Monday, October 31, 2016

PBL Blog Post

This is my PBL. It was challenging to find information about the Horse and Chariot races to write on my report.  I will tell you the sequence of how I made my PBL Artefact.
1st I cut out the cardboard and taped it together to make the booklet
2nd I write ANCIENT OLYMPIC GAMES on the front cover in Box letters.
3rd I drew the big olive leaf thingy on the front and coloured it.
4th I coloured the letters different shades of blue
5th I drew the shield that had Open To Find About Ancient Olympics.
6th I coloured the shield.
7th I printed my report and cut it into pieces.
8th I glued the report pieces in the inside of booklet.
9th I write by Lachlan Bishop
Then I was done.


This is my report.


Introduction
The Ancient Olympic Games were the most popular sporting event on Ancient Greece.  There were all different types of sports such as horse and chariot and racing to boxing and wrestling.  Also there was a mixture of many contact sports (Martial Arts, Wrestling etc.) called the Pankration where only the toughest of athletes contested.  The games were held for five days before they ended.  The winners were awarded a prize.  But they weren’t medals.  Read on to find out.

Beginning
The games were first played in 776 BC in Olympia, which is near the city of Elis.  The only event was a short 200 yard dash in the stadium.  Originally competitors wore a toga for the running race but during one race a man took of his toga and loin cloth (ancient greek underwear) so he could ran faster.  He ended up winning the race.  From then on, athletes competed in the nude.  Sometimes the competitors rubbed olive oil all over their bodies so their bodies would look smooth and muscular.

 Before the events start all athletes, their fathers and trainers  must swear an oath to Zeus that they have trained for 10 months and will obey the rules.  The Ancient Olympics were always held in Olympia.  All the sports were either held in the stadium or the Hippodrome.  On the first day the juniors (12-18 year olds) have their running, boxing and wrestling.  Same as today, the Olympics are held every 4 years in August.

Sacrifice
After the athletes have sworn their oath, they go to one of the many altars placed around the altis to give a sacrifice to Zeus such as a liquid offering etc. etc.  In the morning of day 3, 100 ox are sacrificed to Zeus. All of the ox are given by the people of Elis, the city responsible for the Ancient Olympics.  This is the most important event of the games.

 All the athletes and ambassadors from the city-states formed a procession around the Altis (The sanctuary of the gods).  The Procession winds around Hera’s Temple, the Treasuries and the Temple Of Zeus.  They finally halt at the great altar.  At the altar, the thigh bones, wrapped in fat, are placed by the priests on the altar and they are burnt.  The smoke rises to the gods in the sky.  The rest of the ox are saved for a feast.

Running Races
The 200  yard (192 meters) dash was the first ever event in the Ancient Olympics, as for a long time the quick running race was the only event in the olympics, as the Ancient Olympics were originally intentioned to be training for a war.  However the Olympics evolved into a sports event.  The Blast on the herald’s trumpet signals the start if the race.  The race is one length of the stadium.  There was a 400 yard (284 meters) run, which was two laps of the stadium.

Before the 200 yard dash, there is the marathon, which is about 5 kilometers long (3 miles).  During the race athletes will push each other about even try to deliberately trip others.  The last event of the Ancient Olympics is the Hoplitodromos, which is a race with armour on.  The athletes wear a helmet, greaves and a shield.  The run is the same length as the 200 yard dash but is of course harder because of the armor on.  The race first appeared in 520 BC and was the last foot race to be added to the Ancient Olympics.  The use of greaves was abandoned in 450 BC but it was still a decent weight to carry.  Before the greaves were abandoned, the weight was about 22 Kilograms (50 pounds).  Twenty-five shields were kept in the temple of Zeus to ensure that no one cheated using a lighter shield.

Contact Sports
There were three fighting sports in the Ancient Olympics.  They were Boxing, Wrestling and a very dangerous sport known as all-in wrestling or the Pankration.  Boxing may seem not as dangerous as wrestling, but it was.  The athletes had strips of leather around their wrists.  The fighters would get bruised and battered, but wouldn’t give up hope in winning the event.  The fight would go on until one competitor either surrendered or got killed.  It was the same for wrestling.  When a fighter gets his opponent's back or shoulders on the ground and holds it there, it is given as a ‘fall’.  If one athlete get’s 3 ‘falls’, then they are the losers and the other fighter is the winner.  There is no time limit, like in modern wrestling.

 The Pankration is the most dangerous out of all 3 and requires both the skills of boxing and wrestling.  The only rules were no biting and eye-gouging.  But athletes sometimes did both.  The competitors could pull the others hair, strangle them, and stomp on them if they got them on the ground.  It was very dangerous.  The only ways the violent sport ended was the if the athlete gave up or got killed (like boxing and wrestling).  When the Olympics were restarted in 1896, the Pankration was the only sport not to be reawakened.

Chariot/Horse Racing
Chariot and Horseback racing were the first events held in the Ancient Olympics.  The chariot races may seem safer than some sports, but they are not.  They are dangerous and racers  are allowed to bang into another's chariot and try to make them fall off.  This event and the horseback racing is the only events where women could win a prize since the winners were actually the owners of the horse, not the jockey.

 Once the chariot races are done, the horseback races start.  These races are a lot shorter than the chariot race, this being only one lap of the arena.  The riders ride bareback and sometimes the riders fall off and hurt themselves.  The horses that take part in the race are owned by wealthy people, but they mostly don’t race.

Pentathlon
The Pentathlon is a competition which has five sports.  In the Ancient Olympics the sports were Discus, Javelin, Long Jump, Wrestling and running.  The first event was the discus were the athletes had to throw a stone, later iron, lead, or bronze, disc as far as they can.  The discus weighed about 2½ kilograms.  The second event was the javelin.  For this, the athletes had to run a short distance with the javelin in their hand and through as far as they could when they got to the starting line (it was on the running track).  Sometimes when the athletes threw they attached a leather loop to where they threw it since it made go further.

 The third event was the long  jump.  The jumping technique is way different than what is used today.  Modernly the athletes have a run up and then jump.  Back in ancient Greece the athletes had to swing weights in their hands and when they gained enough momentum, they jumped as far as they could into a sand pit.  If an athlete had won the first three sports, then the pentathlon was over and the running and wrestling weren’t required.  However if that had not happened.  The run is the 200 yard dash and the wrestling is the same.  The winner is declared to be all round athlete.

Women at the Olympics
In the Ancient Olympics married women were not allowed to compete or watch.  On the other hand, Unmarried women were allowed to watch.  If a lady tried to sneak in and was caught, they would be punished.  The ‘punishments’ were basically ways of getting killed.  One punishment was being pushed off the side of Mount Olympus!  Women also had their own festival called heraia in honour of Zeus’s wife Hera.  In Heraia unmarried women were allowed to compete and married women were allowed to watch.  No one knows if men were allowed to watch.  Many  married ladies tried to sneak in and watch their relatives.  However, once a lady was so desperate to watch her son that she got in as a man!


Feasting and Ending
At the end of day 2, 3 and 5, there was a feast for all athletes and their relatives.  Day 2’s feast was a parade around the Altis.  The winners of the events have hymns sung to them.  On day 3 the meat from the morning’s sacrifice is split between the athletes, special guests such as the ambassadors from other cities, and the spectators.  On day 5, after the all the events have been finished, there is a procession around the Altis, with all the athletes and their families.

 Then comes the moment that every athlete dreams of: stepping up and receiving a prize for winning their event.  The prize is a wreath of olive leaves from a sacred olive tree.  The wreath is like a crown and it is placed  on the athlete's head as all the ribbons are thrown at the athletes.  The final event of the Ancient Olympics is the feasting and the parties.  Everyone eats and sings, knowing it will be four years before this happens again.

Conclusion
Now that you know a lot more about the history of the currently most popular sporting event in the world, maybe you should think about becoming an athlete.  What would you play? Sports that weren’t in Ancient Greece such as basketball, swimming or archery?  Or maybe sports that were in Greece like, running, boxing or wrestling?  Whatever sport, if you want to have an Olympic games under your belt, go out and start training.

      

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