Step One: An Evening with John Green: Crash Course World History (Watch videos and answer the questions) 1) How do we have evidence of hunter gatherers (H-G) and their lifeways? 2) What advantages did (H-G) have over early agriculturalists? 3) Where did agriculture emerge? Which food crops are associated with which areas? 4) What are the advantages and disadvantages of agriculture? 5) What impact does agriculture have on the environment? 6) What advantages do you think that Eurasia had with its zoological set of animals compared to the Americas? 7) If (H-G) had a Better and Healthier lifestyle, why did people become agriculturalists? 8) What do historians say are the drawbacks to complex civilizations and agriculture? 1) How is the concept of civilization a useful construct? When is it not a useful construct? 2) How does John Green define what constitutes a civilization? How does this compare to other definitions of civilization you have learned? 3) Where did the earliest civilizations emerge? Why there? 4) Why was the Indus River Valley (IVC) a prime location? How did the environment impact the people who lived there? 5) What evidence exists of long-distance trade and with whom? 6) What appears to be unique about the IVC, based on your knowledge of other civilizations? 1) John Green begins by discussing one of the most obvious consequences of agriculture What is it and what are the most immediate consequences for those societies? 2) How does Mesopotamia compare with the Indus River Valley (IRV)? Identify both similarities and differences. Think of why a specific similarity and a specific difference might exist. (This is analysis; one of the more challenging skills you will need to develop). 3) Cuneiform: What three points does John Green make about the advent of writing? A) B) C) 4) What was Hammurabi s most significant contribution? 5) What appears to be unique about the IVC, based on your knowledge of other civilizations?
1) What point is John Green making about the different lenses we use when we study history? 2) How did the Nile River shape the worldview of the Egyptians? How did this compare to the Mesopotamian worldview? 3) How was the Egyptian civilization different from most other river valley civilizations? Why do you think this was? 4) What does the construction of the pyramids represent? (Not what was the purpose of the pyramids? ) 5) What was the motivation for building the pyramids?? (Not what was the purpose of the pyramids? ) 6) What protected Egypt from outside peoples? How were the Egyptians eventually conquered by Semitic peoples of the Middle East? 1) What do textbooks normally do to the river valley civilizations? 2) What do Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, etc. Have in common? A) TRADE: What did underwater archeologists find on the shipwreck? B) WAR: What was one of the main drivers of economic growth? C) FAMILY: How did these civilizations share familial relationships? 3) What are we really talking about when we use the word civilization? 4) What happened around 1200BCE to Mycenaean, Minoan, Hittites, and partially Egypt? A) What caused this? B) What is the theory of Archaeoseismologists? 5) How does the interdependence in the Bronze Age help lead to its downfall? Step Two: Reading Assignment: pages 114-125 Comparing Life & Afterlife in Mesopotamia and Egypt through Document Sources Document 3.1 - In Search of Eternal Life: The Epic of Gilgamesh (114-118) Document 3.2 - Laws and Justice in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Law Code of Hammurabi (119-121) Document 3.3 - The Afterlife of a Pharaoh: A Pyramid Text (121-122) Document 3.4 - A New Basis for Egyptian Immortality: Book of the Dead (122-123) Document 3.5 - The Occupations of Old Egypt: Be a Scribe (123-125)
Mesopotamia Political 3.1 The Epic of Gilgamesh Q1: What are Gilgamesh s positive qualities / accomplishments? Q2: What are his negative qualities? Q3: What fraction man / divine is he? Q4: Where does his legitimacy to rule come from? Mesopotamia Religion 3.1 The Epic of Gilgamesh Q5: How is the afterlife explained in this epic? (Identify / Explain / Example) Q6: What philosophy of life comes across to Gilgamesh from Utnapishtim? Q7: How does the Epic of Gilgamesh portray the gods and their relationship to human kind? Mesopotamia Economics and Social Life 3.2 Code of Hammurabi Q8: How might you describe the economics of the region? What conclusions can you make about the economics? Q9: What distinct social groups are mentioned in the code? Q10: What rights did women enjoy? What restrictions? Q11: What can you infer from the code about the kind of social problems that afflicted Mesopotamia? Q12: Does your social rank impact your justice? (Identify/Explain and provide an example)
Egyptian Religion 3.3 A Pyramid Text Q13: How is the afterlife of a pharaoh represented in this text? Q14: How does it compare with the depictions of The Epic of Gilgamesh? Egyptian Religion 3.4 Book of the Dead Q15: On what basis are the users of the Negative Confession making their claim for eternal life? Q16: What does the Negative Confession suggest about the sources of conflict and discord in Egypt? Q17: How do these compare with the social problems revealed in the Code of Hammurabi? Egyptian Education and Social Status 3.5 Be a Scribe Q18: What might historians learn from this text about the occupational and social structure of Egypt? Q19: What advantages does a scribal position offer, based off the document? Q20: What timeless frustrations of a teacher are evident in this text?
Step Three: Know the regions of the world (Closer Look) be able to identify any country based on the region. (China = East Asia, India = South Asia) China Brazil Egypt Guatemala India Indonesia South Africa Japan Mexico Turkey Congo Haiti Ethiopia Vietnam Spain Peru etc