penny day

today was an unusual day in cie. for the first time ever in school i examined a penny. at first i didnt quite understand what we were doing and why this was necessary but by the end it all made sense. something like a penny is a perfect artifact to examine because it is so overlooked in our society. by taking a step back and removing ourselves from our society and trying to make as many educated guesses about whoever produced the penny i learned how telling something as simple as a penny can be. there are little details that tell all about our society. for example the words in god we trust reveal how central god and worship are in our society. if currency that is made by the government which is supposed to be separate from the church has an inscription about god then religion must influence many other parts of our lives that we may not realize. we are supposed to examine ancient texts and make discoveries about the societies that produced them. this will require the ability to take a step back and rid ourselves of previous experiences and notions that we may already have. the penny exercise helped me do that because it was something that i already knew about and i had to force myself to ignore what i already knew. as for gilgamesh, i dont know anything about his society or what life was like back then. all i have to go on is the text we are given. like the penny there are many details in these texts that must be given credit for their significance and what they mean about those ancient societies.