We had a History activity in class a week back. We were given a set of 6-8 pictures, and were supposed to imagine our own civilization. WOW! But, we came to know later, that we were supposed to be graded for this. So, no fooling around. It was suppose to be done in a group. So, I teamed up with my best friend, Aishvarya, and 2 other classmates (Referred to as C1 and C2).
So we, had 2 periods' time. And lunch. Anyway, all of us sat around a table, and started discussing. We analyzed the 6 pictures we had, not knowing where to begin. All of them were very vague, so we gave up and started to think of a name for our civilization. A name... something unique, umm... I realized, that Aishvarya and I were the only ones thinking. C1 and C2 were just joking around.
RRRINGGGG!!!!
The bell rang. C1 and C2 looked immensley relieved. Saved by the bell kind of look. They quickly said 2 words of apology and promised to contribute. Later. Well, I guess we would have to wait then. So, after a nice cheese sandwich, we went to meet another BFF of ours, Srishti. She told us about her project and the name. 'The Emerald Civilization'. Pretty cool huh? What's more, she also made up a cool story:
Thousands of years ago, The Earth was not the way it looks like now, (not in the obvious way) instead of rocks, there were emeralds. All was well, until, one day, the Floods came. Huge waves from the ocean devoured the land and all its people. Only 11 survived... just enough to keep the human species endangered, not extinct. Now, if you look at the clean ocean, what you see is green water, and guess why? Because the emeralds are still there somewhere underneath.
DING!!! That's the light bulb going over our heads - Aishvarya's and mine... in sync, like always.
Our pictures looked like people back then were really into arts and architecture. So we could name the project - 'The Emporium Of Magic'!!!
So, all we need was the rest of our team - who were by the way, missing. How frustrating. We decided to take the matter in our own hands. We sat down in a corner and started writing about our forgotten world...
(Sorry it isn't the same picture, tried very hard to find)
Pic 1: This shows a temple in construction. Next to the construction site, is a water body. There are 2 ships which were used for transportation. The ships were used to transport supplies, food for the water and often also carried slaves. Slavery was prominent in that area and were used to build pyramids. The people were very clever and used cubes for the building of a pyramid like structure.
Pic 2:This is the map of the city. A city plan with landmarks and a water body around. Also, this shows ships and intricately drawn land - which shows that the people knew the art of cartography very well. Here, a compass is also shown. The use of paper should also be noted.
Pic 3: This is the king which in that era was a representative of God on Earth. We deduce that this is a king because he is wearing an elaborately decorated crown, which is a sign of aristocracy. Also, he is wearing earrings, and bracelets on each wrist. His posture and jewellery, combined, tells us that he was an important person of that era.
Pic 4:This tells us about the fact that they had scripture and presented it on a slab of stone, which is not severely broken. We believe that they used hard metal to write on slabs.
Heiligegeest">Pic 5: These are the remains of the assembly hall. The assembly hall was the place where the people of the city wold meet and discuss various issues. The civilization had some extremely diligent city planners. This is proved by the structure of the assembly hall, which has passed the test of time and still stands tall.
Pic 6: You can see the picture here. The people were greatly influenced by music and dance. They knew the use of various instruments (namely reed instruments) like the flute. They also knew the art of pottery, and made ceramic pots, and also painted them.
'The Emporium of Magic was an era of culture at its best. Where people had faith in innovation and new ideas were invited, and most of the time, put to force.
The King was believed to have mystical powers. He was the representative of God, and would help his subjects bu summoning the Gods in the time of plight.
There were talented bronze smiths and goldsmiths. Heavy ornaments were worn by the rich, whereas the poor wore shell, bone and ivory jewellery. Simple pieces of cloth tied in a complex manner were worn by both man and women.
Dance and music was considered an outlet of all their fatigue and exhaustion after a day's work.'
3 comments:
That was a great post, your narrative skills are really good, i love the way you describe a scene and the writing is so natural, its as if I can see it all, esp the C1 C2 am sure they were dorky guys!! loved the emporium and its culture!!
You were given pictures and you came up with all this in 2 periods time and that too without the help of the CC's?? Awww I would have fallen sick and preferred to be taken to the nurse rather than working my brain. You are very good at narration :)
@sujata: C1, C2 are plain lazy!
@sakshi: I usually save that for the maths class
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