically advanced and danger-ous weapons, and the bronze Chinese crossbow is the most deadly weapon. Although it’s a small weap-on, it’s very accurate and single shot in the head is fatal.

Another weapon to look for is called the bronze dagger axe. The dagger axe is an attachment for a wooden shaft. It’s made for, well… killing people, I guess, but for me, it looked like a digging item.

The handheld trigger-operated crossbow works by you putting the arrow inside the tube, then pulling back the leaver on top, then bam, shooting it into a person’s body.

Everyone used the steel sword. It’s a weapon that is made for war and practicing fighting. They used a sword to fight when a rebel was trying to kill his enemy. The objective was to survive.

They invented Chinese martial arts. It’s also called kung fu or gung fu. It’s type of fighting style that has been used over centuries. Hyyyaaaa! It’s a physical exercise so people can show off their fighting skills. People use martial arts as self-defense. Chinese martial arts is cool; you should try it.

Ancient Chinese people also did paper cutting. It took a long time to do this because when you do it wrong, it looks messed up. When I try it, I’ll say to myself, “Ow, I got a paper cut,” because it’s hard to do it perfectly. For real, it looks pretty cool.

A.R.


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hierarchy“Wow, these military weapons are amazing!” I said, excited to use them. When I was little, I couldn’t wait until I was the right age to finally hold a weapon and fight in a war. After all, that’s what great nobles did. Ever since I was a kid, I always looked up to the no-bles and kings that walked up and down in front of my house. Now, my first mission they assigned me to was to collect the taxes from the lower classes in my neighborhood. I walked quickly, still bursting with excitement; I really wanted to get to my first duty as a noble, and do it well!

“Hey,” I said in a mighty voice that other high-classed people used, “I’m here to collect your taxes, now hurry!” The peasants, poor and simple, slowly grabbed their money out of their purses. I smiled, “That’s enough, thank you.” I knew that I couldn’t ex-pect too much money from those little people. After all, they spent their lives just sewing clothes. But then again, I loved the Chinese designs they imprinted, looking down at mine. Peasants made great silk clothing.

“I’m done the taxes,” I said, cheerfully completing my first tax collecting, “but now what? I have all this free time!” I decided that I should visit the scholars, since I hadn’t in a long time and I was close friends with most of them.

I marched down to the school, quickly opening the door. “How are you all today?” I asked the schooled boys casually. “How was your exam?”

“Well, it was hard, but it was worth all the respect I get,” said one of them. I knew what he was talking about since scholars always had a comfortable resi-dence, due to their position. The highest-ranked one would get a great home and exquisite food. After all, they were all ranked in different positions. There was still one thing that irritated me: schools were only al-lowed for boys. I thought that it was completely unfair, it didn’t make sense that women were not allowed, but I brushed that off. “Well, I’ve got to get going, I’m going to visit the artists. I need to purchase a new silk dress!” I finally exclaimed.

Getting out of the great scholars’ residence, my eyes gazed at the tiny slaves who quietly watched people walking by. They were always sold from place to place because they were poor, with no food what-soever. They were usually relatives of pesky criminals and treated horribly by others because of that. I sped


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up my pace, trying to ignore them. I thought it was time to go and visit the silk makers.

Walking down to the market, where most people sold items, I immediately spotted the mass of atten-tion the artists were getting. I could see what they were gazing at: the fine, long silk they were creating. I quickly grabbed a handful of cash and put it down on the table. “Here, take this; make me a beautiful silk dress,” I enthusiastically said. I gave them more money than I should have. After all, most people who designed clothing would make more cash than farm-ers, but a little less than merchants. Merchants made more sales than most of the artists here. The design-ers led me to the pre-made ones, the amazingly designed dresses that were embedded with compli-cated Chinese flowers and many other objects. If you ever wanted a great, royal dress, artisans’ stalls in China would be the easy place to look. They were admired by others for their skill of art.

Just then, I felt a light tap on my shoulder. “Hello, would you be interested in these fine works of jew-elry? For the price, we’ll bargain,” said a merchant. Merchants around China were pesky and always only thinking about their money. If you are travelling to the country, try to avoid merchants unless needed. After all, they can be greedy with our money sometimes, so be careful. We nobles always give heavy taxes to them, for it is what they deserve for earning so much money day by day.

“No, I’m not interested at the moment,” I interrupt-ed. “Why aren’t you in the army right now?” These marketers were sent to the army as a punishment for being so disturbing. What other way to get them out of the town? I shrugged it off—what was the point of wasting my time to talk to them?

Just then, I heard a voice, a shouting, muffled voice, yet even if it was muffled, I could tell who it was. It was one of the nobles, my father. “Come on, let us get back to the house to prepare for the festival tonight!” my dad said, booming his voice over.

“Of course, I’ll be right there, Father,” I exclaimed quickly. I walked into the road, looking forward to meeting all the hierarchy classes later into the night.

E.N.

trade and Commerce“Wow, come, gaze your eyes at these emerald jade stones!” a merchant shouted, trying to advertise his


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precious treasures, as I passed by. I smirked to myself, “Maybe I’ll get my hands on

some treasures today.” I’ve always loved to collect many shiny and valuable objects, and it was always my dream to go along the Silk Road in China and wit-ness merchants trading. I quickly stumbled across to the merchant’s portable shop of valuables. What other better place to find treasures? The quick an-swer would be China, the great place to find many clothes of silk and others. My eyes looked over to the rarities, such as weapons used to fight in the army, figs, onions and string beans, and jewelry like jade, gold and turtle shells.

“Hey, tell me, have you ever travelled to the Silk Road?” I asked with admiration, “I’ve heard rumours, but I have never seen a real person go there.” I impa-tiently waited for the answer.

“Why, yes, I have. It was an exciting experience with many opportunities,” the merchant quickly said in an advertising voice, as if trying to make the Silk Road seem more interesting than it is.

“Please, tell me about it!” “Well, first of all, once me and the other marketers

get there, we see many other cultures, such as the Europeans and Indians!” the delighted trader shout-ed. “You wouldn’t have any idea of how much they love our Chinese designs. We sell them for a ton!” I was already bursting with excitement just listening to the experience of it. “Well, if you’re not busy, I am actually going to visit the Silk Road now. Would you like to accompany me?”

Quickly, I answered, trying to hide my interest; I wouldn’t want to seem too eager about this. “Of course, I would be delighted to come with you.”

“On our journey, I’ll tell you more about what we do.” From morning to evening, he told me interesting facts about trading and commerce. Some were obvi-ous to me, but some were also complicated facts I would never have known in my entire life. For exam-ple, if one wanted porcelain, China would be a great place to look, for we always made the thinnest por-celain. It was extremely expensive all around Europe and could be an item a person could easily want. Cowry shells were used as money in China. If you were to go to China, I would inform you to find some money beforehand, such as Cowry shells. “Our most popular customers are Romans, Indians, Persians and Egyptians,” he continued, “Oh, we’re here!”

I opened my eyes and looked. Many people swarmed around the area with lots of merchandise.


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“This is amazing. I’ve never seen such great trea-sures,” I said with excitement.

“I’m glad you like it. Welcome to the Silk Road!” the merchant shouted. He quickly set up his stand, immediately attracting many customers that were also travelling the busy route. I looked around, many ships and Chinese boats named junks sailed every-where. They had even more supplies than the people wandering around. I guessed that they travelled from faraway places and foreign lands. “I’ve sold all the objects I’ve put on sale today. I should get going now,” he told me.

I was overwhelmed by all my great surroundings; I felt like I never wanted to leave. “May I come here again some other time?” I quickly asked.

“Of course. You like it so much,” he replied, “how could I take it away from you? How about this, you can be my assistant next time!”

I felt so excited when I heard this, I couldn’t believe it. “Of course, I promise. I can’t miss such an oppor-tunity like this!” We walked back together. I couldn’t wait for the next time I was going to go to this exqui-site place once again.

E.N.

Festivals“I can’t wait until mid-autumn festival,” I said as I started packing up some moon cakes. “I can’t be-lieve that it’s here so soon! I should share this good news with my family!”

“I can’t wait for mid-autumn festival too!” my friend said as she walked into the room.

“Can you tell me the history of the mid-autumn fes-tival?” I asked.

“Well, the people who created the mid-autumn festival were the emperors during ancient China,” my friend told me.

“Oh, really?” I interrupted. “Can you tell me about other festivals coming up?”

“Well, the next festival coming up is the double ninth festival.”

“What is double ninth festival?” I asked. “Double ninth festival is when we go up the moun-

tain and some people visit graves of their ances-tors to pay respect. Did you know that this festival is based on yin and yang?” my friend told me.

“Really?” I said in surprise. “Yeah,” my friend said as she got a flower and


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stuck it in her hair. “Did you remember to stick a flow-er in your hair?”

“No, but why do we have to do that?” I asked curiously. “The history of double ninth festival is that during

the festival, the chrysanthemums bloom and people use the chrysanthemum to make wine.”

“Oh, cool!” I said in excitement. “What festival is after double ninth festival?”

“The next festival coming up after double ninth fes-tival is the spirit festival,” she replied.

“What is spirit festival?” I interrupted. “Spirit festival is when the sundown appears,

people set flower-shaped lanterns to float around a stream or river to give offerings to decrease whose wandering spirits/ghosts may return at night to visit,” my friend replied.

Suddenly, my other friend came in, “Hey, the mid-autumn festival is happening outside! Let’s go!”

“Okay, coming!” me and my friend said at the same time.

J.T.

governmentAncient China is great. Government is good. The an-cient Chinese civilization was just like the Mario video games (the platform Mario games).

The emperor and empress were like Bowser from the Mario games because they were the highest rank and they bossed everyone around. The emperor was very rich. His money came from taxes and farms.

Civil servants were like Bowser Jr. because they were the second rank, and Bowser treats Bowser Jr. with the most respect. Only people that could read or write could be civil servants. They worked for the emperor and collected taxes for the emperor. They also enforced laws, organized workers for building projects and judged court cases.

Peasants and merchants were like the Koopa Kids because they were the third rank. Peasants were farmers that were poor. They were respected for the food they made. Merchants made their money by selling stuff to people.

Soldiers and servants were like Bowser’s minions because they’re the lowest rank and they get the least respect from Bowser.

Maybe someone should make a game about the ancient Chinese. You would have to do quests to climb up the ranks.

J.L.


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AttractionsGreat wonders lay in ancient China like the Great Wall of China. It was the eighth-greatest world wonder and still is. Construction began during the spring and au-tumn period to the warring period (770 BC to 221 BC).

Another attraction is the Forbidden City. It’s locat-ed in Beijing, and it’s the best-preserved building. It was the Ming dynasty’s imperial palace, which was built during 1406 AD to 1420 AD. The area of this palace is 961 square meters by 753 square meters. The wall of the palace is 12 meters by 3400 meters. It even has a moat that’s 52 meters long around the palace. There are four gates in each main direction (north, south, east and west).

A very cool ancient location is east Xian, home of the Terracotta Warriors. It is a collection of Terracotta figures displaying the army of Qin Shi Huang. These were found underground in three pits and discovered by some local farmers. There were more than 8000 soldiers, about 130 chariots, 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses.

Wow! What great attractions. Ancient China sure is cool. Who knows what else lies there.

J.L.

inventionsAha, new inventions! Created by a mad scientist! No, really they’re not; the inventions were made by the ancient Chinese people. What inventions are you talking about? I bet that’s what you’re wondering. Hmm, what do you use every day? Imagine yourself going to a washroom in ancient China and you see toilet paper and a toothbrush. Believe what you see, because the Chinese actually invented those things. Amazing, right? After all the decades, you are still able to have it. Wow!

Now, imagine yourself in an ancient Chinese res-taurant instead. What do you see? Maybe some tea, sake, tofu, noodles, rice and even more food. Guess what? The Chinese also invented those things. In ancient China, when you grabbed your food, you had to use chopsticks, not your hands! Believe this again, the Chinese did indeed invent the chopsticks, so that’s why you always see chopsticks in Chinese restaurants nowadays.

In ancient China, there were four great inventions: the compass, papermaking, gunpowder and print-ing. The compass obviously helped with the sense


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of direction, showing north, east, south, and west. Papermaking was the making of paper from wood. Gunpowder was used for weapons that brought war and fireworks that brought great colours, joy and prosperity. Printing led to writing with ink and other supplies. These are great inventions that have been invented that are useful now, right? Right!

Let’s say you look at a calendar and you see the zodiac animals that represent a New Year, all twelve of them from the rat to the pig. Squeak, oink! All the time and effort to create this type of time table was also invented by, wait for it, the Chinese! Hmm, what year are you born in? The rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog or pig?

If only you were an astronaut, you may be able to see the Great Wall of China visible from space. It is the only manmade structure that’s visible far away in space. Sadly, it’s not so visible that you can see it clearly, but it is definitely visible as a wavy, thin line. Since this Great Wall is from China, it’s obvious who invented it.

Let’s move on to jewelry. Jade, a nice green stone that reminds you of greens (vegetables). Nah, that’s not true. It’s more of a mix of colours that include a bit of white, light green, dark green, etc. Sometimes, it depends on how the jade was formed for its colour. In ancient China, jade was very expensive and beauti-ful. Jade was either worn as a bracelet, necklace or even just kept as is for decoration. Nowadays, jade is worn as a necklace with a red string or as nice co-lourful bracelets. Some jade is assorted colours such as, brown, yellow, red and more colours. The colours of a rainbow! No, not even close.

Finally, one of the most important inventions of all! Dun da da da! Silk! Well, silk wasn’t techni-cally invented by “humans,” but it was invented by silkworms. Yes, that’s right, a worm invented it. The ancient Chinese actually used the silk that the silk-worms created to make, wait for this one, just wait, silk. Yep, the fabric that’s made out of silk is consid-ered silk. Silk was only found in China during the an-cient times, and was very valuable and expensive to purchase. Only the wealthy like the emperors could afford most of it.

In the end, ancient China invented many inven-tions. There are actually way more inventions invented than the ones named in this section, probably more than one hundred. I am sure that some of these inven-tions are some of the things you use today, so thank the ancient Chinese for inventing these inventions.

S.L.


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A short, dramatic story About the emperor, his Civil servants and his soldiers“The emperor is the big, tough dog!” said the farmer.

“Oh man, give me a break. He thinks he is tough but he’s not. He just has a lot of bodyguards,” said the two soldiers.

“Don’t mess with the emperor. If he heard you, he’s going to execute you,” said the farmer.

“He thinks he’s so tough because he has complete authority and he makes all the rules! He tells us what to do all the time. Do that! Do this! And then he takes all our money!”

“That’s true. But at least as a farmer I get my own food,” said the farmer.

The civil servant came by and heard the two men talking. “Hey you! This isn’t true, man! Don’t let Em-peror hear you or you’re going to die. I could tell him that a lot of people are mean to you guys,” said the civil servant. He gave them money right then. “In my house, there is a saying that means, ‘Don’t give it back.’ It’s a gift for hard work,” said the civil servant.

The soldiers left the emperor, sneaking out at night. They left the city and moved to a new one, where they decided to run a store. They used the money to open a store and become merchants. They decided to sell toys. They cut their hair and changed themselves and changed their names.

A month later, the emperor found them, but he didn’t recognize them!

“Do I know you?” said the emperor. “I don’t think so,” said the soldiers. The emperor

was confused, so he left the store. “Oh man, that was so close,” said one of the soldiers. They had been so scared that they almost had a heart attack!

The emperor left the store, but was still so con-fused. “I’m so tired. I guess I mistook them for some-one else,” the emperor said. He decided that maybe he should take a nap. After all, ruling a country is hard work! “I’ll wait, but tomorrow I’m going to make all the taxes higher. Worse than they can even dream! Ha! Ha!” He laughed evilly.

The next day, the civil servant came around to the toy store to collect all their taxes. “Hey! Did the em-peror recognize you guys? I was with the emperor yesterday, but I was outside the store. I was thinking, ‘Oh my God! What am I gonna do?’ but when the emperor came out, and I saw that he was holding his head and saying that he was so tired. I asked the


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emperor if he was okay, but I was relieved that you didn’t get caught.”

“If the emperor comes back, I think he’ll recognize us. We should hide until we can get good land and become farmers. Then we can make our own food and maybe make more money than running this toy store,” the soldiers said.

“You have to watch out. If the emperor or his sol-diers catch you, he’ll cut your heads off!” the civil ser-vant said. “I can help you, but only as a spy on the emperor. I don’t want to know what you’re going to do. I don’t want to lose my head too!”

The soldiers closed the toy store that day, and ran off to a place far, far away. They went into the country, but on the way out of the city, they ran into the em-peror’s soldiers.

“Do I recognize you two?” one of the soldiers said. “Mind your own business!” the ex-soldiers yelled.

They walked away, knowing that good boys don’t fight. The emperor’s soldiers let them go by, knowing that if the two soldiers who became merchants would probably become very good farmers and share their extra food with them.

The soldiers made it to the country and found some land to farm. They changed their names again, and became excellent rice and soybean farmers. They made sure to share their extra food with the other soldiers and the civil servant who helped them, and made way more money than they did as soldiers or as merchants. The emperor never found them again. So they lived happily ever after.

H.M.

ClothingHey! Are you interested in ancient Chinese clothing? Well, you’re in luck! Ancient Chinese clothing is lit-erally amazing! As you keep on reading you will be fascinated by the designs, colours and fabrics that came from ancient China.

Most people who worked for the emperor or in the fields wore hemp, which is a rough material made from plant fibre. The rags were durable and great for labour. Clothing made from hemp was generally loose-fitting pants and shirts. The poor were only al-lowed to wear colours such as black and blue.

Chinese clothing had many designs woven into the silk. With so many colours for the rich, and poor colours for the poor, fashion showed if someone was


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wealthy or not. The rich wore colours such as yel-low, pink and much more. The emperor mostly wore yellow and red. The clothing the rich wore were long robes made from silkworm cocoons. Worms? Ew! Yes, worms. You might think this is disgusting but these silkworms are really cool. In ancient China, people would trade their silk from the worm for pre-cious items from all over the world. The robes were able to be dyed with many colors like red or yellow just for the wealthy Chinese. These robes were all one piece. The robes were called hanfu. All in all, Chinese clothing came in many different designs and styles.

In ancient China, some emperors or empresses wore head dresses that were called mian liu. In trans-lation for English it is “crown with tassels.” The head-dresses came in many designs like swirls. These were worn on special events for people to come and see when a dance was performed. Also they wore it on special occasions like the mid-autumn festivals, where people came together to eat moon cake. Moon cake is a Chinese bakery product. Moon cakes were regarded as an indispensable delicacy. Moon cakes were offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival. In the end, emperors and emprises were very wealthy, so they wore and consumed expensive clothing and food.

T.S.

yummy in My tummyOmg! It is my thirteenth birthday and mom said we are having Chinese food because it’s my favourite.

Some of the ancient Chinese foods I really like are tea, tofu, cabbage, bamboo shoots, steamed buns, rice and pancakes. Those are some of the Chinese foods that I’ve tried before. The pancakes had green onion in them. Sorbet is a frozen dessert made from sweetened water flavoured with fruit (typi-cal, or juice). It is different from Canadian ice cream because it is really smooth.

The menus are:

any flavour sorbet

small $6.99

medium $10.99

large $12.99

pancakes

two piece $2.99

4 piece $7.99

6 piece $9.99


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tea

small cup $2.25

medium cup $4.99

large cup $8.99

plus tax 15%

rice

small bowl $4.00

medium bowl $7.00

large bowl $11.00

tip 12%

They used chopsticks to eat some of the foods. For example, they used chopsticks for rice, but if they needed to drink soup, they would need to use spoon. When it was dinner, they sat together as a family to eat food. As you can see, Chinese food is really deli-cious.

I.T.

Ancient Chinese secretA restaurant experience you will never forget!Here are examples of the delicious food of ancient China:

AppetizersSpicy millet and fresh soybean—the crops were easy

to grow, even deliciousJuicy dumplings, available with pork, beef, shrimp,

and, last but not least, vegetablesFried spicy tofu Lemon-ginger bok choy

Main dishesFire-roasted chickenFreshly spiced rice grown in China—farmers take care

of crops Fresh vegetable stir frySweet and sour shrimp Specialized sea cucumber

drinksFresh sakeWater found in China’s riversTea grown in the ancient Chinese mountains

desertFresh-made ice cream

Restaurant ReviewSome of the food tasted like dough. The drinks are good but the chicken is even better. All of these foods came from ancient China.

R.Y.


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A strange AwakeningBuzz. I hear the sound of the heat within my ears. My eyes flutter open and then closed again as I try to adjust to the light from the window. I wake in an un-familiar room, looking around at what surrounds me. The floors are covered in dirt and the walls are made of an exposed brick. I stand up and walk towards the mirror in the corner of the room. I glare at the unclear mirror, noticing that I am a totally different person. I am a boy with tan skin, and I’m short, skinny and maybe twelve years old.

Suddenly, a woman comes in holding some sort of shiny clothing. The woman is dressed in a beautifully coloured robe; golden jewelry is against her tan skin and bold-red lips. She comes towards me, handing the piece of clothing to me, and turns, walking away. I lift the robe over my head, gently putting it on, and my skin cools at the touch of the delicate fabric.

I step out of the room, wanting to explore what is out there in this mysterious place. I have no clue where I am. I know that the ancient Chinese wore these colourful robes, yet, traditionally, Chinese peo-ple don’t have a tan skin tone like the woman and I have. Continuing to explore, I come upon a dim room that has a dark hole in the ground looking like it never ends. I lower my head near the hole and a strong stench lingers in my nose, making me want to vomit. Without needing to think, I know that this hole is a really odd toilet, for my toilet came out of the ground at home. I peer down at the hole while plugging my nose. My eyes meet the darkness of the stinky toilet. I

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wonder where all of the people’s urine and turds go. Curiosity grows into determination to venture outside to find the answer. I venture out the door.

Adjusting to the light, I am so fascinated by how everything is so different and yet similar to the city back home. People rush through the narrow streets that are paved with gravel and dirt. Mumbles of peo-ple talking grows loud in my ears, but I don’t recog-nize the language. I know it isn’t Chinese. As I let the people guide me through, I push myself out of the crowd. I dust all the dirt off of the delicate fabric and notice that I am at the edge of the town.

I absorb the environment around me, and I detect a glimpse of a house out of the side of my eye. I walk closer to identify the brown rectangular shape. It is a house, only one storey tall, built from bricks, with a window on the side. There is a fence surrounding the front of the house.

Within the fence are multiple animals, such as some sort of cow (zebus), sheep, pigs and a water buffalo chewing food among themselves. I walk up towards the barracked animals just to pet them for a minute. I peer around at my surroundings, seeing what is out of the town. Farms cover the fields end-lessly, while workers labour away with planting and collecting crop. I can only determine a few of the plants that lay out in the fields, like tomatoes, garlic, melons and peas. I start to recognize that a man is yelling and running towards me, and I quickly move my body to bolt away. I run as hard and fast as I can, not daring to glance back, and I keep running until I get some distance away from the farm.

Finally walking, I stumble upon a filthy stream cas-cading down towards rocks. Examining the area, I try to inspect what is causing the water to turn into a disturbing colour. I stand on the brink of the stream with the tip of my toes hanging over the flowing stream. Suddenly, I see some sort of substance exit-ing a pipe on the far side of the stream. Remarkably, I have successfully discovered the truth of where the town’s sewage goes. This place must be pretty close to the twentieth century to be so modern.

A black darkness overtakes my eyes and I feel myself drop into the disgusting stream.

I break my eyelids apart, looking at where I am. I am lying in my bedroom with the air condition-ing blowing. I sit up and quickly gaze at the clock beside my bed. It is 8:30, and I am almost late for school. I immediately get myself ready and rapidly run to school.

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Hours later, I am at home finally and today at school I learnt something very interesting. We are learning about ancient civilizations in social studies. Guess what? Well, today I learned many facts about the ancient city of the Indus Valley of India. Fact af-ter fact, it resembled my mysterious dream last night, and I slowly became aware of what actually was go-ing through my dream that night. It has finally lifted my curiosity. I was in India.

L.P.

inventionsThe people of the Indus Valley were very clever. They were able to think of the most useful technology in our time period now. For instance, we use rulers, docks, buttons, furnaces and much more. Without these inventions, we humans would have difficulty discovering answers to problems around the planet.

One of the most convenient technologies that the Indus Valley people invented was the button. The In-dus Valley people were able to concoct the buttons between 2800 and 2600 BC, yet in the Indus Valley, the buttons were not used to fasten up clothing. In the Indus Valley, the buttons, or button-like items, were created to become seals or ornaments. The buttons were commonly produced from seashells. One of the first buttons found in the Indus Valley was an orna-ment button. Some buttons were even made from wood in the Indus Valley. Indus Valley buttons didn’t contain any sort of colour except the natural colour of a material. Also, buttons could be made with stone, yet it would probably have been heavy on clothes

The Indus people also invented the ruler. The ruler was made out of ivory from elephant tusks around 1500 BC, after the button was invented. In fact, the ruler was only calibrated up to 1.6 millimeters in the city of Lothal. Also, in the city of Mohenjo-Daro, the ruler was calibrated up to 33.5 millimeters. The ruler was really useful in the Indus Valley because it helped them measure length for construction and measur-ing. The rulers were marked very precisely. Without the Indus people to invent this magnificent object, our world wouldn’t know the length of anything. The ruler is the one of the most convenient inventions that aids our world, making life easier.

The Indus Valley people invented so many objects that we still use. Without the Indus people, the world would have so much trouble living without rulers and


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buttons. In the end, the Indus Valley was able to make our world an easier life.

L.P.

sightseeingCities and towns are meant to keep you safe, but in ancient Indus, that was not always true.

I was going to the Ellora caves, just as everybody was. They had just been finished after 1000 years of hard labour, and now everybody was there to cele-brate, even all those people who hadn’t been around long enough to understand the significance of the event. I was being pushed around in the crowded street by people wearing colourful robes and pretty jewelry, and I was scared of being trampled!

After a while, I found my way to the Ellora caves. I gasped, as before me stood a large hill, seemingly ordinary, but when I looked down I saw large indents along the base of the hill. Inside I saw people praying and sleeping.

I approached one of the caves in awe. It had been carved into thousand-year-old stone and I glimpsed bright lava flowing near the base of the hill. I stepped into one of the twelve Buddhist caves. There weren’t many people there, as Buddhism was less popular than Hinduism, even though it was a much older reli-gion, but I still believed in Buddhism.

In addition to the Buddhist caves, I could see sev-enteen Hindu caves in total. I wandered around in awe for hours with everyone else until I didn’t know where I was. I suddenly had an intense burst of panic because I realized I could be lost in that infernal, gi-ant maze forever. People would find my bones on the floor! I managed to calm myself down. I approached another boy about my age and asked, “Hey, where’s the entrance?” I watched as his face turned from amazement to blood curdling horror and he slid down against the stone wall. I could tell he didn’t know where we were either. I wandered through the twisting tunnels, wracking by brain for some way to get back. After hours of stumbling along, I burst out through one of the five Jain caves into broad day-light. I wasn’t paying attention to the people gasping and running towards me. I could only see daylight. A hand grabbed me and inside I exploded with fear. The hand, and whomever it belonged to, intended to pull me back into the caves; I was sure of it. But I wasn’t going back! Instead of being pulled back


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into the cave, I found myself sitting on the ground facing the person who had grabbed me. “Watch it, boy. Do you want to get yourself killed?” asked the man. I curiously got up. Then I knew what had hap-pened. I looked at the flowing lava, the lava I had almost stepped in, almost killing myself in, if it hadn’t been for the hand that saved me.

A.C.

FoodWhen you think of ancient civilizations, you usually don’t think of food, but in ancient Indus, that’s all they thought about.

I was at an Indus restaurant and I was ravenously hungry. A waiter in beautiful robes and bright, glossy lipstick came and quietly served me my menu. This was a very respectable restaurant, where only the rich could go, but I was rich. I browsed over the menu. It didn’t have that burning food that forces you to get a tall glass of cold water to wash it down, the food that had made Indus famous. I watched a waiter serve a happy couple some delicious idlis, or rice cakes, with a blend of ripe, juicy tomatoes, spicy lentils and tropical coconuts, or chutney, to dip them in. Smells wafted in from all around the room, some spicy and some sweet. In the end I ordered a dosa, which was a collection of lentils and other vegetables and meat from cows and zebus wrapped in a wafer-thin piece of bread. It was one of the best meals I have ever had.

A.C.


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sheltersThe house I lived in while visiting the Incan empire was made of pure stone. The Incans were very skilled at building houses and cities out of stone. As an example, Machu Picchu is entirely made of stone and is an architectural masterpiece. There were win-dows in my house but they were trapezoid-shaped. There is one thing I didn’t like about my house and that is that there was no chimney, which stopped me from cooking inside.

R.W. and J.R.

economyThe economy in the Incan empire is very interest-ing. It is very tough because everybody farms their own crops. They don’t have markets and they don’t even trade among themselves. The only way to sur-vive without farming is to work for the government. If you are able to get a governmental job, you will be paid with just enough food and water to survive. I don’t completely agree with the Incan economy, but it lasted all those years and has been called the best economy ever.

R.W. and J.R.

sightseeingOne of the many places I went during my stay in the Inca empire was the Nazca lines. They are just de-signs carved into the rock, but they are huge and it’s

theincAeMPiRe


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unexplainable as to how they got there. The biggest image I saw was 200 metres! Some local legends even say they were created by extraterrestrial be-ings, for it would be almost impossible for a normal human to create them without help. It is a place you should visit.

R.W. and J.R.

FoodA fantastic pro to the Incan empire is their spectacu-lar food. They have all kinds of food. My favourite is potato stew with maize because it is very delicious, but no food compares to the candy. Their all-natural chocolate and vanilla makes my mouth water every time. Also, during my visit, every morning I woke up and had a succulent coffee; it’s the best coffee I’ve ever tasted.

R.W. and J.R.

sacrificeOne experience that I will never forget from being in the Incan empire is watching the gruesome sacri-fices. They chose local rulers or very young children and then led them to the peak of high-altitude moun-tains, where they would be suffocated to death. Peo-ple were killed as a sacrifice to the sun god. When I watched them sacrifice the local rulers, it was brutal. The people doing the sacrifice had no remorse for the victim. They cut open the person’s stomach and quickly yanked the heart out of the wound, and then they held it to the sky as a gift to the sun god. If I were a sun god, I would not want a person’s heart as a gift! All in all, it must not have been a pleasant event for the victim, unfortunately.

R.W. and J.R.


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Roam the government of Brutal RomeTwo thousand years ago, a small Italian town grew to become the most important city in the western world. The name of that town was Rome. It was built on the seven hills, near river Tiber. Rome was the most pow-erful in the third century BC. It had a well-organized government and a fearsome army, and it took over the whole of Italy over 200 years. As Rome expand-ed its influence to become the centre of the great Empire, the Roman Empire stretched from Briton to North Africa and from Spain to Palestine.

The leaders were chosen and elected by the vote of the people in the republic. They were not elected again if the people were not happy with them. (Aren’t you wondering why women couldn’t be a leader? Did they think they were not strong enough for the peo-ple?) When the new leader was elected, they could sometimes become greedy for more land, like Julius Caesar. As a governor, he decided that he wanted to have more land, so he decided to conquer the Gaul land (modern France and Belgium) and make it part of the Roman world. This took him eight years to achieve. Like that man, some of the leaders became greedy for land so it could all be part of Rome. Not all the Roman leaders were good. Some were just greedy!

C.T.

Ancient ROMe


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governmentRomans were an exchanging and voting bunch. They loved to trade. They even tried to use salt as money since coins weren’t made yet.

Romans borrowed from the Greeks. They liked the idea of gods, so they decided to take the idea. The Romans changed the names. Also, the Romans bor-rowed the calendar from the Egyptians.

Romans had a democracy. They voted for their leader like Americans do for the president of the United States of America. In 31 BC, Rome was a re-public. The people of Rome loved the republic be-cause there were six hundred advisers to boss the rulers of Rome!

Soon, Rome became an empire with an Emperor. The first ruler was Augustus. The advisers were part of the senate. The members of the senate were cho-sen from royal families. Senate members did not un-derstand that being poor was hard. They came from wealthy households that never, ever had any hard-ships with poverty.

There were different ranks of people in the Roman population. There were normal people that went to watch the fights in the Coliseum. Most times, they got to vote for a leader (not the women), but members of the senate mostly got to choose.

There were non-citizens. They were usually a slave’s child. The non-citizen’s child would not be considered a real citizen. They were slaves. They would become gladiators to fight for the entertainment of the citizens of Rome.

There were also mixed people of Latin, Etruscan, Sa-bine and Samnite birth.

There were a lot of different types of people in Rome. I wonder how they were able to live with each other.

Romans were very strict on rules. They made the laws of twelve tables. The rules were chiseled on bronze tab-lets. It seemed efficient because they made it for many to see. I think it would have been cheaper for them to have made it out of cement.

When the rules became more complicated, the Ro-mans needed experts to fix the rules. The experts are now known as lawyers.

Julius Caesar was a Roman leader once, but he had so much power that his senate turned on him. The peo-ple were scared that the power might get out of control, so they stabbed him to death.

The emperor needed his people to be happy or else they would turn on him, similar to Julius Caesar. Some-


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times the emperor gave out free food to his people to keep them happy.

Overall, trading and voting were quite precious to them.

C.T.

inventionsEver wonder who made your indoor plumbing for your waste and made death fun? The Romans did!

Romans are known for the entertainment of death from fights of dangerous animals and slaved humans. They didn’t have television back then, so they needed an interesting form of entertainment. They made a whole building for everyone to sit in and watch the fights, which is called the Coliseum.

Also, the Romans were the first to make piping and your indoor plumbing. The piping was called aqueducts. The aqueducts were used for liquid to travel. They were made because the empire was having a drought prob-lem. The nearest water source was far away from the em-pire. They needed a way to transport the water to them, so the aqueducts were made. They made a wall to bring the water over a hill. Soon they ran out of building mate-rials. They needed a cheaper alternative to building the wall. They figured out how to make an arch, which didn’t take much of the building materials and saved the day.

Romans made the material that helped make the arches. Cement was made out of gypsum and lime mixed with water. The gypsum and lime made the ce-ment waterproof.

Romans made the mall, the place to go to buy and eat at the same time. They made the mall out of cement and people sold items there. I guess it could be considered as a flea market though.

Also, with the cement, the dome was invented for the gods that were made up. The dome had layers of ce-ment to keep it up. I think they used a lot of arches to make one dome.

With the help of the Egyptians, the Romans created the names of the month. Did you know that August was named after Augustus, Julius Caesar is July, and March is named after Mars, who is the god of war?

They also created a piece of clothing called a toga. Nowadays the toga is used at parties. The Romans also made socks.

Fortunately, Romans were smart enough to invent life-changing inventions.

C.T.


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Welcome to the Battle of the gladiators. Warn-ing: do not sit Close or you Might get splat-tered by BloodBe careful, try not to get arrested, and do not try run-ning away when you are arrested, because if you do, you will become a slave and fight in the arena. You cannot escape becoming a gladiator. You are bought as a slave, and if you’re a slave, your owner will de-cide if you will become a gladiator, and if he does, you will fight in the arena.

If you try to escape from prison, you will get FHE (fugitivus hic est) burned into your forehead.

The gladiators were trained by retired gladia-tors named lanista, or butcher. The gladiators were trained by hitting a man of straw with swords.

If a gladiator fought and lost, the public chose life or death. If they gave thumbs up, it meant the loser could live. If they gave thumbs down, that meant they had to kill him.

When a large group of gladiators fought, the area turned into a battlefield. Most gladiators would have said, “I hope the crowd is supporting me, because if they don’t, I will not be rewarded with freedom.”

Some of the protection the gladiators wore were a bronze helmet, crest flaps to protect the throat, a flap to protect the neck, arm protectors, a sword and a shield.

The dead bodies were thrown into a cave by a slave, who dragged them there with a large hook.

The gladiators had a really bad life and a bad death. You would not want to be a gladiator. If you went back in time to ancient Rome, you would not be living, so you should be thankful that you are living

A.A.

the latest FashionsThe style in ancient Rome was trendy. Many things like togas, tunics and sandals were worn in the an-cient Roman society. Romans liked to wear clothing that was comfortable, practical, but in fashion!

Male citizens wore a very large toga that was made out of wool. Male citizens wore plain white togas. Magistrates and upper-class boys wore an off-white toga with a purple border. Bleached togas were worn by politicians. Of course the ancient Ro-man people wore underwear. Underwear was worn by men and women. It was a simple loincloth called a subligaculum.


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Now, on to their shoes. The shoes Romans wore were really weird compared to today’s shoes. When indoors, the Romans wore open-toed sandals. The sandals were made by fixing strips of leather to tough leather or a cork base. Sandals were also worn in the summer.

Another item of clothing some of the Roman peo-ple wore was the tunic. The tunic was a standard dress for all slave men. They wore the tunic under their togas.

Men were only allowed to wear one piece of jew-elry, a ring that was used to make a mark in wax for sealing documents. But many ignored the rules and wore several rings, and brooches to pin on their cloaks.

Next, on to the hairstyles. All men had their hair cut short and shaved. After the time of Hadrian, some men began growing beards.

So now you know what the fashion was in ancient Rome. It was really weird, but awesome at the same time. I hoped you enjoyed.

K.F.

A Menu Fit for a king and QueenTonight’s Special: Stuffed FlamingoThe finest, fattest, pinkest, most delicious. . . stuffed flamingo! Yes, a delicacy for the kings’ court only. This is how it is prepared: First we fatten up a fla-mingo with celery and lettuce and assorted grains. Then when it ready to be roasted, we must chop its head off, drain the blood and pluck the feathers. The feathers are washed and kept for clothing and deco-ration. The ladies love the pink colours! Then the bird is boiled until the meat is tender and juicy. Can you smell the mouth-watering smells? Wait, there is more preparation. Then the bird is stuffed with celery, sal-ad, and assorted grains and spices, like basil, barley and emmer. What is emmer? Good question! Emmer is a type if ancient wheat that is hulled.

Stuffed GooseA goose is fattened to perfection before it is butch-ered. This delicious goose is roasted over a fire in a clay oven. BBQ goose anyone? Save the head for the emperor—that is his favourite part to eat!

Stuffed OstrichFirst the ostrich is fattened with fish and then its head gets cut off. Then it is plucked. After that, it is roasted


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and stuffed to perfection. After that, it is served on a silver platter to the king and queen.

startersolivescelerysaladgrapesbread

Comboswine and fishwine and cow wine and goose

snacks and drinksgrapes and winewater and breadgrapes and water

R.W.

the Roman Arch The Roman use of the arch, and their improvements in the use of concrete and bricks, facilitated the build-ing of the many aqueducts throughout the empire, such as the Aqueduct of Segovia and the eleven aq-ueducts in Rome itself, such as Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus. The same concepts produced numer-ous bridges, some of which are still in daily use, for example the Puente Romano at Mérida in Spain, and the Pont Julian and the bridge at Vaison-la-Romaine, both in Provence, France.

The dome permitted construction of vaulted ceil-ings without crossbeams and provided large, cov-ered public spaces such as public baths and ba-silicas. The Romans based much of their architecture on the dome, such as Hadrian’s Pantheon in the city of Rome, the Baths of Diocletian and the Baths of Caracalla.

The use of arches that spring directly from the tops of columns was a Roman development, seen from the first century AD, that was very widely adopted in me-dieval Western, Byzantine and Islamic architecture.

R.W.


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housing The Ancient Romans were responsible for significant developments in housing and public hygiene, for example their public and private baths and latrines, under-floor heating in the form of the hypocaust, mica glazing (examples in Ostia Antica), and piped hot and cold water (examples in Pompeii and Ostia).

Multi-story apartment blocks called insulae ca-tered to a range of residential needs. The cheapest and darkest rooms were at the bottom, the lightest and most desirable at the top. Windows were mostly small, facing the street, with iron security bars. Insu-lae were often dangerous, unhealthy, and prone to fires because of overcrowding and haphazardous cooking arrangements. There are examples in the Roman port town of Ostia that date back to the reign of Trajan. External walls were in opus reticulatum and interiors in opus incertum, which would then be plas-tered and sometimes painted.

To lighten up the small, dark rooms, tenants able to afford a degree of luxury painted colourful murals on the walls. Examples have been found of jungle scenes with wild animals and exotic plants. Imitation windows (trompe l’oeil) were sometimes painted to make the rooms seem less confined.

R.W.


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ClimateThe environment affected the Mongol’s lives. The Mongols needed to adapt to various climates, which they did quite well, because they knew what they were up against.

The Mongols were so adaptive that they were the first and only power to successfully conquer Russia in the winter. The environment differed massively in the boiling heat of Persia to the arctic ice of Russia. The environment left the Mongols with their compan-ions, the animals, to help them adapt to the changing climate while invading. The front lines had to adapt quite a lot because they were the ones who got first blood.

J.A.

WarIn Ancient Mongolia, children trained for war at twelve years old, meaning they would be great soldiers and be an unstoppable force when it came to infantry. This is how the Mongols adapted to the common wars. The Mongols trained very quickly and had tight discipline when it came to training. The children then become ruthless killing machines, making the Mongol empire the largest empire when it came to area, and the fast-est empire to conquer the area.

Mongols needed to protect themselves to survive the common wars. They were well equipped when it came to food and shelter, but they couldn’t all survive the conquests they pulled off. A quarter of the Mongols

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that went into the war came out unscathed, while at least a quarter or sometimes half of the Mongols died fighting.

Peasants worked their fields quite well, and did you know that they were sent to behead and murder people for the Mongol Empire? This is how Genghis got so popular. The rich hated him, but they were not rich any-more because Genghis robbed them of their wealth.

Almost all Mongols had weapons provided for them, and a large stockade of horses so they could keep ex-panding their area. If you were wealthier in the Mon-gol society (somehow), and you were sent to war, you could buy yourself some armor to protect yourself from the incoming rushing enemy. The armor you could buy was mostly chainmail and iron. You’d get a horse, along with your weapon of choice. If you had spare money, you could buy some chainmail for your horse. This meant that you would nearly be invincible to sword wielders and bowmen alike. Armor was expensive, but it was worth it if you wanted to keep your life and dish out some devastating shots to your enemy.

Peasants and the poor don’t get much protection, but they got at least some armor, even if it was not the best. Bows could pierce them, and they didn’t have much to protect against sword blows and arrow shots. Peasants wore leather, wool and felt. The leather was quite heavy, and it wasn’t a good match up if the peas-ant was going to rush into battle with the heavy leather. Wool and felt were lighter but less protective. Peasants’ bloodthirsty rampages only got so far with the weak and unreliable armor.

Rich people that didn’t go to war got the gluttonous and glamorous materials available. The rich were able to buy silk, cotton and furs. Their shelter was usually a wooden frame, covered in a layer of felt. That didn’t protect from the burning sun’s heat, however, but it did prove useful in snowy, wet and damp conditions.

Mongols didn’t always take over the land and live in it, because living in a desert could be terrible and could kill. They didn’t need to irrigate their crops because it was already irrigated or slaves would do it. Overall, the Mongols didn’t really change the land, for it would be a waste of conquering time.

The Mongols added trade routes and reinvented the Silk Road, profiting off of it by a lot. The Mongols traded so they could get European items not native to the east. Trading was very useful, and the empire took major ad-vantage of it because of the money they got from it.

J.A.

Ancient MOngOliA


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FoodThe Mongols ate a lot of meat. The animals they killed were usually in large groups to feed an entire empire of merciless killing machines. The Mongol cuisine was great, and you should try it if you are entering the empire. The food was prepared with great spices and oils, and much of the meat was either dried or roasted for your needs. The Mongols didn’t always eat meat. They drank mare’s milk or goat milk for the long winters they had, not killing as many animals. Killing for food in the winter didn’t profit, because then the animals didn’t reproduce as often as in the summer. However, meat was still prepared for cer-emonies, and it was great because the winter was frigid and tasteless.

The animals that were prepared were mostly sheep and goats. Goats could be used for milk, but they could also be great meals on the bone. Often, the meaty creatures were stewed and flavoured with various spices, a Mongolian delicacy. Horses were another meat, but they weren’t eaten as much be-cause they were tools for death. The milk from horses could be fermented and drunken at parties. The milk was quite good, and the meat from the horses, al-though not the best, could be prepared very well by the best cook or slave. Mongols ate almost any meat from any animal. However, this could bring diseases.

For the desert travellers, they had to have a liquid on them. Water and milk from mares was useful for travelling in the heat, and the beasts of burden, or camels, mostly did the work, and carried the traveller and the items.

Horses were also useful for being very fast trav-ellers. However, not for use for cross-country trade, and also they weren’t very good beasts of burden. In fact, horses were terrible beasts of burden because they were useless at travelling. Don’t use a horse, chump. However, they could still get to places very quickly if people needed to quickly buy stuff.

It is important to understand that the Mongols killed animals only for food, and the only other in-stance that they killed animals was in war. Killing ani-mals for fun was frowned upon and punishable.

J.A.

government and social hierarchyWe Mongols barely commit rules and laws under gov-ernment, unless the great Khan says to do so. We have


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not many laws because we have one ruler, group and party, the Great Khan.

It all started with our original Khan, Genghis, who was from a poor tribe with little to spare. Genghis’s wife got kidnapped by an opposing tribe and he set out for revenge and conquering. He decided to have his tribe attempt to take over the opposing tribe, but they decided to have them follow Genghis. The Great Khan ruled both tribes and started taking over Mongolia, and a bit of Serbia.

Genghis listed very few laws, but they were followed and obeyed until the disintegration of the empire. How he enforced them is the better story. He had them be laid down over life, meaning disobeying certain com-mands may lead to your demise. Very few lucky ones only got injured a bit or got robbed. Regular penalties equaled to severe injury or to rape. Execution was somewhat common.

This method of enforcing was strong and tight, but it made sure everyone followed, even the rich and the strong.

Since execution was a pretty common thing, there must’ve been quite a few reasons, right? Well, one reason was resisting to the Mongol empire when they came to invade your village, which meant that you were tortured and killed, and your village was burned and disposed of before it was repopulated. This was a rule for the front lines, because attacking a town just because you want to was a big waste of time, people, and money when you could just spot the white flag of surrender and conquer it without any harm. It was bet-ter for everyone that a town surrendered.

Travelling in Mongolia was a pain in the desert, and no one wanted to backtrack just to reclaim something that was dropped. If someone ahead of you dropped an important item like jewelry or food to trade, and you didn’t pick it up, severe consequences were had. What happened when that occured was that you would be executed on the spot where you didn’t pick up the item.

Another way to get rid of yourself in the most ridicu-lous way possible was mass murder or extensive injury to horses. Horses were very valuable to the ancient Mongols, and taking away their source for their power was heavily frowned upon. Murdering countless horses would get you killed in the most brutal way possible, like torture, and anyone who assisted would suffer too.

Another way to die was being a sneaky thief. Thiev-ery got you killed on the spot because it violated the laws of the Mongol empire. The Mongol empire didn’t allow any thieves because it upset the balance of trade


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and commerce. Thieves didn’t get any respect, but they got disrespect and a one-way ticket to the arrow-to-the-head performance, featuring the thief him/herself in the starring role. Vandalism also doomed you, but since there were barely any tools to vandalize with, it was uncommon. Vandalism still occurred, like if when someone tried to demolish a religious building, but it was frowned upon by the laws of the Mongol empire.

Genghis had rules that were mostly directed to slaves and the people on the frontlines of the war. Slaves had the worst of the discipline. Slaves were captured during the conquering, and they were treated poorly. Slaves were sent to war, but they weren’t honoured as much as the regular Mongol citizen.

For people that were being sent to war, they had to follow other rules. Genghis made sure that the front lines didn’t attack unless provoked. They only rushed and killed if the village didn’t surrender immediately, or had already prepared for the Mongols’ attack. Resis-tance would get a whole area demolished, captured, torn apart, and immediately obliterated.

Mongols’ strategies were incredibly devastating. They were very adaptive and could counter strategies very quickly and in the most devastating ways.

Leaders were chosen by elective monarchy, where the descendant was elected to be the main ruler of the Mongolian empire. Genghis was the original Khan, and was a ruler for a lengthy time before passing away. His son, Ögedei Khan, expanded the empire to vast areas such as southern Russia and central China be-fore passing. Ögedei was a great leader and had many sons.

The war for Great Khan was underway after the death. A feud for leader by Ögedei Khan’s sons and Genghis Khan’s descendants over who should be leader and who would expand the empire longer hap-pened. The feuding stopped when Güyük Khan seized control, but he really didn’t do anything. Möngke Khan, Genghis’s Khan’s grandson (not Ögedei’s son) then took rule and expanded the empire even more. Geng-his encouraged having the rulers chosen to keep from going from Genghis, Ögedei and then Ögedei’s son and so on. No one listened and crazy things happened. The “crazy things” were that the monarchy spun into an elective monarchy and some pretty stupid things hap-pened, like civil war, the empire splitting up, and the Chinese retaking their land.

J.A.


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home sweet homeOnce upon a time, living in Egypt long, long ago, lived a little boy named Amen. Amen had no night-light nor a comfy bed to sleep on. Ancient Egyptians, like Amen, didn’t build their houses out of wood. They built their houses out of mud. Yes, mud. They built their houses out of bricked mud. They had no lights, no phones and no electricity. Amen and his family were one of the very few low-class families who lived in houses with one- to three-roomed huts. Those rooms were the living room, the parents’ room and the children’s room. Amen had always wished to live in a bigger house with up to three floors and nine rooms like his friend Ahmed. Ahmed and his family were one of the many middleclass families of Ancient Egypt.

Though Ahmed was living in a nice big house, he had always wished to be wealthier than he already was. He wanted to be like Mahmoud, son of the pha-raoh. Mahmoud and his sister, Sahara, lived with their mother and father, also known as the pharaoh, along with servants and magic makers, in a house with more than seventy rooms and ten floors. Mahmoud and Sahara each had their own room with windows and beds, unlike Ahmed and Amen, who had old rugs on the floor for beds and holes in the walls for sunlight. If it got too hot, they would wet their clothes and put them on the walls, floors, porches and decks so that it wouldn’t be so hot anymore.

S.U.

Ancient egyPt


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What’s For dinner?Outside of Amen’s house was a little area they used as their kitchen. It’s where they cooked and ate. This night, Amen and his family were having humus and bread for dinner, and to top it off, they were having some fruits such as grapes, lemons and bananas, and some delicious milk from their dad’s farm. Ahmed, however, was having fish, corn, bread and humus. To top that off, they were having dates, grapes and wine. Though Ahmed and Amen have such scrump-tious dinners, Mahmud and Sahara basically had feasts every day. For dinner, they had milk, cheese, duck, beef, fish and gazelle meat. For dessert they had yummy cakes, bread and butter, pita bread and humus, and they also had some vegetables such as orange carrots, red and green peppers, and other fruits like mangoes and lemons.

After that, they had wine and their parents had beer. The beer they had was made out of mixed ber-ries; the wine was made from dates or palm. The bread was made out of wheat that farmers grew. Even though Ahmed and Amen weren’t as wealthy as Mahmoud and his sister, Sahara, they both under-stood why he got special treatment.

S.U.

the nile RiverThe river that separates the Western and Eastern Deserts is called the Nile River. The Nile River was known as the most important thing for the ancient Egyptians. The reason why the Nile was really impor-tant is because it was the river were everyone went to fish and hunt for ducks. And also because the Nile was their source of drinking, showering and cooking water. The Nile River was also a place where people used to go to have a feast of fruit such as bananas, lemons, mangoes, avocadoes and guava. Another reason why the Egyptians loved the Nile River was because there was a flower-like plant that carried cotton that the Egyptians used to make their clothes out of. They also used the cotton (also known as lin-en) to make the wrap for the pharaoh’s mummy.

S.U.


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governmentIn ancient Mexico there were two separate major groups of Aztec people. The two groups were com-moners and nobles. People who were noble were usually rich. For the nobles, they elected the tlatoani from among the men of the royal family. Once cho-sen, he ruled all the land and people inside the Aztec empire.

For the commoners, they usually lived in groups of families called calpulli. The calpulli were the most ba-sic form of government. Each calpulli had a council. Every calpulli elected their own separate leader. For nobles, they lived on tributes paid by commoners. Aztec commoners usually paid taxes with goods they had produced. Commoners also tended a noble’s crops or worked as his or her house servant for a certain number of days as payment for taxes.

T.N.

Cultural Celebrations and spiritualityIn ancient Mexico, both commoners and nobles held regular religious ceremonies during the year. Some of the events held were massive public events, where nobles and commoners were both able to come. The purpose of the ceremonies they held was to pray for fertile land and good harvest. The reason they did this was because they thought that for doing these ceremonies and dedicating them to the gods, the

the AZteceMPiRe


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god would give them good harvest and fertile land. For the ceremonies, women looked after their shrines and make loaves of dough as offerings for the gods. At the center of most ceremonies there was usually a human sacrifice. Thousands of victims died every year in the temples where they were sacrificed. Their major way of sacrificing people was from the removal of the heart. All they did was cut the person’s chest open with a knife and then took the heart out.

T.N.

tools and technologyIn ancient Aztec tools were quite deadly. Some of the tools they used were clubs and swords studded with razor-sharp flakes made of obsidian. Also, there were spears tipped with obsidian. All of those items were used in war and were all able to easily cut someone’s ear off. They also used a lot of bows and slings as another source of military weapons. For armor, they quilted cotton and soaked it in salty water, and then they dried it to set it rock hard.

For technology, an important item to them was the Aztec calendar. For the calendar, they took ideas about time from others, including the Mayans and some others. To them, they believed different gods controlled different days, different months, different years and different centuries. They definitely be-lieved god controlled time. For the calendar, not only did they have one calendar, but, in fact, they had two calendars. They used the calendars for both record-ing important moments and to help mark out what would happen in the future.

T.N.

FoodDo not bring a pet dog to Aztec times, for it may be eaten by Aztec citizens. In other words, Aztec people will eat your dogs. If you come and choose to not eat dogs and be more boring, try insects. It is quite fun to have insects, especially ants, grasshoppers and worms. Also, you can choose to have frogs, fishes and even birds. If not that, then try ducks, rabbits as well as turkeys.

If all those choices don’t match your style, try veg-etables like corn, beans, tomatoes, fruits and tortillas. Both rich and poor eat vegetables and fruit because they want to stay healthy.


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A drink that poor people can afford is called octli, which is only for special occasions. Beware, if you ever get drunk there will be harsh punishments and maybe even death. Another drink that only rich peo-ple can have is a chocolate drink. In fact, the Aztecs created chocolate, but only wealthy people could ever afford the cost.

T.N.


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FoodWhen I went to the far north for a visit about 100 years ago, I saw a whole lot of people eating a delicacy, which was. . . seal eyes! It creeped me out and al-most made me lose my lunch.

More everyday food the people ate was fish, elk, caribou, berries, nuts, bannock and pemmican. “What is pemmican?” you ask? Well it is meat, animal fat and berries mixed together, and shaped to look like cookies. It’s almost like an Inuit cookie.

Bannock is bread that has been baked over a flame while it is on a stick. It may sound weird to you but it is really, really tasty to them. Personally I don’t really like the taste of the stick on the bread, but at least it’s something other than seal’s eye.

Nuts and berries were harvested by the women in the village to be put in the food like pemmican and stew.

C.W.

theinuit


admiral seymour elementary & writers' exchange: a travel guide to ancient civilizations

Documents

ancient china

ancient rome

ancient chinese secret

ancient egypt

ancient mongolia

am32a travel guide

ancient indus valley

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