Interpreting the Primary Sources

PLEASE THE INSTUCTIONS Discussion 2: Interpreting the Primary Sources 2. What was the background of the document's author? Who were they and how did that possibly impact what they wrote? You can use other sources to find out the background of your source's author if they are identified. Be careful here. Editors are not authors. If you see "ed." after a name that means they edited the document but did not write it. Also translators are only translators, they did not write the document. Another thing to check is when a suspected author lived. A person who lived in the 1800s (CE) did not write a document from the BCE era. 2. What was the author's general thesis (or basic message) they wished to convey through the document? 3. Who do you think the author's intended audience was? 4. What did you find most interesting historically about this document? Remember you can use any of the online documents from Weeks 1 to 3; all of them can be accessed via the Weekly Introductions in each Week's conference. One last key point, most of these documents have an editor or a translator, they are not the author of the document. No one who was alive in the 19th or 20th Century could have written a document that is over 2000 years old. So pay careful attention to who the author of your document is in part 1. Online Readings for Chapter Three (Egypt): 1. Hymn to the Nile: http://www(dot)fordham(dot)edu/halsall/ancient/hymn-nile.html 2. Pyramid Construction: http://www(dot)pbs(dot)org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/explore/ 3. The Dead Pharaoh Ascends to Heaven:http://www(dot)mircea-eliade(dot)com/from-primitives-to-zen/166.html 4. Herodotus: Mummification, from The Histories: http://www(dot)fordham(dot)edu/halsall/ancient/herodotus-mummies.html 5. Egyptian Love Poetry: http://www(dot)fordham(dot)edu/halsall/ancient/2000egypt-love.html