Unit 3: Early Civilizations and the Emergence of Pastoral Peoples: 4,000 to 1,0000 B

Unit 3: Early Civilizations and the Emergence of Pastoral Peoples: 4,000 to 1,000 B.C.E. (ERA 2).

Lesson 1: What are Civilizations?

Big Ideas of the Lesson

 The term “civilization” is used to describe larger groups of people living together in one place in more complex societies with social hierarchies (this word refers to the way in which people in groups interact with each other within a society) and specialization of labor.  During this era, between 4000 and 1000 BCE, this new way of living began to develop in different parts of the world.  Geography played a key role in shaping the location of the earliest civilizations. They tended to develop in river valleys where there was access to water and fertile soil for highly productive agriculture as well as large mammal and plants suitable for domestication. These civilizations also developed at similar latitudes with similar, temperate climates.  Civilizations were made possible by the development of more intensive agriculture, and at the same time, they required people to farm even more intensively.  With more people and more resources in one place, culture developed along with laws and written language. The development of writing signaled the beginning of recorded history. Lesson Abstract: In this lesson students consider the definition of the term “civilization” and discuss how historians use this word.

Students review the chronology of the past unit and compare it to the time span of this unit.

The primary focus of the lesson, however, is to help students analyze the role of geography in the development of early civilizations along key river valleys in Afroeurasia.

Students study pictures, maps, and data tables and work in small groups or with partners to look for evidence to support Diamond’s theory.

The lesson concludes with an exit slip asking students to describe something surprising or new they learned in the lesson.

Lesson Sequence

1. Look at the illustrations of Catal Hoyuk and Ur in the “Early Civilizations.... The Why of the Where” PowerPoint Presentation for Unit 3, Lesson 1 Slide 2.

Stop and Jot a response to the following questions (included on the PowerPoint slide):  What differences do you see between these places?  How would life be different in each one?  Which one lines up more with your idea of “civilization” and why?

2. Turn and Talk about what you wrote. Share your ideas. Two or three pairs will share their thoughts when called upon 3. KNOW: that the title of the era you are now going to study is “Early Civilizations and the Emergence of Pastoral Peoples: 4000-1000 BC/BCE.”

a). Following the prompts in the PowerPoint, brainstorm a list of any words that come to mind when they hear the word civilization (Slide 3).

b). List common responses in your journal.

c). Discuss some of the responses and ask students where you have heard these words and why they come to mind.

4. Think-Pair-Share around these questions on Slide 4 of the PowerPoint:  Does civilization mean better?  Were cavemen civilized?  Is being civilized the same thing as living in a civilization?  Are there communities of people today who are not civilized?

Whole Class Discussion  Share what you have talked about in their discussions.

 What does it mean to be civilized?

 Compare the images that are called to mind by the word “cavemen” as compared to the phrase “Paleolithic forager.”

Which one sounds more “civilized?” Please know that the words refer to the same group of people. There is evidence, for example, that Neanderthal people buried their dead and cared for their elderly... Is a sign of civilization or not?

5. Slide 5. Review the concept of civilization embedded in the PowerPoint. Remember, “civilization” is not better than other forms of human societies, but that it is certainly very different.

The term “civilization” is used to describe larger groups of people living together in one place in more complex societies with social hierarchies and specialization of labor. During this era, between 4000 and 1000 BC, this new way of living began to develop in different parts of the world.

Turn and Talk to discuss what they think “social hierarchies” and “specialization of labor” are.

Brainstorming: Brainstorm (suggest) a list of defining characteristics (uniqueness, typical features, or qualities used to identify something) for civilizations.

Think-Aloud by the Teacher (Describing the characteristics of East).  How do you know a place is a school and not an apartment building?  How are they different?” Create a list of characteristics in your School Apartment Building Where people go to learn Where people live

You will do something similar as you think about the characteristics of a civilization.

Try and list between 5 and 8 characteristics for both civilizations and foraging societies on a T-chart.

Think about the following questions to help you get started. You will find the following questions on PowerPoint Slide 6:  How were humans living before civilizations?

 What makes living in a civilization different from living in a foraging community?

 What did you see in the pictures in the opening activity that made you think one place was more of a civilization than another?

 What does a place have to have to be a civilization?

 How did people get food in foraging communities? What about in civilizations? 7. You will re-visit these ideas later as they learn more about civilizations, and that you will add to this list

8. Please KNOW: the time frame in which civilization developed was actually quite short in terms of the long span of human history.

It is time to EXPLORE! the chronology and time span, and also review some important ideas of the last lesson.

To provide a temporal context for this era, look back to the time span for Era 1 (Prehistory through the Neolithic Revolution and up to around 4000 BCE).

It covered a time span of over 200,000 years.

Era 2 (4,000 BCE to 1000 BCE) covers a period of 3000 years. GUESS! Why do you think this Era might be 197,000 years shorter?

ANSWER the FOLLOWING: What do you think the turning point was between Era 1 and Era 2?

What changed? The key point to bring out here is that the Eras are about patterns of life. When a new pattern emerges across the globe historians consider it as a turning point and the beginning of a new era

Referring back to the timeline activities students did in Unit 2: KNOW and UNDERSTAND:  Our entire Era 2 is really just a tiny blip on this large scale.

 It represents important new developments in how people lived.

 To visually demonstrate the difference in time scales between Era 1 and Era 2 (200,000 years to 3,000 years), choose one of the following options:

a). Compare a length of 16 feet 7 inches to 3 inches. Each 1 inch is equal to 1000 years in this scale. b.) Compare a container with 200 pennies to one with only 3 pennies (one penny is equal to 1,000 years).

 Use the PowerPoint Slide 7. Remind students that Era 2 is just a span of time that some historians have decided to represent a distinct period of world history. To compare, look in your textbook to see what sort of period or era the years 4000-1000 BC/BCE are categorized in.

9. Discussion Questions: bottom of the PowerPoint Slide 7. Be prepared to share your ideas.

Why is one Era so much longer than the other? Era 1 is much longer than Era 2 because change during the first era of human history was much slower, and a new era did not begin until the major way of life changed.

Why do you think change may have happened faster once agriculture developed?

Know: More people living closer together created new opportunities for learning and sharing information and sped up the pace of change. With more people, there were more ideas being exchanged, and also more opportunities to improve and expand upon ideas in one generation (one lifetime).

Journal Note:  What makes an Era an Era? There is a major change in the way humans are relating to each other and/or their environment. In this case, humans in Era 1 were foraging and adapting to the environment, but in Era 2 more humans began to farm and more actively manage the environment around them.

10.Now YOU are going to switch from a temporal or time based – frame to a spatial or place based – frame to analyze the development of early civilizations.

Project Slide 8 from the PowerPoint: a). Stop and Jot, and then Turn and Talk in response to the questions below the map.

 This map shows the location of early river valley civilizations. We know this because the title of the map tells us this. We also know this because of what locations are noted on the map.  This map is not drawn to scale, and this means that this particular projection distorts or changes the relative sizes, locations, and shapes of the continents and bodies of water. Remember that all map projections distort the appearance of the earth in different ways because they change a 3-D object to a 2 dimensional representation, as we saw with the orange activity in Unit 1. You are now going to E X P A N D the definition of civilization. 11.Use Slide 9 to introduce students to two definitions of civilization. a). Turn and Talk about how the definitions are similar and different. b). Share your thoughts with the class

12.Use Slide 10: helps to explain that not everyone lived in one of these civilizations.

Please Know: a). More people probably lived outside of them than in them. b). The map is designed to show the civilizations and does not address anything about people outside of these areas. The areas on the map outside of these civilizations were not empty, although the map gives that appearance.

Guess:  Using the definition civilization on the slide, make conjectures (guesses) about how people might have lived in areas outside of these civilizations.

Stop and Jot:  Use the definition to distinguish between life in a civilization and life elsewhere (so, if civilizations had writing systems, maybe some people living in other areas did not yet have writing systems).

13.Return to the World Map of the ancient civilizations, displayed again on Slide 11. Carefully study the map and make predictions about WHY the civilizations might have been located WHERE they were.

Stop and Jot. Turn and Talk: What do you notice about where they were located? Why do you think that is the case?

Also: Think about where civilizations are NOT and look for patterns in that way.

14. See Slide 12. The concept of “Geographic Luck” is used to help explain why civilizations developed where they did.

Work with your Turn and Talk partner to make predictions or inferences about what this term might mean by listing out what a “geographically lucky” place might have. Remember what types of things foragers used and looked for in their environments.

Think about what conditions were necessary for people to stay in one place and survive (and eventually prosper).

Sharer ideas, and list out key in your journal.

15. Slide 13 Read the text about Geographic Luck on Slide 13 Also see “Handout 1- Geographic Luck” located in the Supplemental Materials (Unit 3, Lesson 1)).

Re-visit the list generated about the characteristics of a geographically lucky place.

Add any new ideas generated by reading the text.

16.Move to Slide 14. Stop and Jot ideas for the rectangle in the chart. What were the results of geographic luck? Read Handout: Geographic Luck (if you have not already done so).

An Analysis Activity 1. Students use a graphic organizer handout to take notes on the features of geographic luck.

2. See Slide 15. It will be used to take notes as you view and analyze maps and information in the upcoming PowerPoint slides. Take out Handout 2, “Geographic Luck Analysis Sheet” located in the Supplemental Materials (Unit 3, Lesson 1).

Students will be describing the locations and geographic features of these early civilizations to look for patterns and answer the questions “Where were these civilizations?” and “What resources were available to them?”

Take Notes on the Following Slides: 16-20 17.Take notes in the appropriate column on their chart. I will explain the importance and significance of the information at the end of the activity.

Slides 16 – 20:  Continent and region (Slide 16) – students analyze regions, both continents and parts of continents, and even modern day nations.

 Latitude (Slide 17) – students focus in on the similar latitudes at which these civilizations developed (around 30 degrees North).

 Latitude and climate (Slide 18) – students notice that the civilizations tended to develop where temperate and tropical climates met. The graphic oversimplifies the lines -- there is more of a transitional zone between the climate zones, and that is where civilization developed.

 Large seeded grasses (Slide 19) students notice the number of large seeded grasses available in each region, and also point out the concentration of these plants in the Mediterranean.

 Large mammals for domestication (Slide 20) students match up the names of the civilizations and their regions with the regions listed on the chart.

Record names of the animals available in each region.

18.Once the charts are complete: Look at the information on the slide, and your handout, related to the Mississippi and Amazon Rivers. Please Understand and Know: All early civilizations did not develop around all major rivers.

Use the information on the chart to hypothesize why. Write the information in your journal.

19.Let’s look at and discuss: Slides 21 through 23 Highlight the following topics – Latitude and Climate, Grasses, and Large Mammals.

Take Notes on the handout: “Important Factors for the Development of Early Civilizations” located in the Supplemental Materials (Unit 3, Lesson 1)

After note taking, see Slide 21: I will model how you would summarize the most important information with a think-aloud. If you are absent, you will have to seek the assistance of an and adult or try to do the exercise yourself.

Now it is your turn: Summarize the most important ideas about why large seeded grasses and large mammals mattered for civilization.

20.Complete Slides 21-23. a. Students time to take notes regarding information on the slides. b. Students Turn and Talk to share what they wrote. c. We will check for understanding by asking a few pairs to share. d. We will highlight important notes.

Small Groups: Reflection Time Using Slide 24 Questions 21.Reflect upon what you have learned in small groups using the questions on Slide 24. In groups of 3 or 4: Each group needs a recorder and a spokesperson, time-keeper and clarifier.

a. Groups will be given time to discuss each question. b. Groups will be given time to report out to the class their general conclusions about the connections between geography and civilization development.

Exit Pass 22.Students write down something surprising or new they learned during this lesson on a sticky note. 23. Assessment The student presentations from Step 21 and the exit pass from Step 22 serve as the assessments for this lesson. Unit 3: Early Civilizations and the Emergence of Pastoral Peoples: 4,000 to 1,0000 B.C.E. (ERA 2).

Lesson 3: What Were Early Civilizations Like?

Big Ideas of the Lesson

 Agrarian civilizations during Era 2 shared many common characteristics like social hierarchies, central rulers, and advanced culture and technology.  Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, for example, both had polytheistic religions (many gods), complex social hierarchies, and long periods of rule by a central authority (King or Pharaoh in these cases). They also traded with each other.  To learn about life and society in these places so long ago, historians build their “stories” or accounts of the past by corroborating (confirm and represent evidence of the truth) multiple sources of evidence.  Using different sources, they look for patterns, or commonalities and differences, between the accounts in order to make conclusions about these different societies.

Lesson Abstract:  In this lesson, students engage in case studies of ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

 They examine secondary accounts of these civilizations to develop an overview of their primary social institutions (religions, government, education, art, etc).

 Next, they examine (study), analyze (look at the WHOLE and break it into parts, and synthesize evidence from primary source documents to create their own accounts of civilization in either Egypt or Sumer (Mesopotamia).

 In doing so, students review the idea that historians question documents’ sources, read sources critically, and then create “accounts” of the past.  By engaging in these processes, students take up historical practices and historical ways of knowing.

Make Note cards of the Following:

Key Concepts civilization evidence power and authority river valley civilizations social hierarchy specialization

Lesson Sequence

A Historical Problem:

What was life like in Era 2?

 Consider what evidence or information we would need to solve this problem.

 What evidence did we use from Era 1 to figure out what life was like?