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This module focused on how childhood for girls and boys was influence by Confucian philosophy and values would require altering, but it comes with some suggested focus points and a number of adaptable primary documents.

https://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/teaching-modules/187?section=lessonplan

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Teaching Module

Lesson Plan: Ancient China

by Jessica Hodgson

Time Estimated: three 50-minute classes

Prior Knowledge
Students will need to have an understanding of Confucian values in order to complete this lesson.

Objectives

1. Analyze the role that education and Confucian values play in childhood in Ancient China.

2. Compare the educational opportunities available to girls and boys in Ancient China.

3. Analyze how these differences demonstrate Confucian values.

Day One

Warm Up: The American Education System
Students will think about and answer some questions about their education. They will then share those answers out with the class.

Brainstorm
Students will brainstorm a list of Confucian ideals as a class.

Document Analysis
Divide the students into pairs and assign each pair one of the documents to read. They should complete the document analysis sheet. Using what they have learned from their document, they should identify specific quotes from the documents that demonstrate how education reflects Confucian values. They will then share what they have learned from the document with the rest of the class. Other students will record the responses on additional document analysis sheets.

Day Two

Poster Activity
Using the documents, students will work in groups of 3 to create posters. Divide the groups and randomly assign the students a topic for their poster (either a poster that is an advertisement for a girls' school in Ancient China or a poster that is an advertisement for a boys' school in Ancient China)

The posters should meet the following criteria:

The title/name of the school

A slogan that would make someone want to go to the school

At least two neat and colorful illustrations that show what kinds of lessons someone would be taught in the school

Students will share their posters with the class

Homework
For homework, students will prepare for a Socratic Seminar.

Day Three: Socratic Seminar

Students will participate in a Socratic Seminar in which they will discuss the following questions:

What seems to be the purpose of the American education system? How do you know? (Give examples)

What seems to be the purpose of the Ancient Chinese education system? How do you know? (Give examples)

Why are educational systems necessary?

How do governments use educational systems to further their goals for the country?

Directions for a Socratic Seminar

Understand the question(s) for the seminar.

Read the source(s).

Take notes from the sources to help you answer the question(s).

Comment about one of the following (5 pts.)

1. information in the sources

2. validity of evidence used by the author(s)

3. the strength of the argument (thesis)

4. to respond to a question asked by someone else

5. to respond to a comment made by someone else

Ask a question about one of the following (5 pts.)

1. information in the sources, e.g., vocabulary

2. validity of evidence used by the author(s)

3. the strength of the argument (thesis)

4. to respond to a question asked by someone else

5. to respond to a comment made by someone else

Maximum of 10 points per student.

How to Cite This Source

Anne Kinney, "Ancient China," in Children and Youth in History, Item #187, https://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/items/show/187 (accessed October 26, 2021).

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Teaching Module by Jessica Hodgson Time Estimated: three 50-minute classes Prior Knowledge Students will need to have an understanding of Confucian values in order to complete this lesson. Analyze the role that education and Confucian values play in childhood in Ancient China. Compare the educational opportunities available to girls and boys in Ancient China.

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Advice from a Mexica (Aztec) mother to her daughter, recorded in the 16th century.

https://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/443

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Primary Source

Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún recorded this text in the mid-16th century as part of an effort to gather information about native Aztec history and customs. Sahagún went to Mexico in 1529 as one of the first missionaries assigned to the newly conquered territory of New Spain. He remained there until his death, preaching and instructing youth in Spanish, Latin, science, religion, and music. He acquired mastery of the Aztec language and collected information to help missionaries and government officials convert the indigenous people to Christianity.

The 12-volume manuscript included text, illustrations, and a grammar of the Aztec language. Completed in 1569, authorities in Spain did not want the work published in New Spain for fear of encouraging the continuation of indigenous practices. It was first published in 1829 as Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España, with an English translation in 1831.

The advice given to a young daughter, likely near marriageable age, in this excerpt reflects the Aztec (Nahua) philosophy of personal balance in earthly life. Moral, psychological, and physical health related to well-being, righteousness, and purity. Compare this advice with the counsel offered to young boys. In what ways does the advice for daughters differ from that of sons, and how does each relate to the principle of balance and the dangers of earthly life?

Bernardino de Sahagún, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. VI., Cap. XIX, "Advice of an Aztec Mother to Her Daughter," in William Hickling Prescott, Wilfred Harold Munro, William Robertson, and George Ticknor, The Works of William H. Prescott (J. B. Lippincott, 1904), Appendix, Part II. (accessed March 5, 2009). Annotated by Susan Douglass.

Primary Source Text

My beloved daughter, very dear little dove, you have already heard and attended to the words which your father has told you. They are precious words, and such as are rarely spoken or listened to, and which have proceeded from the bowels and heart, in which they were treasured up; and your beloved father well knows that you are his daughter, begotten of him, are his blood, and his flesh; and God our Lord knows that it is so. Although you are a woman, and are the image of your father, what more can I say to you than has already been said? What more can you hear than what you have heard from your lord and father, who has fully told you what it is becoming for you to do and to avoid. . . .

Nevertheless, that I may do towards you my whole duty, I will say to you some few words-The first thing that I earnestly charge upon you is, that you observe and do not forget what your father has now told you, since it is all very precious. . . . If God gives you life, with these same words will you teach your sons and daughters, if God shall give you them. The second thing that I desire to say to you is, that I love you much, that you are my dear daughter. Remember that nine months I bore you in my womb, that you were born and brought up in my arms. I placed you in your cradle, and in my lap, and with my milk I nursed you. . . .

Take care that your garments are such as are decent and proper; and observe that you do not adorn yourself with much finery, since this is a mark of vanity and of folly. As little becoming is it, that your dress shall be very mean, dirty, or ragged; since rags are a mark of the low, and of those who are held in contempt. Let your clothes be becoming and neat, that you may neither appear fantastic nor mean. When you speak, do not hurry your words from uneasiness, but speak deliberately and calmly. Do not raise your voice very high, nor speak very low, but in a moderate tone. Neither mince, when you speak, nor when you salute, nor speak through your nose; but let your words be proper, of a good sound, and your voice gentle. Do not be nice in the choice of your words. In walking, my daughter, see that you behave becomingly, neither going with haste, nor too slowly; since it is an evidence of being puffed up, to walk too slowly, and walking hastily causes a vicious habit of restlessness and instability. Therefore neither walk very fast, nor very slow; yet when it shall be necessary to go with haste, do so,-in this use your discretion. And when you may be obliged to jump over a pool of water, do it with decency, that you may neither appear clumsy nor light. When you are in the street, do not carry your head much inclined, or your body bent; nor as little go with your head very much raised; since it is a mark of ill breeding; walk erect, and with your head slightly inclined. Do not have your mouth covered, or your face, from shame, nor go looking like a near-sighted person, nor, on your way, make fantastic movements with your feet. Walk through the street quietly, and with propriety. Another thing that you must attend to, my daughter, is, that, when you are in the street, you do not go looking hither and thither, nor turning your head to look at this and that; walk neither looking at the skies, nor on the ground. . .

Download the full text of the document as pdf here.

"Advice of an Aztec Mother to Her Daughter [Document]," in Children and Youth in History, Item #443, https://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/items/show/443 (accessed October 26, 2021).

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Primary Source Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún recorded this text in the mid-16th century as part of an effort to gather information about native Aztec history and customs. Sahagún went to Mexico in 1529 as one of the first missionaries assigned to the newly conquered territory of New Spain.

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The Center for History and New Media has some interesting resources though many need to be adapted for use with grades 6 and 7. This Olmec ceramic figure of a baby may prove more accessible than others!

https://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/447

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Primary Source

Olmec Ceramic Baby Figurine [Object]

Annotation

This baby figurine of a pudgy toddler is one of many similar examples of ceramic sculptures of infants belonging to an ancient Mesoamerican ceramic tradition that flourished during the first millennium B.C.E. The figurines are hollow and often nearly life-sized (about 25 to 35 cm, or 10 - 14 inches high), made of white kaolin clay, or ordinary clay covered with white slip. The figurines are usually without clothing, but do not show genitalia. Like others, the head of this example is oversized and seems to show artificial cranial deformation used to shape infants' heads according to cultural aesthetic standards. Their downturned mouths and adult-like, slitted eyes are seemingly symbolic. This figure has wide outstretched legs with baby-like feet, and its arm is outstretched in an open gesture. Many of these figurines display such a reaching gesture, and some are shown crawling forward. Some baby-face figurines wear a helmet-like headdress.

While the sculptures have rarely been unearthed in archaeological context, scholars associate the large figurines with early Olmec archaeological sites in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico near the Gulf coast, with other heartland areas of the Olmec culture region, and nearby areas influenced by Olmec culture. The meaning of the infant figurines is unknown. Various theories have been put forward, whereby they represent elite lineages, deities, or infant sacrifices. They may be effigies that substituted for sacrificial victims. The facial expressions resemble those of the monumental stone sculptures at San Lorenzo and La Venta, but none of the infant sculptures have been found there, possibly because the soil acid destroyed any buried remains, or because they had already gone out of use by that period.

Source

Olmec Baby-face Figurine, 1000 - 300 BCE (Mexico: Olmec), Snite Museum of Art. Photograph available online under Creative Commons license at <a class="external" href=""> <a class="external" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Olmec_baby-face_figurine,_Snite.jpg">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Olmec_baby-face_figurine,_Snite.jpg</a>. Annotated by Susan Douglass.a

How to Cite This Source

"Olmec Ceramic Baby Figurine [Object]," in Children and Youth in History, Item #447, https://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/items/show/447 (accessed October 26, 2021).

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Primary Source This baby figurine of a pudgy toddler is one of many similar examples of ceramic sculptures of infants belonging to an ancient Mesoamerican ceramic tradition that flourished during the first millennium B.C.E. The figurines are hollow and often nearly life-sized (about 25 to 35 cm, or 10 - 14 inches high), made of white kaolin clay, or ordinary clay covered with white slip.

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Tampering with History: Adapting Primary Sources for Struggling Readers

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Tampering with History: Adapting Primary Sources for Struggling Readers

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Social Education article from 2009 that discusses why altering primary sources can be a necessary strategy for making those readings more accessible. The example in the article is from US History, but some general logic and suggestions are included. The link leads to a "view PDF file" button that allows you to download the article.

https://www.socialstudies.org/social-education/73/5/tampering-history-adapting-primary-sources-struggling-readers

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Authors:

Sam Wineburg and Daisy Martin

Adapting sources for classroom use allows teachers to steer students toward authentic historical inquiry and away from a version of history determined exclusively by the textbook.

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Tampering with History: Adapting Primary Sources for Struggling Readers

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Adapting sources for classroom use allows teachers to steer students toward authentic historical inquiry and away from a version of history determined exclusively by the textbook.

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Zamani Project undertakes data collection and analysis, heritage communication, and training and capacity building for experts and the public so that they have access to high-quality spatial heritage data, and can learn from, conserve, and protect heritage.

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The Zamani Project - 3D Documentation of Heritage Sites with terrestrial laser scanning, Structure from Motion (SfM), Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

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The National Park on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) preserves the amazing history and culture of the Polynesian people who initially settled the island.

-Remy Nikka

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Rapa Nui, the indigenous name of Easter Island, bears witness to a unique cultural phenomenon. A society of Polynesian origin that settled there c. A.D. 300 established a powerful, imaginative and original tradition ...

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This article discusses how a team from the University of Oregon has new evidence from radiocarbon dating that shows that the people of Rapa Nui continued to create moai after 1600. This conflicts with a date other scholars claim as when the society on the island collapsed. This is interesting and shows the importance of staying up to date on the most recent scholarship of the regions we are teaching.

-Remy Nikka

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Monday, February 10, 2020

EASTER ISLAND, CHILE-According to a statement released by the "The way we interpret our results and this sequence of historical accounts is that the notion of a pre-European collapse of monument construction is no longer supported," DiNapoli said. To read in depth about Polynesian prehistory, go to " University of Oregon, a team of researchers led by archaeologist Robert J. DiNapoli has demonstrated that the people of Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, continued to construct monumental stone statues well after 1600, a date around which some scholars believe society on the island suffered a collapse. The team investigated the construction sequence of the statues, also known as moai, by studying radiocarbon dates taken at 11 sites. They found that the islanders began to build moai soon after they settled Rapa Nui in the thirteenth century and continued to construct them at least 150 years after the supposed collapse around 1600. Accounts left by Dutch explorers who reached the island in 1722 suggest the islanders were still using the moai for rituals. Later Spanish voyagers, who landed on the island in 1770, also reported the moai were still in use, though by 1774 the British explorer James Cook found that Rapa Nui was in a state of crisis and that many moai had been overturned. Letter From Hawaii: Inside Kauai's Past."

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Questioning the Easter Island Collapse - Archaeology Magazine

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Monday, February 10, 2020 EASTER ISLAND, CHILE-According to a statement released by the "The way we interpret our results and this sequence of historical accounts is that the notion of a pre-European collapse of monument construction is no longer supported," DiNapoli said.

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Fort and Shalamar Gardens are two art forms from the Mughal civilization located in the city of  Lahore.

Paula Bakerian

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Outstanding Universal Value

The inscribed property includes two distinct royal complexes, the Lahore Fort and the Shalimar Gardens, both located in the City of Lahore, at a distance of 7 km. from each other. The two complexes - one characterized by monumental structures and the other by extensive water gardens - are outstanding examples of Mughal artistic expression at its height, as it evolved during the 16th and 17th centuries. The Mughal civilisation, a fusion of Islamic, Persian, Hindu and Mongol sources (from whence the name Mughal derives) dominated the Indian subcontinent for several centuries and strongly influenced its subsequent development.

The Lahore Fort, situated in the north-west corner of the Walled City of Lahore, occupies a site which has been occupied for several millenia. Assuming its present configuration during the 11th century, the Fort was destroyed and rebuilt several times by the early Mughals during the 13th to the 15th centuries. The 21 monuments which survive within its boundaries comprise an outstanding repertory of the forms of Mughal architecture from the reign of Akbar (1542-1605), characterized by standardized masonry of baked brick and red sandstone courses relieved by Hindu motifs including zooomorphic corbels, through that of Shah Jahan (1627-58), characterized by the use of luxurious marbles, inlays of precious materials and mosaics, set within exuberant decorative motifs of Persian origins.

Akbar's efforts are exemplified in the Masjidi Gate flanked by two bastions and the Khana-e-Khas-o-Am (Public and Private Audience Hall). Akbar's successor, Jahangir, finished the large north court (1617-18) begun by Akbar and, in 1624-25, decorated the north and north-west walls of the Fort. Shah Jahan added a fairy tale-like complex of buildings surrounding the Court of Shah Jahan (Diwan-e-Kas, Lal Burj, Khwabgah-e-Jahangiri, and the Shish Mahal, 1631-32, one of the most beautiful palaces in the world, sparkling with mosaics of glass, gilt, semi-precious stones and marble screening).

The Shalimar Gardens, constructed by Shah Jahan in 1641-2 is a Mughal garden, layering Persian influences over medieval Islamic garden traditions, and bearing witness to the apogee of Mughal artistic expression. The Mughal garden is characterized by enclosing walls, a rectilinear layout of paths and features, and large expanses of flowing water. The Shalimar Gardens cover 16 hectares, and is arranged in three terraces descending from the south to the north. The regular plan, enclosed by a crenellated wall of red sandstone, disposes square beds on the upper and lower terraces and elongated blocks on the narrower, intermediate terrace; within, elegant pavilions balance harmoniously arranged poplar and cypress trees, reflected in the vast basins of water.

Criterion (i): The 21 monuments preserved within the boundaries of Lahore Fort comprise an outstanding repertory of the forms of Mughal architecture at its artistic and aesthetic height, from the reign of Akbar (1542-1605) through the reign of Shah Jahan (1627-58). Equally the Shalimar Gardens, laid out by Shah Jahan in 1641-2 embodies Mughal garden design at the apogee of its development. Both complexes together may be understood to constitute a masterpiece of human creative genius.

Criterion (ii): The Mughal forms, motifs and designs developed at Lahore Fort and Shalimar Gardens have been influenced by design innovations in other royal Mughal enclaves but have also exerted great influence in subsequent centuries on the development of artistic and aesthetic expression throughout the Indian subcontinent.

Criterion (iii): The design of the monuments of Lahore Fort and the features of the Shalimar Gardens bears a unique and exceptional testimony to the Mughal civilisation at the height of its artistic and aesthetic accomplishments, in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Integrity
The inclusion by the World Heritage Committee of the originally separate Lahore Fort and the Shalimar Gardens nominations in a single inscribed property in 1981 broadened the range of design expressions - from monumental structures to water gardens - representing Mughal artistic and aesthetic achievements included in the property, and enhanced the overall integrity of the property. Both of the complexes in the inscription as they survive today are complete in and of themselves; the Lahore Fort complex includes all 21 surviving monuments within the defined Fort boundaries, and the Shalimar Gardens includes all of the various water terraces and pavilions within its enclosing wall.

However missions to the property (2003, 2005, 2009) have noted that the Badshahi Masjid (Royal Mosque) and the Tomb of Ranjit Singh, although located outside the Fort proper form an integral part of its physical and historical context, and suggested their inclusion within the inscribed property would enhance its integrity.

However the accidental destruction of 2 of the 3 hydraulic works and related walls of the Shalimar Gardens in 1999 for widening the Grand Trunk Road from Lahore to Mugha significantly marred the integrity of the Gardens, and the property was placed on the World Heritage List in Danger in 2000. Detailed analysis at the time also revealed considerable deterioration of some constituent monuments and serious urban encroachments affecting some structures. While remedial conservation efforts since 2000 have progressively addressed repair needs of individual monuments, these have not focused on reinstatement of hydraulic systems or components.

Measures to improve property integrity have been identified which include consolidation and protection of damaged water tanks, protection of external walls for both complexes, major investment in upgrading of monuments and features within both complexes, extension of inscribed zones and buffer zones to better protect the Outstanding Universal Value of the two complexes and their settings, consideration of inclusion of adjacent monuments within the inscription, and removal of the urban encroachments and improved control of urban pressures (including tourist bus parking).
Authenticity
The property in general maintains the authentic layout, forms, design and substance of both complexes and the constituent layouts, elements and features associated with the Mughal artistic and aesthetic expressions of the 16th and 17th century. Maintaining authenticity of workmanship necessitates that contemporary repair and conservation work use and revive traditional techniques and materials.

However authenticity of function and of setting has been eroded over time: the original function of these royal complexes has been replaced by public visitation and tourism, and the larger setting of both complexes now accommodates the traffic circulation and functional needs of the contemporary city of Lahore.
Protection and management requirements
The World Heritage property is protected under the Antiquities Act (1975), administered until 2005 by the Department of Archaeology, Pakistan. At that time, management responsibility for the property was delegated from the national level to the provincial level; and the Directorate General of Archaeology, Punjab (DGoA,P) took on overall responsibility for property management. The DGoA,P is working within the guidelines laid down in the two Master Plans established for Lahore Fort and the Shalimar Gardens, and with project financing made available by the Government of Punjab in a "Five Year Programme for Preservation and Restoration of Lahore Fort" and a "Five Year Programme for the Preservation and Restoration of Shalimar Gardens" launched in 2006-2007. The DGoA, P is also being supported in its management efforts by a Steering Committee to guide implementation of planned projects, a Technical Committee to supervise conservation activities and to develop a "conservation plan" on the basis of priorities established in the Master Plans, and a Punjab Heritage Foundation to attempt to provide a permanent source of funding.

The placing of this property on the World Heritage List in Danger has highlighted many threats to the Outstanding Universal Value of the property, and its integrity and authenticity. These include ongoing degradation of the tangible features of the property, insufficient ability to monitor and control urban encroachments on and adjacent to the property, and insufficient ability to control the actions of other agencies which could impact on the Outstanding Universal Value of the property.

The key components of the management response to sustain and protect its Outstanding Universal Value, integrity and authenticity, and to address the above threats include efforts to extend the boundaries of the inscribed area and its buffer zone, to complete and implement the Master Plans for Lahore Fort and Shalimar Gardens, to strengthen local community and institutional awareness of the values of the property and the primary sources of its vulnerability, and to improve co-ordination mechanisms among all stakeholders whose actions could affect the Outstanding Universal Value of the property, in particular national and local authorities involved in carrying out public works and promoting and managing tourism on the property.

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Outstanding Universal Value The inscribed property includes two distinct royal complexes, the Lahore Fort and the Shalimar Gardens, both located in the City of Lahore, at a distance of 7 km. from each other.

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The Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro comprise the first great urban center of the Indus civilization built 5000 years ago.

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This UNESCO site shows evidence of an early planned city in the Indus Valley
.~ Marie Mallott

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The ruins of the huge city of Moenjodaro – built entirely of unbaked brick in the 3rd millennium B.C. – lie in the Indus valley. The acropolis, set on high embankments, the ramparts, and the lower town, ...

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I thought this article would be interesting because we will be learning about the Harappan Civilization this year.

Paula Bakerian

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Thursday, September 5, 2019

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS-According to a Live Science report, Vagheesh Narasimhan of Harvard Medical School and his colleagues were able to obtain a viable DNA sample from the remains of one of 61 individuals buried some 5,000 years ago in a cemetery in northern India. This is the first time that scientists have been successful in extracting genetic material from a member of the ancient Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley, which covered parts of what are now Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwestern India, because the region's heat and humidity cause genetic material to degrade rapidly. Analysis of the genome suggests the ancient inhabitants of the Indus Valley are linked to modern South Asians, and that they developed farming independently, since the individual's genes had diverged from those of other early farming cultures, Narasimhan explained. In a related study of more than 500 people who lived in South and Central Asia over the past 8,000 years, researchers identified 11 individuals unearthed at archaeological sites outside of the Indus Valley with genetic data closely linked to the Indus Valley individual. Narasimhan said it had been noted that their burials were unusual for their locations, and suggested that they may have been migrants who left the Indus Valley. "Population mixture and movement at very large scales is just a fundamental fact of human history," Narasimhan said. More DNA samples are needed to shed light on these relationships, he added. To read about a recently discovered burial of a Harappan couple, go to " A Plot of Their Own."

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DNA Study Highlights Harappan Civilization - Archaeology Magazine

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Thursday, September 5, 2019 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS-According to a Live Science report, Vagheesh Narasimhan of Harvard Medical School and his colleagues were able to obtain a viable DNA sample from the remains of one of 61 individuals buried some 5,000 years ago in a cemetery in northern India.

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Archaeologists have located four skeletons that the scientists hope will provide more information about the people who lived in the Indus Valley.
~ Marie Mallott

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Wednesday, April 15, 2015

HARYANA, INDIA-Four 5,000-year-old skeletons from the Harappan civilization have been recovered from an ancient cemetery near Rakhigarhi village in northern India. The well-preserved skeletons were discovered in sandy soil, and the joint team of scientists from Deccan College, the Haryana Archaeology Department, and Seoul National University in South Korea will attempt to collect DNA samples from the bones. "The skeletons of two adult males, a female, and a child have been found. With the help of forensic experts, we will try to reconstruct their DNA," Nilesh Jadhav, co-director of the project, told The Tribune of India. The results could shed light on the identity of the Harappan people. To read about a related civilization in what is now Iran, see " The World In Between."

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Skeletons Could Shed Light on Indus Valley Civilization - Archaeology Magazine

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Wednesday, April 15, 2015 HARYANA, INDIA-Four 5,000-year-old skeletons from the Harappan civilization have been recovered from an ancient cemetery near Rakhigarhi village in northern India. The well-preserved skeletons were discovered in sandy soil, and the joint team of scientists from Deccan College, the Haryana Archaeology Department, and Seoul National University in South Korea will attempt to collect DNA samples from the bones.

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This article shows villages from Japan that date back to the 11th century. It is amazing that these have survived to this day and are being preserved.

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Outstanding Universal Value

The Gassho-style houses found in the Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama are rare examples of their kind in Japan. Located in a river valley surrounded by the rugged high-mountain Chubu region of central Japan, these three villages were remote and isolated, and access to the area was difficult for a long period of time. The inscribed property comprises the villages of "Ogimachi" in the Shirakawa-go region, and "Ainokura" and "Suganuma" in the Gokayama region, all situated along the Sho River in Gifu and Toyama Prefectures. In response to the geographical and social background, a specific housing type evolved: rare examples of Gassho-style houses, a unique farmhouse style that makes use of highly rational structural systems evolved to adapt to the natural environment and site-specific social and economic circumstances in particular the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. The large houses have steeply-pitched thatched roofs and have been preserved in groups, many with their original outbuildings which permit the associated landscapes to remain intact.

Criterion (iv): The Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama are outstanding examples of traditional human settlements that are perfectly adapted to their environment and their social and economic raison d'être.

Criterion (v): It is of considerable significance that the social structure of these villages, of which their layouts are the material manifestation, has survived despite the drastic economic changes in Japan since 1950. As a result they preserve both the spiritual and the material evidence of their long history.
Integrity
Ogimachi, Ainokura, and Suganuma are rare examples of villages in which Gassho-style houses are preserved at their original locations and in groups, as they developed in the area along the Sho River. Although since the Second World War there has been a reduction in the number of Gassho-style houses in each village, the inscribed property includes clusters of all the remaining Gassho-style houses which allows each village to retain its traditional appearance and character. Moreover, there has been no significant change to the system of roads and canals and traditional land-use patterns including trees and forest, and agricultural land.

The detrimental effects on the scenic landscape of a major highway construction less than one kilometre from Ogimachi and Suganuma has been reduced with plantings along the roadside and embankments, controls on bridge design and other protections for the view from Ogimachi Village.

The integrity of the property, therefore, is ensured in the contexts of both wholeness and intactness.
Authenticity
The three settlements constitute important historical evidence in and of themselves. The villages have existed since the 11th century and each has a strong sense of community. Traditional social systems and lifestyle customs have sustained the Gassho-style houses and their associated historic environments. From the viewpoints of setting, function, and traditional management systems, the level of authenticity is high.

While the conventional collaboration efforts by residents have functioned to maintain thatched roofs in good conditions, long-established Japanese restoration practices and principles are applied in cases in which deterioration necessitates major conservation work. Special attention is paid to the use of traditional materials and techniques, and the use of new materials is rigorously controlled. In view of the standardized modular construction of similar types of traditional wooden structures, reconstruction and replacement involve a minimum amount of conjecture. The Gassho-style houses retain their authenticity from the perspective of form and design, as well as materials and substance.
Protection and management requirements
Each of the three villages - Ogimachi, Ainokura, and Suganuma - is classified as an Important Preservation District for Groups of Historic Buildings under the 1950 Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. This classification requires, inter alia, the preparation of municipal ordinances and preservation plans for protection, restrictions on activities that may alter the existing landscape, authorization procedures, and the provision of subsidies for approved actions. Ainokura and Suganuma are also designated as Historic Sites under the 1950 Law, and proposed alterations to the existing state must be approved by the national government. In addition, a conventional collaboration system for maintaining Gassho-style houses has been retained by the residents.

There are double buffer zones around each of the villages; an individual buffer zone surrounds each nominated property and a larger buffer zone that contains all three villages. Development pressures throughout the entire village of Ogimachi are controlled by the 2008 Shirakawa Village Landscape Ordinance, which was developed under the 2004 Landscape Law to reinforce the former 1973 Shirakawa Village Ordinance for the Natural Environment. Shirakawa Village must be notified of any proposed large-scale project, in order to confirm that the proposed work will fit in with the character of the historic and natural environment. Under the same ordinance, stricter regulations are imposed on the area immediately surrounding the World Heritage property of Ogimachi (471.5 ha).

The buffer zones immediately surrounding Ainokura, and Suganuma are protected as Historic Sites as mentioned above and as Gokayama Prefectural Natural Park under the Toyama Prefectural Natural Parks Regulations. In addition, further protection is provided under municipal ordinances implemented by Nanto City. All of these regulations and ordinances impose considerable constraints on any kind of activity that might be deemed harmful.

Overall responsibility for the protection of the property rests with the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Government of Japan. The associated bodies include the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (including the Forestry Agency), the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Gifu Prefecture, Toyama Prefecture, Shirakawa Village, and Nanto City.

Direct management of individual buildings is the responsibility of their owners, and all work is supervised as prescribed in the Preservation Plans. Routine repair work has always been carried out by the owners, and often through conventional collaborative efforts by communities, using traditional techniques and materials. The local and national governments provide both financial assistance and technical guidance.

As fire is a major hazard for the property, elaborate fire-extinguishing systems have been installed in all three village zones. Fire-fighting squads of residents are also organized.

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Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama

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Outstanding Universal Value The Gassho-style houses found in the Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama are rare examples of their kind in Japan. Located in a river valley surrounded by the rugged high-mountain Chubu region of central Japan, these three villages were remote and isolated, and access to the area was difficult for a long period of time.

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This article provides a resource on Bushido, the code of ethics followed by Japanese samurai.

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This article explains how archeology impacts our understanding of the life of women in Medieval Japan.

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Newsela | A speck of blue provides unique clue to medieval woman's role in the arts

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The blue particles of lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone known for its vivid color, indicate she was artistically skilled and experienced.

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https://www.socialstudies.com/product/decision-making-in-world-history/

This is a link to the decision making booklets that our PA ordered for us. I'm looking through the Ancient and Medieval ones now and like what I see.

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Students tackle fascinating historical questions that put them in the shoes of a range of people from the past, from the rich and famous to ordinary citizens. Each lesson can be done either as an in-depth activity requiring up to two full class periods, or as a "quick motivator" requiring only 20-30 minutes.

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DECISION MAKING IN WORLD HISTORY - Social Studies

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Students tackle fascinating historical questions that put them in the shoes of a range of people from the past, from the rich and famous to ordinary citizens. Each lesson can be done either as an in-depth activity requiring up to two full class periods, or as a "quick motivator" requiring only 20-30 minutes.

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This link has a great image of a reconstruction of the pile dwellings or stilt houses built on wetlands during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. This site can help students explore human-environment interaction.

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Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps

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This serial property of 111 small individual sites encompasses the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements in and around the Alps built from around 5000 to 500 B.C. on the edges of lakes, ...

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This article addresses how Paleolithic people lit the caves. Links to the research in this article show images that students might be able to look at and try to answer the question about cave lighting before reading the artcile.

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Friday, June 18, 2021

SANTANDER, SPAIN-According to a statement released by the Public Library of Science, a team of researchers led by Mª Ángeles Medina-Alcaide of the University of Cantabria tested possible sources of light employed by Paleolithic peoples to reach the deepest, darkest areas of caves. The lights, including torches made of sticks from five different trees, two stone lamps fueled with animal fat, and oak and juniper burned in a small fireplace, were based upon archaeological evidence uncovered in caves in southwestern Europe where Paleolithic cave art has been found. When the lights were tested in Isuntza 1 Cave, which is located in the Basque region of Spain, the researchers realized that different sources of light were probably used for different situations. Torches made of multiple sticks were found the most useful for exploring and crossing wide spaces, since they project light in all directions and are easy to carry. The torchlight lasted on average about 40 minutes, but required close supervision to keep it lit. Grease lamps were found to produce a similar amount of light as candles, and proved useful for lighting small spaces over a longer period. In contrast, the fireplace put out a lot of smoke and burned out after only 30 minutes, possibly due to the air currents in the test cave. Read the original scholarly article about this research in . To read about cave art painted deep in the caves of the American South, go to " Artists of the Dark Zone."

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How Did Paleolithic People Light Up Their Caves? - Archaeology Magazine

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Friday, June 18, 2021 SANTANDER, SPAIN-According to a statement released by the Public Library of Science , a team of researchers led by Mª Ángeles Medina-Alcaide of the University of Cantabria tested possible sources of light employed by Paleolithic peoples to reach the deepest, darkest areas of caves.

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Neolithic Euope-tools found in Grave Sites 

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Neolithic Euope-tools found in Grave Sites 

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This article links to original research/article regarding the tools found in graves of males and females. There is also a link to a "Neolithic Tool Kit" and one can explore the roles of differnt people in neolithic times.

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Monday, April 19, 2021

YORK, ENGLAND-According to a statement released by the University of York, a recent review of stone tools recovered from early Neolithic cemeteries across Europe suggests that men and women were buried with different sorts of implements, and may have therefore performed different work-related activities during their lifetimes. Archaeologist Penny Bickle said that tools found in women's graves were used to work animal skins, while men's tools were associated with hunting and conflict. Bickle suggests the differences in tools reflect the variety of skills needed by members of the community. The presence of the tools in the graves is evidence of the value given to all of the jobs, she added. The study also detected regional differences, in that in the east, the grave objects suggest that women moved around more than men, and all were adorned with shells and jewelry. In the west, the grave objects indicate that men were more mobile and likely to have been hunters. Read the original scholarly article about this research in . For more, go to " The Neolithic Toolkit."

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Which Skills Were Valued in Early Neolithic Europe? - Archaeology Magazine

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Monday, April 19, 2021 YORK, ENGLAND-According to a statement released by the University of York, a recent review of stone tools recovered from early Neolithic cemeteries across Europe suggests that men and women were buried with different sorts of implements, and may have therefore performed different work-related activities during their lifetimes.

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This is a cool site that would link to our lessons about Buddhism.

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Outstanding Universal Value

The Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area are located in Nara Prefecture. The property consists of forty-eight ancient wooden structures located at the two temples sites, twenty-one at Horyu-ji temple and Hokki-ji temple. The Horyu-ji temple covers an area of 14.6 hectares and the smaller Hokki-ji Temple 0.7 hectares. The two sites are surrounded by a single buffer zone measuring 570.7 hectares.

The Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area are the earliest Buddhist monuments in Japan, dating from shortly after the introduction of Buddhism to the country, and had a profound influence on subsequent religious architecture.

Eleven structures on the temple sites date from the late-7th or 8th century making them some of the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world. Although a fire destroyed the original Horyu-ji buildings in 670, structural remains survive below ground in the precinct known as Wakakusa Garan to the south-east of the later West Temple (Sai-in). Rebuilding commenced almost immediately and continued into the early years of the 8th century.

The structures are based on the Chinese bay system, a modified version of post-and-lintel construction with intricate bracketing designed to transfer the weight of the heavy tiled roof down to the massive wooden supporting columns. They are especially noteworthy for the skilful use of entasis on the columns and their cloud-shaped brackets.

These masterpieces of wooden architecture are important not only for the history of art, since they illustrate the adaptation of Chinese Buddhist architecture and layout to Japanese culture, but also for the history of religion, since their construction coincided with the introduction of Buddhism to Japan from China by way of the Korean peninsula. From its foundation Horyu-ji always enjoyed the protection of the imperial family. In addition, the cult of Prince Shotoku, which flourished after the 12th century, attracted many pilgrims, and as a result Horyu-ji was always immaculately maintained and conserved.

Criterion (i): The Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area are masterpieces of wooden architecture, both in overall design and in decoration.

Criterion (ii): These are the earliest Buddhist monuments in Japan, dating from shortly after the introduction of Buddhism to the country, and had a profound influence on subsequent religious architecture.

Criterion (iv): The Horyu-ji monuments represent the adaptation of Chinese Buddhist architecture and temple layout to Japanese culture and the subsequent development of a distinct indigenous style.

Criterion (vi): The introduction of Buddhism into Japan and its promotion by Prince Shotokumarks a significant stage in the spread of Buddhism over this cultural zone.
Integrity
The boundaries of the property respect the historic outline of the temple grounds and include all the necessary monuments to demonstrate the adaption of Chinese Buddhist architecture and temple layout as well as its influence on subsequent religious architecture in Japan.

The property area, with its forty-eight component parts, maintains a good state of preservation and has adequate protection, thus, the property's integrity is ensured in the contexts of both wholeness and intactness.
Authenticity
The conservation work that has been carried out since 1895 has met the highest standards of contemporary conservation practice. From 1934 onwards, new techniques have been developed for the conservation of wooden structures, and especially in the case of interventions involving dismantling and reconstruction, which established sound precedent for the conservation of wooden buildings.

The Japanese conservation practice conforms to established principles of authenticity in design, materials, techniques, and environment. Minor changes made to buildings have allowed them to retain their historic form and features, and safeguard the original character. Damaged wooden members are carefully replaced only when absolutely necessary and the process follows traditional techniques. The use of new materials is rigorously controlled. Special attention is paid to the use of traditional tools and techniques in conservation work. Most of the forty-eight buildings are in the original locations and have retained their historic settings.

In general, the property retains a high level of authenticity in terms of form/design, materials/substance, traditions/techniques and location/setting.
Protection and management requirements
The forty-eight buildings that comprise the property are all protected under designation as National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties in accordance with 1950 Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. The areas of the property (15.3 ha) are also protected under designation as a Special Historic Site under the 1950 Law. Under the law, proposed alterations to the existing state of the property are restricted and any alteration must be approved by the national government.

Three legal instruments determine the designation and development control of the Buffer Zone (570.7 ha): (i) the Natural Parks Law, (ii) the Ancient Capitals Preservation Act and (iii) the Nara Prefecture Scenic Zone Ordinance.

The property is owned by theHoryu-jiReligious Organization and the Hokki-jiReligious Organization, which are responsible for its management. Several qualified conservation architects of the Nara Prefectural Board of Education are stationed at the site of Horyu-ji temple to plan and supervise repair work. As all of the monuments and their surrounding buildings are made of wood, each of the monuments is equipped with automatic fire alarms, fire hydrants and lightning arresters. In addition, private fire brigades are organized by Horyu-jiand Hokki-ji, which work in cooperation with public fire offices.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs, Nara Prefecture and Ikaruga Town provide the property owners with both financial assistance and technical guidance for adequate preservation and management.

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Outstanding Universal Value The Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area are located in Nara Prefecture. The property consists of forty-eight ancient wooden structures located at the two temples sites, twenty-one at Horyu-ji temple and Hokki-ji temple. The Horyu-ji temple covers an area of 14.6 hectares and the smaller Hokki-ji Temple 0.7 hectares.

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This is an article about an ancient Japanese sword with a shark image on it. I thought my students would find this interesting.

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Shark Image Found on 2,200-Year-Old Sword in Japan

Friday, February 26, 2016

TOTTORI, JAPAN-A small image of shark has been discovered engraved on the blade of a bronze sword that was donated to the Tottori Prefectural Museum more than 25 years ago. The weapon's blade dates to the second century B.C., but researchers do not know where it was found. Similar images of sharks have been found on pottery and wooden objects from the Yayoi Pottery Culture (300 B.C.-A.D. 300) in the region, but this is the first time that a shark has been spotted on a bronze artifact from the period. "Sharks repeatedly shed and replace their teeth. Shark meat also is rich in ammonia, which makes it difficult to go rotten. Perhaps sharks were a symbol of regeneration or longevity," Isao Yumura of the Tottori Prefectural Archives told The Asahi Shimbun. To read about a Viking sword from Norway, go to " Artifact."

Advertisement

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Shark Image Found on 2,200-Year-Old Sword in Japan - Archaeology Magazine

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Shark Image Found on 2,200-Year-Old Sword in Japan Friday, February 26, 2016 TOTTORI, JAPAN-A small image of shark has been discovered engraved on the blade of a bronze sword that was donated to the Tottori Prefectural Museum more than 25 years ago.

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I lived near here in 2008 and saw some rock art on the property where I lived so I wanted to check out any interesting updates.

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Outstanding Universal Value

The Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site is a transnational property spanning the border between the Kingdom of Lesotho and the Republic of South Africa. The property comprises Sehlabathebe National Park (6,500 ha) in Lesotho and uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park (242,813 ha) in South Africa. Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site is renowned for its spectacular natural landscape, importance as a haven for many threatened and endemic species, and for its wealth of rock paintings made by the San people over a period of 4,000 years. The property covers an area of 249,313 ha making it the largest Protected Area complex along the Great Escarpment of Southern Africa.

The Maloti-Drakensberg Park range of mountains constitutes the principal water production area in Southern Africa. The areas along the international border between the two countries create a drainage divide on the escarpment that forms the watershed for two of Southern Africa's largest drainage basins. The Thukela River from uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park flows eastwards into the Indian Ocean. The rivers of southern Maloti-Drakensberg including Sehlabathebe National Park drain into the Senqu/Orange River which flows westwards into the Atlantic Ocean extension of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site to include Sehlabathebe National Park add special hydrologic qualities to the area.

With its pristine steep-sided river valleys and rocky gorges, the property has numerous caves and rock shelters containing an estimated 690 rock art sites, and the number of individual images in those sites probably exceeds 35,000. The images depict animals and human beings, and represent the spiritual life of the San people, representing an exceptionally coherent tradition that embodies their beliefs and cosmology over several millennia. There are also Rock art paintings dating back to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, are attributable to Bantu speaking people.

Extending along most of KwaZulu-Natal's south-western border with Lesotho, the property provides a vital refuge for more than 250 endemic plant species and their associated fauna. It also holds almost all of the remaining subalpine and alpine vegetation in the KwaZulu-Natal province, including extensive high altitude wetlands above 2,750 m and is a RAMSAR site. The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park has been identified as an Important Bird Area, and forms a critical part of the Lesotho Highlands Endemic Bird Area.

Criterion (i): The rock art of the Maloti-Drakensberg Park is the largest and most concentrated group of rock paintings in Africa south of the Sahara and is outstanding both in quality and diversity of subject.

Criterion (iii): The San people lived in the mountainous Maloti-Drakensberg area for more than four millennia, leaving behind them a corpus of outstanding rock art, providing a unique testimony which throws much light on their way of life and their beliefs.

Criterion (vii): The site has exceptional natural beauty with soaring basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks and golden sandstone ramparts. Rolling high altitude grasslands, the pristine steep-sided river valleys and rocky gorges also contribute to the beauty of the site.

Criterion (x): The property contains significant natural habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity. It has outstanding species richness, particularly of plants. It is recognised as a Global Centre of Plant Diversity and endemism, and occurs within its own floristic region - the Drakensberg Alpine Region of South Africa. It is also within a globally important endemic bird area and is notable for the occurrence of a number of globally threatened species, such as the Yellow-breasted Pipit. The diversity of habitats is outstanding, ranging across alpine plateaux, steep rocky slopes and river valleys. These habitats protect a high level of endemic and threatened species.
Integrity
The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, composed of 12 protected areas established between 1903 and 1973 has a long history of effective conservation management. Covering 242,813 ha in area, it is large enough to survive as a natural area and to maintain natural values. It includes four (4) proclaimed Wilderness areas almost 50% of the Park, while largely unaffected by human development, the property remains vulnerable to external land uses including agriculture, plantation forestry and ecotourism, although agreements between Ezemvelo Kwa-Zulu Natal Wildlife and local stakeholders have been implemented to manage these threats.

Invasive species, fire, infrastructural developments, soil erosion, tourist impacts on vulnerable alpine trails, and poaching also threaten the integrity of the site. The lack of formal protection of the mountain ecosystem over the border in Lesotho (beyond the buffer zone of Sehlabathebe National Park) exacerbates these threats.

Boundary issues highlighted at time of inscription included the gap belonging to the amaNgwane and amaZizi Traditional Council between the northern and much larger southern section of the Park. There are planning mechanisms that restrict development above the 1,650 m contour to maintain ecological integrity. Processes are underway to develop a cooperative agreement between the amaNgwane and amaZizi Traditional Council and Ezemvelo Kwa Zulu-Natal Wildlife. Extending conservation areas by agreements with privately-owned land along the escarpment to the south of the property is recommended. An important step to strengthening integrity has been the development of the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Area (MDTFCA), which has recognised the importance of a Transboundary Peace Park linking the Sehlabathebe National Park (SNP) in Lesotho with uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park. Project Coordinating Committees in both KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho are cooperating in a planning process. The SNP (6,500 ha) has been protected since 1970 as a wildlife sanctuary and a national park, and gazetted in 2001, to enhance protection of the biodiversity and scenic qualities of the property. The extension to include SNP has enhanced protection of the biodiversity and cultural values of the property.

The property contains the main corpus of rock art related to the San people in this area. A comparatively high concentration of rock art sites seems present in the western buffer zone in Lesotho and future surveys of these should be undertaken to judge their potential contribution to the Outstanding Universal Value. Although the area has changed relatively little since the caves were inhabited, management practices, such as the removal of trees (which formerly sheltered the paintings) and the smoke from burning grass both have the capacity to impact adversely on the fragile images of the rock shelters, as does unregulated public access.
Authenticity
The synthesis of rock art sites and their natural setting in the Maloti-Drakensberg Park convey a very strong sense of authenticity in setting, location and atmosphere but also material, substance and workmanship. It should be noted as a positive factor that in large parts of the property no systematic conservation or consolidation treatment has been attempted, which has left the rock art sites perhaps more fragile, but with the utmost possible degree of authenticity. The sites remain closely integrated with their surrounding landscape and credibly convey the narratives of San life and activity in respect to the harsh climatic conditions of the area and necessary exploitation of natural resources and shelter. This San rock art tradition does not terminate at the end of the Late Stone Age but continues, and is expressed at sites associated with both Khoi and Iron Age Peoples. Potential influences of UV rays and weathering on the images could lead to fading of colours and reduce the clarity of image content, which in turn could lessen their ability to display their meaning. It is important that explanatory materials assist the interpretation of the image content as understood by the San people.
Protection and management requirements
Management of the Park is guided by an Integrated Management Plan with subsidiary plans, and is undertaken in accordance with the World Heritage Convention Act, 1999 (South Africa, Act No. 49 of 1999); National Heritage Resources Act, 1999 (South Africa, Act No. 25 of 1999); National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act, 2003 (South Africa, Act No. 57 of 2003); National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act, 2004 (South Africa, Act No 10 of 2004); KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Management Amendment Act (South Africa, Act No 5 of 1999); the Game Preservation Proclamation (Lesotho, Act No. 55 of 1951); the Historical Monuments, Relics, Fauna and Flora Act (Lesotho, Act No. 41 of 1967); the National Heritage Act 2011 and Environment Act (Lesotho, Act No. 10 of 2008); World Heritage Convention Operational Guidelines; Environment policies in Lesotho and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife policies. In terms of this legislation, all development within the property or within its buffer zone is subjected to an Environmental Impact Assessment and Heritage Impact Assessments respectively, which consider the Outstanding Universal Value of the property. In addition all World Heritage Sites are recognized as Protected Areas, meaning that mining or prospecting will be completely prohibited from taking place within the property or the proclaimed buffer zone. Furthermore, any unsuitable development with a potential impact on the property will not be permitted by the South African and Lesotho Ministers responsible for Environment and Culture.

Invasive species and fire are major management challenges. This poses a threat to the ecological integrity of the Park as well as to the yield of water from its wetlands and river systems. The interaction between the management of invasive species and the management of fire should also be carefully considered, taking into account the effects of fire on fire-sensitive fauna such as endemic frogs. Management of fire and invasive species needs is being addressed jointly by Lesotho and South Africa, ideally within the framework established for transboundary protected area cooperation.

There is a need to ensure an equitable balance between the management of nature and culture through incorporating adequate cultural heritage expertise into the management of the World Heritage property and providing the responsible cultural heritage authorities with adequate budgets for the inventory, conservation and monitoring tasks. This shall ensure that all land management processes respect the paintings, that satisfactory natural shelter is provided to the rock art sites, that monitoring of the rock art images is conducted on a regular basis by appropriately qualified conservators, and that access to the paintings is adequately regulated. Furthermore, there is a need to ensure that Heritage Impact Assessments are undertaken in conjunction with Environmental Impact Assessments for any proposed development affecting the setting within the property.

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Outstanding Universal Value The Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site is a transnational property spanning the border between the Kingdom of Lesotho and the Republic of South Africa. The property comprises Sehlabathebe National Park (6,500 ha) in Lesotho and uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park (242,813 ha) in South Africa.

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This was an interesting article from Africa using beads to address cultural shifts

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Monday, December 9, 2019

JENA, GERMANY-Jennifer Miller of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and Elizabeth Sawchuk of Stony Brook University tested the idea that the size of beads made from ostrich eggshells can be used to track cultural shifts in ancient Africa, according to a statement released by the Max Planck Institute. Such beads date back to more than 40,000 years ago and have been unearthed throughout Africa. Miller and Sawchuk measured 1,200 beads recovered from 30 archaeological sites spanning a 10,000 year period in southern and eastern Africa and compared the data with other archaeological evidence of cultural change. The researchers confirmed that larger beads appeared in southern Africa some 2,000 years ago, when people began to herd sheep and goats, but did not replace existing bead styles. The larger bead size may have been introduced by the people who brought domesticated animals to the region, they explained. In eastern Africa, however, bead styles did not change at the time herding was introduced, although beads made by foragers in eastern Africa were similarly sized to the larger beads made by herders in southern Africa. The researchers conclude that peoples from southern and eastern Africa may have had contact with each other as herding spread, but the experience did not extinguish local traditions. To read about the spread of pastoralism, go to " Herding Genes in Africa."

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Africa's Ostrich Eggshell Beads Offer Hints of Cultural Contact - Archaeology Magazine

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Monday, December 9, 2019 JENA, GERMANY-Jennifer Miller of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and Elizabeth Sawchuk of Stony Brook University tested the idea that the size of beads made from ostrich eggshells can be used to track cultural shifts in ancient Africa, according to a statement released by the Max Planck Institute.

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This resource can provide a visual of the area where the 4 million year old remains of Lucy, the Australopithecus, was found.

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Outstanding Universal Value

The Lower Awash Valley paleo-anthropological site is located 300 km northeast of Addis Ababa, in the west of the Afar Depression. It covers an area of around 150 km ².

The Awash Valley contains one of the most important groupings of paleontological sites on the African continent. The remains found at the property, the oldest of which date back over 4 million years, provide evidence of human evolution, which has modified our conception of the history of humankind. The most spectacular discovery came in 1974, when 52 fragments of a skeleton enabled the famous Lucy to be reconstructed.

Excavations by an international team of palaeontologists and pre-historians began in 1973, and continued annually until 1976, and ended in 1980. In that time, they found a large quantity of fossilised hominid and animal bones in a remarkable state of preservation, the most ancient of which were at least four million years old. In 1974, the valley produced the most complete set of remains of a hominid skeleton, Australopithecus afarensis, nicknamed 'Lucy', dating back 3.2 million years. Afarensis has since been proved to be the ancestral origin for both the Genus Australopithecus and Homo-sapiens.

A recovered female skeleton nicknamed 'Ardi' is 4.4 million years old, some 1.2 million years older than the skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis 'Lucy'.

There is a wealth of paleo-anthropological and pre-historic tools still awaiting discovery and scientific study and these are seen as constituting an exceptionally important cultural heritage resource.

Criterion (ii): The evidence of hominid and animal fossil remains discovered in the Lower Awash Valley testify to developments in human evolution that have modified views of the history of mankind as a whole.

Criterion (iii): The excavated paleo-anthropological remains from the Lower Awash Valley dating back almost 4 million years are of exceptional antiquity.

Criterion (iv): The human vestiges that have been excavated dating back over 3 million years provide an exceptional record that contributes to an understanding of human development.
Integrity
The boundaries of the sites have yet to be defined. The most extensive remains assigned were found in Hadar, one of the localities within the Lower Awash Valley, but the rest of the valley is seen to have the potential to contribute to further paleontological and historical evidence.

Furthermore, the Middle Awash Valley has been the focus of intensive research since 1981 and it is the entire valley that is now seen to constitute one of the most important paleontological and pre-historical sites in the world. The boundaries of the property need to be defined to encompass all the attributes related to known and potential archaeological evidence. A buffer zone needs to be provided for the property.

In spite of its remote location in the Afar Depression, the property is reportedly the target of individual tourists hunting fossil souvenirs and is thus highly vulnerable.
Authenticity
The material authenticity is explicit in the finds themselves. However, due to the nature of the site, it is necessary to hold the unearthed finds in the National Museum. The authenticity of the immediate settings of the finds remains largely intact as a result of its desert location, but is vulnerable to fossil hunters. In order to manifest the complete storey of the finds from this valley, it is necessary to go beyond the current boundaries. Better information on the property is still needed.
Protection and management requirements
An open site, it is naturally protected by the difficult terrain and by the local Afar population. No special legal framework is provided to protect the Lower Awash Valley, except the general law, Proclamation No. 209/2000. This also established the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage as the institution in charge.

The site has no local management, and is overseen from the Afar Regional Office in Asayta, 160 km away.

A museum has been a long-standing aim of the local authorities. One of the principal American research institutions was prepared to build it in 2004, but how it was to be staffed was not resolved.

Through the Africa 2009 programme, some expertise in training, in conservation and management was provided at a regional level. Pastoral nomads live around the property, and it has been considered that protection might be improved by involving nomadic tribal chiefs in an oversight of the large area.

There is an urgent need to re-assess and define the boundaries so as to encompass all the attributes of Outstanding Universal Value, to define a buffer zone, to put in place local protection, perhaps through the local communities, and to prepare an overall management plan that sets out how protection, management and interpretation will be met in the medium and long term.

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Outstanding Universal Value The Lower Awash Valley paleo-anthropological site is located 300 km northeast of Addis Ababa, in the west of the Afar Depression. It covers an area of around 150 km 2. The Awash Valley contains one of the most important groupings of paleontological sites on the African continent.

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I missed the directions on the Module page and posted several websites about archaeology. This is the article I read about the Acheulean stone tools discovered in India.

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Wednesday, October 6, 2021

JENA, GERMANY-According to a Cosmos Magazine report, researchers led by Jimbob Blinkhorn of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History have redated sediments at the Singi Talav site, which is situated on a lakeside on the edge of northern India's Thar Desert. The new dates indicate that the use of Acheulean stone tools survived in the region until about 177,000 years ago, making them some of the last-known Acheulean tools crafted by human relatives. Plant microfossils in the sediments and analysis of the soil geochemistry suggest the environment inhabited by the toolmakers featured grasses that flourish during enhanced summer monsoons, added Hema Achyuthan of Anna University. "Critically, the late persistence of the Acheulean at Singi Talav and elsewhere in India directly precedes evidence for the appearance of our own species, Homo sapiens, as they expanded across Asia," Blinkhorn said. The Acheulean population and migrating modern humans may have encountered each other in the region, he explained. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Scientific Reports. For more on tools made by modern human relatives, go to " The Bone Collector."

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New Dates Reveal India's Youngest Acheulean Tools - Archaeology Magazine

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Wednesday, October 6, 2021 JENA, GERMANY-According to a Cosmos Magazine report, researchers led by Jimbob Blinkhorn of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History have redated sediments at the Singi Talav site, which is situated on a lakeside on the edge of northern India's Thar Desert.

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This site helps evidence trade between Asia and African continents. The photographs depict a city rich with culture and Indian, Arab, European influence.

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Outstanding Universal Value

Located on a promontory jutting out from the western side of Unguja island into the Indian Ocean, the Stone Town of Zanzibar is an outstanding example of a Swahili trading town. This type of town developed on the coast of East Africa, further expanded under Arab, Indian, and European influences, but retained its indigenous elements, to form an urban cultural unit unique to this region.

The Stone Town of Zanzibar retains its urban fabric and townscape virtually intact and contains many fine buildings that reflect its particular culture, which has brought together and homogenized disparate elements of the cultures of Africa, the Arab region, India, and Europe over more than a millennium.

The buildings of the Stone Town, executed principally in coralline ragstone and mangrove timber, set in a thick lime mortar and then plastered and lime-washed, reflect a complex fusion of Swahili, Indian, Arab and European influences in building traditions and town planning. The two storey houses with long narrow rooms disposed round an open courtyard, reached through a narrow corridor, are distinguished externally by elaborately carved double 'Zanzibar' doors, and some by wide vernadahs, and by richly decorated interiors. Together with, the simple ground floor Swahili houses and the narrow façade Indian shops along "bazaar" streets constructed around a commercial space "duka".

The major buildings date from the 18 th and 19 th centuries and include monuments such as the Old Fort, built on the site of an earlier Portuguese church; the house of wonder, a large ceremonial palace built by Sultan Barghash; the Old Dispensary; St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Cathedral; Christ Church Anglican Cathedral commemorating the work of David Livingston in abolishing the slave trade and built on the site of the last slave market; the residence of the slave trader Tippu Tip; the Malindi Bamnara Mosque; the Jamat Khan built for the Ismaili sect; the Royal Cemetery; the Hamamni and other Persian baths. Together with the narrow, winding street pattern, large mansions facing the seafront and open spaces these buildings form an exceptional urban settlement reflecting the longstanding trading activity between the African and Asian seaboards. In particular the Stone town's is also marked by being the site where slave-trading was finally terminated.

Criterion (ii): The Stone Town of Zanzibar is an outstanding material manifestation of cultural fusion and harmonization.

Criterion (iii): For many centuries there was intense seaborne trading activity between Asia and Africa, and this is illustrated in an exceptional manner by the architecture and urban structure of the Stone Town.

Criterion (vi): Zanzibar has great symbolic importance in the suppression of slavery, since it was one of the main slave-trading ports in East Africa and also the base from which its opponents, such as David Livingstone, conducted their campaign.

Integrity

The individual buildings in the Stone town manifest, through their structure, construction materials and techniques, the interchange and influence of the different cultures around the Indian Ocean rim. The outstanding universal value of the property resides in the character of the assemblage of blocks (cluster) and buildings, the layout of the Town including the relationship of buildings to the open spaces, streets, roads and gardens, the character of the littoral edge viewed from the sea, and the nature of access to the sea from the land. These are all still intact but the buildings are vulnerable to deterioration and the visual aspect from the sea is vulnerable to inappropriate development. Work on the Malindi Port development project, including the loss of two historic warehouses, and erection of new, inappropriately scaled and designed port facilities without prior approval has created a precedent on how unintegrated development, and legitimate modern inspiration of Zanzibaris, if not well thought through and articulated, could be a threat to the integrity of the property.

The property boundary coincides with the boundary of the Urban Conservation Area including the port area to the north, bounded by beaches along the north-west and south-west, open areas to the east and older part of Darajani Street. The buffer zone covers the historic part of Ng'ambo that includes part of the modernist buildings of Michenzani and the main road of Mlandege.

Authenticity

The ensemble of the town largely preserves its historic urban fabric and landscape. The buildings, their uses, and the layout of the streets continue to express the interchange of human values around the Indian Ocean rim. The materials and the skills of construction used in the town are still widely used in the Zanzibar archipelago and the Swahili coastal zone. The local artisans are competent in both the traditional building techniques and the skills needed to produce quality construction materials, namely laterite-sand, lime and coral stone. Traditional materials and construction techniques are still being employed to a large extent, though there is growing competition from modern materials, designs, and techniques.The continuity of traditional uses of most of the buildings in the historic town as residential and commercial space maintains the town as an important administrative and economic centre of the archipelago. Yet, the authenticity of the Stone Town in its setting is vulnerable to the inappropriate scale and design of new development in the property and its buffer zone.
Protection and management requirements
Cultural property in the Zanzibar archipelago is protected under the "Ancient Monuments Act" of 1948. This legal framework protects individual monuments and sites Gazetted in the Official Gazette. Responsibility for the monitoring and management of these monuments falls within the jurisdiction of the Department of Museums and Antiquity. The Town and Country Planning act of 1955 also provides a clause to protect historically important houses. The Stone Town has been protected as a conservation area since 1985, under the Town and Country Planning Act of 1955. Finally, values, boundaries and features have been further protected by the Stone Town Conservation and Development Act of 1994 and the associated Master Plan which specifies actions and strategies to be taken to safeguard, conserve and develop the values of the Stone Town. Together with these legal frameworks, the Stone Town Conservation and Development Authority (STCDA) which was created in 1985 has a full mandate to coordinate and supervise the Master Plan of 1994. Many buildings of the Stone Town are also protected by other institutions such as the Department of Housing and Human Settlement and the Commission of Waqf. A Management Plan for the property was prepared by the STCDA in consultation with all stakeholders, in 2007, with the stated vision to: "protect and enhance the Stone Town cultural heritage leading to it being well preserved as a sustainable human settlement supportive of its cultural diversity and maintaining its Outstanding Universal Values".

The Stone Town is not only an historic living town but also a commercial and socio-cultural centre of the Zanzibar Archipelago. As such, the property is subject to the pressure of development, manifested through traffic problems, changes of land uses and the lack and high expense of accommodation inside the Stone Town. Tourist development since 1990 is an important factor in the development pressure on the town. However the absence of clear policies on heritage promotion, cultural tourism, and the lack of a strategy on how to accommodate tourism development, and on how to revitalize public spaces could result in random development that could threaten its Outstanding Universal Value.

The management system set out in the Management Plan (2007), produced by comprehensive consultative approach under the supervision of STCDA aimed to mitigate these pressures. Nevertheless, an integrated and sustainable conservation and development approaches are urgently needed in order to develop practical sustainable management strategies to ensure that the overall coherence of the town and its highly distinctive town planning, architecture and traditional methods and materials of construction are sustained.

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Outstanding Universal Value Located on a promontory jutting out from the western side of Unguja island into the Indian Ocean, the Stone Town of Zanzibar is an outstanding example of a Swahili trading town.

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Stone towns on the Swahili Coast in Eastern Africa show evidence of sophisticated trading centers. This resource can show students how trade brought influences from various nations to the region.

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The boat from the dusty town of Kilwa Masoko to the island of Songo Mnara is a slow one-30 odd feet of bleached driftwood pounded together with pig iron and powered by a puttering outboard. To starboard is mainland Tanzania, and to port a series of coastal islands with the choppy expanse of the Indian Ocean beyond. The long ride provides a chance for Jeffrey Fleisher, an archaeologist from Rice University, balanced on a log lashed to the gunwales, to talk about the site where he has been codirecting excavations since 2009. "There's everything to be learned about Songo Mnara," he says, sea spray building on his glasses. Songo Mnara is a Swahili town that was occupied in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, during the last decades of a golden age of wealthy, independent Islamic trading ports located along the East African coast, from Somalia to Mozambique.

The Swahili Coast and its culture in the medieval period (roughly the tenth to fifteenth centuries) is relatively little studied, compared with other cultures of its size and influence, though it represents a key node in the development of global trade before the European Age of Discovery. Its history is known in broad strokes, but less is known about how the medieval Swahili lived and how they incorporated influences-from religion to architecture-from across the Indian Ocean world. Fleisher and his codirector, Stephanie Wynne-Jones of the University of York, looked for a site that would allow them to examine such questions in detail. "We had an inkling Songo Mnara would be that site," he says, "but it has completely exceeded our expectations."

The boat pulls up to a small sandy beach occupied by a fishing outpost, one of the island's two small communities, consisting of small thatched huts, among them a woven-palm mosque. A few Swahili men mend nets and clean fish that will be cooked after sundown, once the day's Ramadan fast ends. A path leads through the huts and down into an opening in a dense wall of mangroves. From there, one wades into mangrove swamp (ankle- or chest-deep, depending on the tides), and when the path rises again, it emerges on a small tent city for the archaeologists, students, and specialists working on the dig, with the ruins of Songo Mnara beyond.

The island seems a remote backwater today, but the sprawling ruins, though overgrown and studded with coconut palms and the stout, distended trunks of baobabs, tell another story-of a significant, wealthy, well-connected town. Among the dozens of ancient structures built of jagged blocks of coral, several excavation teams are at work. There are two large trenches in the town's central clearing, and another inside one of the houses on the far side of the site. Wynne-Jones, who is overseeing the house dig, tromps through the overgrowth to greet Fleisher and review the day's work. The archaeologists walk past graveyards and tombs in the center of town, through a series of interconnected two-story homes known as "the palace," into two of the town's six mosques, and around any number of other structures and enclosures, some of which have been partially stabilized and reconstructed.

The site represents an unusual opportunity for the archaeologists-a mature, intact, little-excavated Swahili town where they can examine what we think we know about Swahili commerce, the role of women in Swahili life, Indian Ocean trade, and the diversity and complexity of the coast's medieval culture. "Everything has the ability to change the story in significant ways," Fleisher says.

The Sultan's African Palace

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Stone Towns of the Swahili Coast - Archaeology Magazine

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The boat from the dusty town of Kilwa Masoko to the island of Songo Mnara is a slow one-30 odd feet of bleached driftwood pounded together with pig iron and powered by a puttering outboard. To starboard is mainland Tanzania, and to port a series of coastal islands with the choppy expanse of the Indian Ocean beyond.

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Short biographies of Mary and Louis Leakey are given on The Leakey Foundation website. Paired with the YouTube video about Mary Leakey, students will gain information about the family's pursuit to prove that human life began in Africa.

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The Leakey Family

Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey

Louis Leakey (b. 1903, d. 1972) was a tireless promoter of the study of human origins. With his theoretical and paleontological work in the field, he had a considerable impact on the science of early human evolution.

In addition to the 20 books and over 150 articles he wrote in his lifetime as well as the multiple fossil and stone tool discoveries that contributed so significantly to our understanding of the field, he was also largely responsible for convincing other scientists that Africa was the key location in which to search for evidence of human origins. In the face of great opposition, he strongly supported Darwin's assertion that human evolution began in Africa. As it turns out, Leakey's early, controversial, yet unwavering position that Africa was the cradle of humanity has held up against modern scientific scrutiny and is now universally accepted.

Louis was born on August 7, 1903, at Kabete Mission (near Nairobi) in Kenya, where his parents Harry and Mary (Bazett) Leakey were English missionaries to the Kikuyu tribe. Louis grew up speaking Kikuyu as fluently as English, and at age thirteen he was initiated as a member of the Kikuyu tribe. He later wrote a definitive study of their culture in 1937.

Leakey began his university career at Cambridge University in 1922, but a rugby injury caused him to postpone his studies. He then left to help manage a paleontological expedition to Africa. He graduated with degrees in both anthropology and archaeology in 1926. After completing his degrees, Leakey began leading expeditions to Olduvai, a river gorge in Tanzania, where he found important fossils and Stone Age tools. In 1948 he reported finding a 20-million-year-old skull he named Proconsul africanus on Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria, Kenya. Though now considered to be too specialized to have been a direct ancestor of current ape and human populations, Proconsul is still deemed scientifically valuable as a model for early human ancestors.

The first significant hominid fossil attributed to Leakey, a robust skull with huge teeth dated to 1.75 million years ago, was found by Louis' collaborator and second wife Mary Leakey. She found it in deposits that also contained stone tools. Louis claimed it was a human ancestor and called it Zinjanthropus boisei. It is now understood to be a form of Australopithecus. Another important discovery was the 1964 reporting of Homo habilis (named by Louis, Phillip Tobias and John Napier), which Leakey believed was the first member of the actual human genus as well as the first true toolmaker. Though the interpretations of Leakey's fossil finds were and still are controversial, their significance to the field of human origins is generally acknowledged.

Leakey had a significant effect on not only the field of paleoanthropology but also primatology. He was responsible for initiating Jane Goodall's long-term field study of chimpanzees in the wild, and he helped obtain and coordinate funding for similar projects such as Dian Fossey's work with mountain gorillas in Rwanda and Birute Galdikas' work with orangutans in the Sarawak region of Indonesia.

Always a dynamic and energetic man, Leakey kept up a rigorous schedule of lecturing and fundraising. In 1972, while on route to a speaking engagement in London, Louis Leakey suffered a heart attack and died.

Louis Leakey radically changed the way we now view early humans. Though he always had his detractors, Louis Leakey is considered to be a significant contributor to the understanding of our origins. He pushed back the known dates for the existence of various species, changed phylogenies to include the existence of parallel lines of evolution in the human family, stimulated research in new fields like primatology, and generated interest and publicity for the study of human origins.

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Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey Louis Leakey (b. 1903, d. 1972) was a tireless promoter of the study of human origins. With his theoretical and paleontological work in the field, he had a considerable impact on the science of early human evolution.

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Not an article, but a well done, short video about Mary Leakey and her pursuit of finding the origins of human life.

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Animated Life -- Mary Leakey | HHMI BioInteractive Video

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This article gives a nice overview of Otzi. Descriptions of what he was wearing, what he was found with and what he ate the day he died are given. The article gives insight into the life of a late Neolithic person. Visuals of Otzi's mummified body are included.

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Thirty years ago this month, Europe's most famous mummy was discovered lying face-down in the ice, on the edge of a lake nearly two miles high in the Ötztal Alps bordering Austria and Italy.

Naturally preserved by more than 5,000 years of sun, wind, and freezing temperatures, the leathery remains of Ötzi the Iceman quickly became a global sensation, the subject of countless books and documentaries and even a feature film reconstructing his life in Neolithic Europe and his violent death.

Today, Ötzi is carefully tended to by researchers at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, where his wizened body is kept in a custom cold chamber maintained at a constant temperature of -21.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Four or five times a year, his remains are sprayed with sterile water to create an icy, protective exoskeleton that ensures he stays a " wet mummy " (one naturally preserved in a wet rather than dry environment).
Go behind the scenes of Ötzi's 2010 autopsy.
In an average year, about 300,000 visitors travel to Bolzano to marvel at the ancient Iceman through a thick glass window that affords a view into his frosty chamber. Ötzi is equally in demand by scientists, who jump at the rare opportunity to study the incredibly well-preserved remains of a man who lived long before the rise of Europe's earliest cities, and even before Egypt's first pyramid was built.

"Ötzi is, in my eyes, the best investigated human body the whole world has ever seen," says Oliver Peschel, the Munich-based forensic pathologist in charge of Ötzi's conservation.

Here's what three decades of research have revealed about the life and death of the Iceman-and what the future study of his extraordinary remains may reveal.

WHO WAS ÖTZI?

Ötzi was wiry, short (5'2"), and about 46 years old when he died. He was left-handed and wore a U.S. men's size 8 shoe. His eyes-still preserved in their sockets-were long thought to be blue, but genomic analysis has revealed otherwise. "We could prove he had brown eyes and dark brown hair, and he had a typical Mediterranean skin tone," says Albert Zink, head of the EURAC Institute of Mummy Studies in Bolzano, which has done much of the core research on Ötzi.
Read how researchers reconstructed Ötzi's frantic, final mountain climb.
The Iceman had type O blood, was lactose intolerant, and had a rare genetic anomaly that prevented his 12th pair of ribs from forming. He suffered from cavities, intestinal parasites, Lyme disease, and sore knees, hips, shoulders, and back. His 61 tattoos map onto the places where his bones and joints show wear and tear (as well as onto modern acupuncture points). Ötzi had broken several ribs and his nose during his lifetime, and horizontal grooves on his fingernails indicate had repeated bouts of physical stress- likely stemming from malnutrition -in the few months before his death. He was genetically predisposed to arteriosclerosis, and a CT scan confirms that his is the oldest known case of heart disease in the world.

Based on carbon dating, Ötzi lived roughly 5,200 years ago (3350-3110 B.C.)

WHO WERE HIS PEOPLE?

Based on his DNA signature, Ötzi was part of the migration of Neolithic farmers that came through Anatolia (modern Turkey) 8,000 to 6,000 years ago, replacing Europe's Paleolithic hunters and gatherers. His maternal genetic heritage no longer exists in modern populations, but his paternal line lives on in groups found on Mediterranean islands, especially Sardinia.

WHAT HE WORE

Ötzi was found wearing only a single shoe, but many of his belongings were subsequently recovered around the site where he was found. His leggings and coats-one lighter, one heavier-were pieced together from the hides of local sheep and goats. His shoes were stuffed with wild grass and laced with auroch leather. His fur hat was from a brown bear.
Discover how DNA tells the story of what Ötzi wore.
WHAT HE CARRIED

The Iceman trekked through the Ötztal Alps with a wood-frame backpack and a deerskin quiver with 20 arrow shafts, only two of which had arrowheads. His flint dagger was sharpened with a tool fashioned from lime tree wood and a fire-hardened antler tip. A birch bark container, similar to those still made in the region today, held smoldering charcoal wrapped in fresh maple leaves that would've allowed him to quickly make a fire.

One of the most important objects is Ötzi's sublime copper axe. Secured to a yew handle with cow leather and birch tar, the blade was cast from a mold and is 99.7 percent pure copper. It was an extraordinarily wealthy item for the time, and its discovery pushed back the beginning of the European Copper Age by a thousand years.

HIS LAST MEAL

In the hours before his death, Ötzi had a hearty meal of einkorn wheat, red deer, and ibex. It took researchers 18 years to identify his stomach-via a 2009 CT scan-because the organ had shifted under his ribs to where his lower lungs are located.
Learn more about how researchers determined Ötzi's last meal.
HIS DEATH

A gash between the thumb and first finger of his right hand revealed that Ötzi had been stabbed a few days before he died. It was an active defensive wound, meaning he likely tried to grab the blade. That wound was still healing when he was attacked again with an arrow that hit an artery in his back left shoulder. He may have had time to sit down and perhaps try to pull the arrow out, but it's unlikely he could have reached it before he bled to death within minutes.
Read how X-ray scans reveal Ötzi's cause of death.
The Iceman also had substantial brain hemorrhaging, but experts disagree about its cause. Did someone finish him off with a blow to the head? Did he fall and hit his head on a rock? Peschel says he doesn't see good evidence for either of these scenarios.

HOW ÖTZI WAS NATURALLY MUMMIFIED

Based on analysis of pollen and the maple leaves he carried, Ötzi died in early summer. One theory posits that warm summer winds dried him out. But Peschel says it had to have been the frigid temperatures of the high mountain pass that preserved the Iceman, because his brain, which would usually liquify along with other organs a few days after death, froze quickly, preserving it in desiccated form.

WHAT HIS GUT SAYS

While hundreds of studies have already been done on Ötzi, more are in the works. Now that the Institute for Mummy Studies has sequenced Ötzi's genome, they're genetically analyzing his gut microbiome. "We would like to understand the whole community of bacteria that lived inside his stomach and his intestines," says Zink.
Discover how the Ötzi's gut holds clues to humans' spread into Europe.
The diversity of our gut flora appears linked to our health, so researchers are keen to see the makeup of Ötzi's. One early find, part of an ongoing study by the University of Trento involving Ötzi and 6,500 modern people, reveals that the Iceman had three of the four strains of the bacterium Prevotella copri. Indigenous people around the world have a variety of strains of the bacterium in their gut, but the 30 percent of modern Westerners with P. copri have just one, which tends to take over, reducing diversity.

Another discovery is that Ötzi's gut contained Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium found today in half of the world's population, with severe or deadly health consequences for about 10 percent of us. The dominant strain of H. pylori in Europe today is a hybrid of Asian and African strains. Ötzi's strain is nearly purely Asian, which suggests the African strain arrived in Europe after his death. This has implications for the debate over whether H. pylori is a natural member of our gut flora or needs to be treated with an antibiotic as soon as it's identified.

Another microbiome study of his gut found the pathogenic ancestor strain of Clostridium perfringens, today a common cause of food poisoning.

A BETTER, GREENER ÖTZI

The city of Bolzano plans to build a new archaeology museum in the next few years to house both Ötzi and a richer collection of Tyrolean artifacts. They also hope to improve the energy efficiency of the 22-year-old cold chamber system that supports his remains. (A second backup chamber is also on standby in case the primary one fails.)

IMITATING NATURE

To better understand the natural processes that have preserved Ötzi over five millennia-particularly exposure to the elements and the actions of microbes-researchers at the Institute of Mummy Studies are now analyzing the naturally preserved remains of a chamois, a kind of goat-antelope, discovered in summer 2020 in the same region as Ötzi. Though only a few hundred years old, its state of preservation is similar to the Iceman's, and scientists are varying the humidity and temperature the animal's remains are stored at to better understand how those factors impact preservation. They're also studying its microbial community, both inside and out. "We know there are bacteria and fungi that can survive the cold temperatures, so maybe if you change something, they can start to grow again," Zink says.

THE UNIMAGINABLE RESEARCH OF 2050

Technological advances will be key to unlocking more of Ötzi's secrets-and are likely. His 5,000-year-old genome was decoded in 2012, just as next-generation sequencing was becoming more common and affordable. But even then, Zink says he never would have expected that one day researchers could also reconstruct the Iceman's microbiome. "These methods developed so quickly, and now we get so much more data," he marvels.

Future research could focus on the functionality of Özti's body, including proteins, lipids, and enzymes found in his tissues that may reveal information about his immune system. For now, however, protein analysis of ancient samples remains a very complex process.

In the meantime, Ötzi's caretakers have to strike a careful balance between making the mummy available for research and ensuring that research isn't too invasive or frequent. The museum receives about 10 to 15 requests to study Ötzi every year. A committee of experts from various universities and the museum evaluates each request. About once a year they take surface samples for microbiology investigations. They only rarely defrost him. The last time was in 2019.

"We won't have any idea what scientific methods scientists in 2050 will have," says Peschel. "It makes a lot of sense to keep Ötzi in the best condition to make research possible in 20, 30 years."

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Ötzi the Iceman: What we know 30 years after his discovery

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Thirty years ago this month, Europe's most famous mummy was discovered lying face-down in the ice, on the edge of a lake nearly two miles high in the Ötztal Alps bordering Austria and Italy.

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The pictures and descriptions of these African cities helps kids better understand the complexity and beauty in a part of the world that very few have had little exposure to.

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Outstanding Universal Value

Brief synthesis

Djenné, chief town of the Djenné Circle, located 130 km south-west of Mopti (the regional capital) and roughly 570 km north-east of Bamako (the national capital), is one of the oldest towns of sub-Saharan Africa.

The cultural property "Old Towns of Djenné" is a serial property comprising four archaeological sites, namely Djenné-Djeno, Hambarkétolo, Kaniana and Tonomba, along with the old fabric of the present town of Djenné covering an area of 48.5 ha and divided into ten districts. The property is an ensemble that over many years has symbolised the typical African city. It is also particularly representative of Islamic architecture in sub-Saharan Africa.

The property is characterised by the intensive and remarkable use of earth specifically in its architecture. The outstanding mosque of great monumental and religious value is an outstanding example of this. The town is renowned for its civic constructions, with the distinctive style of verticality and buttresses as well as the elegant monumental houses with intricate facades.

Excavations carried out in 1977, 1981, 1996 and 1997, revealed an extraordinary page of human history dating back to the 3rd century B.C. They have brought to light an archaeological ensemble which bears witness to a pre-Islamic urban structure with a wealth of circular or rectangular constructions in djenné ferey and numerous archaeological remains(funerary jars, pottery, millstones, grinders, metal scoria etc.).

The property " Old Towns of Djenné " comprises the town of Djenné, characterised by a remarkable architecture and its urban fabric, of rare harmony, and four (4) archaeological sites bearing witness to a long-gone pre-Islamic civilization.

The property " Old Towns of Djenné " still retains the values which justified its outstanding universal value at its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List. First and foremost, the archaeological, historic, religious and architectural values should be mentioned.

Criterion (iii): Djenné-Djeno, along with Hambarketolo, Tonomba and Kaniana bears exceptional witness to the pre-Islamic civilizations on the inland Delta of the Niger. The discovery of many dwellings on the site of Djenné-Djeno (remains of traditional brick structures (djénné ferey), funerary jars) as well as a wealth of terra cotta artifacts and metal make this a major archaeological site for the study of the evolution of dwellings, industrial and craft techniques.

Criterion (iv): The ancient fabric of Djenné is an outstanding example of an architectural group of buildings illustrating a significant historic period. Influenced by Moroccan architecture (1591), and later marked by the Toucouleur Empire in 1862, the architecture of Djenné is characterized by its verticality, its buttresses punctuating the facades of the two-storey houses whose entrances are always given special attention. The reconstruction of the Mosque (1906-1907) resulted in the creation of a monument representing local religious architecture.

Integrity

The vestiges of the four inscribed archaeological sites remain intact (pottery shards, funerary jars, remains of walls and circular or rectangular dwellings of traditional round mud bricks (djénné ferey), statuettes and mud bricks, metal scoria, millstones, grinders and Islamic burial grounds). The marshes where the small islands are located ensure a relative physical integrity. However, these inscribed archaeological sites are vulnerable to very serious threats such as leaching, erosion and gullying by inclement weather and uncontrolled urbanization.

In addition to its prestigious mosque, Djenné still retains its elegant monumental houses of rigorous composition with façades sometimes decorated by a porch, and supporting pilasters with, in the centre, "the potige", a decorative motif indicating the position of the front door. This earthen architecture, one of the criteria for inscription of the property on the World Heritage List, has for several decades undergone modifications altering its aesthetic values, for example:

the introduction of modern materials, namely cement, fired bricks and metal doors and windows;

the disappearance of decorative features on the façades, characteristic of the earthen architecture of Djenné.

Authenticity
The authenticity of the site, in particular the inscribed ancient fabric, is testified by the use of little-modified construction materials: earth is the overall privileged material. The transmission of construction techniques is entrusted to the Barey Corporation, stone masons from generation to generation.

Finally, through spirit, wisdom, welcome and the Great Mosque, Djenné is and remains the "pious town".

Protection and management requirements

The town of Djenné benefits from legal protection through national heritage listing of the property and the creation of a cultural mission for its conservation.

The Great Mosque, the Koranic schools and the Tombs of the Saints benefit from customary protection through the establishment of a management committee for the Mosque, the association for Koranic schools and supervision by the village chief, its Council and district chiefs.

The site possesses a "conservation and management plan" for a five (5)-year duration, 2008-2012, which has been prepared in cooperation with the communities following a participatory approach.

Possible problems could occur with an increase in the population and building speculation. The boundaries of the protection zone are vague. An urban regulation which is under preparation could assist in defining the said boundaries and contribute towards sustainable development of the town and respect the heritage values.

The Cultural Mission requires the provision of human and material resources to ensure the control of the property against looting and other threats to the cultural heritage.

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Outstanding Universal Value Brief synthesis Djenné, chief town of the Djenné Circle, located 130 km south-west of Mopti (the regional capital) and roughly 570 km north-east of Bamako (the national capital), is one of the oldest towns of sub-Saharan Africa.

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Considering the times that we are in, this could be something to help kids relate to life in ancient sub-Saharan Africa.

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Thursday, March 7, 2019

TEMPE, ARIZONA-It had been previously thought that Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes the Black Death, did not cross the Sahara Desert in the fourteenth century A.D., when the disease killed as many as 200 million people in Europe and Asia. However, Science Magazine reports that researchers are reviewing circumstantial archaeological, historical, and genetic evidence that the plague may have wiped out entire communities in sub-Saharan Africa as well. Gérard Chouin of the College of William & Mary said Akrokrowa, a farming community founded around A.D. 700 in what is now southern Ghana, was abandoned in the late fourteenth century. Daphne Gallagher and Stephen Dueppen of the University of Oregon say Burkina Faso's site of Kirikongo grew for more than 1,000 years, until the fourteenth century, when it suddenly shrank to half its previous size. Mention of epidemics has been found in Ethiopian texts dating from the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries, and Marie-Laure Derat of the French National Center for Scientific Research said that Ethiopians adopted St. Roch and St. Sebastian, two European Christian saints associated with plague, as their own. In addition, Monica Green of Arizona State University has found that a subgroup of the plague bacterium, found only in East and Central Africa, is related to the strain that devastated Europe. Sub-Saharan Africa's heat and humidity degrade DNA in human remains, but the scientists will next look for the smoking gun of Y. pestis DNA in human teeth recovered in the region. For more on archaeological evidence of Y. pestis, go to " Bronze Age Plague."

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Medieval Plague May Have Reached Sub-Saharan Africa - Archaeology Magazine

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Thursday, March 7, 2019 TEMPE, ARIZONA-It had been previously thought that Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes the Black Death, did not cross the Sahara Desert in the fourteenth century A.D., when the disease killed as many as 200 million people in Europe and Asia.

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Article about how scientist have been able to trace the migration routes of early Polynesians through DNA.

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Polynesian voyagers settled islands across a vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean within about 500 years, leaving a genetic trail of the routes that the travelers took, scientists say.

Comparisons of present-day Polynesians' DNA indicate that sea journeys launched from Samoa in western Polynesia headed south and then east, reaching Rarotonga in the Cook Islands by around the year 830. From the mid-1100s to the mid-1300s, people who had traveled farther east to a string of small islands called the Tuamotus fanned out to settle Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, and several other islands separated by thousands of kilometers on Polynesia's eastern edge. On each of those islands, the Tuamotu travelers built massive stone statues like the ones Easter Island is famed for.

That's the scenario sketched out in a new study in the Sept. 23 Nature by Stanford University computational biologist Alexander Ioannidis, population geneticist Andrés Moreno-Estrada of the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity in Irapuato, Mexico, and their colleagues.

The new analysis generally aligns with archaeological estimates of human migrations across eastern Polynesia from roughly 900 to 1250. And the study offers an unprecedented look at settlement pathways that zigged and zagged over a distance of more than 5,000 kilometers, the researchers say.

"The colonization of eastern Polynesia was a remarkable event in which a vast area, some one-third of the planet, became inhabited by humans in ... a relatively short period of time," says archaeologist Carl Lipo of Binghamton University in New York, who wasn't involved in the new research.

Improved radiocarbon dating techniques applied to remains of short-lived plant species unearthed at archaeological sites are also producing a chronology of Polynesian colonization close to that proposed in the genetic study, Lipo says.

In the new investigation, researchers identified DNA segments of exclusively Polynesian origin in 430 present-day individuals from 21 Pacific island populations. Island-specific genetic fingerprints enabled the scientists to reconstruct settlement paths, based on increases in rare gene variants that must have resulted from a small group moving from one island to another and giving rise to a new, larger population with novel DNA twists. Comparisons of shared Polynesian ancestry between pairs of individuals on different islands were used to estimate when settlements occurred.

In an intriguing twist, the DNA evidence "is consistent with the [statue] carving tradition arising once in a single point of common origin, likely the Tuamotu islands," Moreno-Estrada says. Polynesian ancestry on all the islands with massive statues traces back to the one island in the Tuamotus where the researchers were able to obtain Indigenous peoples' DNA.

The Tuamotus include nearly 80 islands situated between Tahiti to the west and other islands to the north and east where settlers carved statues. The latter outposts consist of the Marquesas Islands, Mangareva and Rapa Nui. Another late-settled island where inhabitants carved statues, Raivavae, lies southwest of the Tuamotus.

Settlers reached the island of Mataiva in the northern Tuamotus by about 1110, the researchers suggest. Statue makers navigated northward and eastward from Mataiva or perhaps other Tuamotu islands to as far east as Rapa Nui - eventually curving back west before arriving at Raivavae - around the same time as an earlier DNA study suggests eastern Polynesians mated with South Americans ( SN: 7/8/20). (It's not clear whether South Americans crossed the ocean to Polynesia or Polynesians traveled to South America and then returned.)

Pacific trek

Caption: An analysis of 430 present-day individuals is shedding new light on the timings and routes of early Polynesians' migrations. Modern DNA indicates that voyagers left Samoa and went south and then east, reaching Rarotonga in the Cook Islands by around the year 830. From the mid-1100s to the mid-1300s, people who had traveled to the Tuamotu Islands, located just east of Tahiti, spread out to settle Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, and several other islands separated by thousands of kilometers.

When early Polynesians migrated eastward

C. Chang

C. Chang

Source: A.G. Ioannidis et al/Nature 2021, P. Kirch/ Nature 2021

Ioannidis and colleagues' conclusions generally support prior scenarios of Polynesia's settlement, but some disparities exist between their genetic evidence and earlier archaeological and linguistic findings, writes archaeologist Patrick Kirch of the University of Hawaii at Manoa in a commentary published with the new study.

For instance, the new DNA analysis overlooks extensive contacts that occurred across eastern Polynesian in its early settlement stages, Kirch says. Analyses of closely related eastern Polynesian language dialects and discoveries of stone tools that were transported from one island to another point to substantial travels and trading throughout the region during that time.

Kirch, who has previously suggested that these long-distance contacts in eastern Polynesian influenced stone carving traditions, calls the new proposal that people with a shared ancestry brought stone carving to Rapa Nui and other islands "a provocative hypothesis."

And there's still no answer to one major question regarding the settlement of the islands, says molecular anthropologist Lisa Matisoo-Smith of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, who didn't participate in the new research. No current line of evidence can resolve the mystery of why, after spending nearly 2,000 years on Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, Polynesians began voyaging thousands of kilometers eastward in search of new lands.

Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org

Bruce Bower has written about the behavioral sciences for Science News since 1984. He writes about psychology, anthropology, archaeology and mental health issues.

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DNA offers a new look at how Polynesia was settled

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Polynesian voyagers settled islands across a vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean within about 500 years, leaving a genetic trail of the routes that the travelers took, scientists say. Comparisons of present-day Polynesians' DNA indicate that sea journeys launched from Samoa in western Polynesia headed south and then east, reaching Rarotonga in the Cook Islands by around the year 830.

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This site helps make the connection between geography and how it influences the lives of the Anangu Aboriginal people who live(d) in the region.

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Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park

This park, formerly called Uluru (Ayers Rock - Mount Olga) National Park, features spectacular geological formations that dominate the vast red sandy plain of central Australia. Uluru, an immense monolith, and Kata Tjuta, the rock domes located west of Uluru, form part of the traditional belief system of one of the oldest human societies in the world. The traditional owners of Uluru-Kata Tjuta are the Anangu Aboriginal people.

Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0

Parc national d'Uluru-Kata Tjuta

Ce parc, qui s'appelait autrefois parc national d'Uluru (Ayers Rock-Mont Olga), présente des formations géologiques spectaculaires qui dominent la vaste plaine sableuse du centre de l'Australie. L'immense monolithe d'Uluru et les dômes rocheux de Kata Tjuta, à l'ouest d'Uluru, font partie intégrante du système de croyances traditionnelles de l'une des plus anciennes sociétés humaines du monde. Les propriétaires traditionnels d'Uluru-Kata Tjuta appartiennent au peuple aborigène des Anangu.

Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0

ウルル-カタ・ジュタ国立公園

オーストラリア中部のノーザン・テリトリー南部にあり、公園内には世界最大の一枚岩エアーズロックと、ドーム型の奇岩群オルガ山がそびえている。1987年、自然遺産として登録。先住民族アボリジニの聖地エアーズロック周辺に、彼らの神話や生活が描かれた壁画が残されており、94年に複合遺産として再登録された。

source: NFUAJ

Nationaal park Uluru-Kata Tjuta

Dit park - voorheen Nationaal Park Uluru (Ayers Rock-Mount Olga) - beschikt over spectaculaire geologische formaties, zoals de enorme monoliet Uluru en de rotskoepels Kata Tjuta ten westen hiervan. Uluru bestaat uit harde zandsteen die bloot is komen te liggen door erosie van het omliggende gesteente. De monoliet heeft een basisomtrek van 9,4 kilometer, gladde schuine zijden en een relatief vlakke bovenkant. De rotsformaties zijn onderdeel van het traditionele geloof en tevens eigendom van een van de oudste menselijke samenlevingen ter wereld, de Anangu Aboriginals.

Source: unesco.nl

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Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park This park, formerly called Uluru (Ayers Rock - Mount Olga) National Park, features spectacular geological formations that dominate the vast red sandy plain of central Australia. Uluru, an immense monolith, and Kata Tjuta, the rock domes located west of Uluru, form part of the traditional belief system of one of the oldest human societies in the world.

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Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavihara at Nalanda, Bihar

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Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavihara at Nalanda, Bihar

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This site helps to show the spread of Buddhism east. There are numerous images of artifacts including stupas, shrines, and statues.

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Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavihara at Nalanda, Bihar

The Nalanda Mahavihara site is in the State of Bihar, in north-eastern India. It comprises the archaeological remains of a monastic and scholastic institution dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. It includes stupas, shrines, viharas (residential and educational buildings) and important art works in stucco, stone and metal. Nalanda stands out as the most ancient university of the Indian Subcontinent. It engaged in the organized transmission of knowledge over an uninterrupted period of 800 years. The historical development of the site testifies to the development of Buddhism into a religion and the flourishing of monastic and educational traditions.

Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0

Site archéologique Nalanda Mahavihara à Nalanda, Bihar

Le site de Nalanda Mahavihara est situé dans l'état du Bihar, au nord-est de l'Inde. Il s'agit des vestiges archéologiques d'une institution monastique et scolastique en activité du IIIe siècle av. J.-C. au XIIIe siècle de notre ère. Il comprend des stupas, des sanctuaires, des viharas (bâtiments résidentiels et éducatifs) et d'importantes œuvres d'art en stuc, en pierre et en métal. Nalanda se distingue comme la plus ancienne université du sous-continent indien, une institution qui a transmis le savoir de façon organisée sur une période ininterrompue de 800 ans. Le développement historique du site témoigne de l'évolution du bouddhisme en une religion, et de l'épanouissement des traditions monastiques et éducatives.

Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0

الآثار المرمّمة في مقاطعة نالاندا

يقع موقع نالاندا في ولاية بيهار شمال شرق الهند. ويتألف من مجموعة آثار مباني مدرسيّة ورهبانية كانت مأهولة في الفترة بين القرن الثالث قبل الميلاد والقرن الثالث عشر بعد الميلاد. ويوجد في المدينة أبراج بوذيّة ومباني سكنيّة ومدرسيّة ومعابد بالإضافة إلى أعمال فنيّة مهمّة مصنوعة من الجص والحجارة والمعادن. ويشهد تطوّر هذا المكان عبر التاريخ على تطوّر البوذيّة إلى ديانة بالإضافة إلى تطوّر التقاليد التربويّة والرهبانيّة.

source: UNESCO/ERI
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0

那烂陀寺考古遗址（那烂陀大学），比哈尔邦那烂陀

那烂陀寺遗址位于印度东北部的巴哈尔邦。遗址由公元前3世纪至公元13世纪存在于此的寺庙和佛学院遗留下的古迹组成，包括窣堵坡（坟冢），舍利塔，寺庙（僧房学舍），以及重要的墙画、石刻、金属器物等艺术作品。那烂陀作为印度次大陆上最古老的大学而引人注目，其作为有序的知识传递场所存续长达800年，发展的历史见证了佛学宗教化的过程，以及寺院和教育传统的繁荣。

source: UNESCO/ERI
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0

Археологический объект Наланда Махавихара (университет Наланда) в Наланде

Объект Наланда Махавихара расположен в штате Бихар на северо-востоке Индии. Этот археологический памятник представляет собой монастырское образовательное учреждение, действовавшее с III века до н.э. по XIII век н.э. На территории комплекса расположены, главным образом, ступы и вихары (жилые здания и учебные корпуса), а также святилища. Здесь сохранились важные произведения искусства из гипса, камня и металла. Наланда является старейшим университетом на индийском субконтиненте. В стенах этого учреждения непрерывно передавались знания на протяжении 800 лет. Историческое развитие объекта свидетельствует о превращении буддизма в религию и расцвете монастырских и образовательных традиций.

source: UNESCO/ERI
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0

Sitio arqueológico Nalanda Mahavihara en Nalanda, Bihar

Este sitio se halla al nordeste de la India, en el estado de Bihar, y está integrado por los vestigios arqueológicos de un gran monasterio ("mahavihara") que llevó a cabo una importante actividad religiosa y docente desde el siglo III a.C. hasta el siglo XIII de nuestra era. A los vestigios arquitectónicos de estupas, santuarios y edificios monacales ("viharas") destinados a albergar y educar a los profesos, se suman importantes obras de arte realizadas en estuco, piedra y metales. Nalanda se distingue como la más antigua universidad del subcontinente indio, una institución que organizó la transmisión del saber durante un periodo ininterrumpido de 800 años. La historia del sitio atestigua no sólo la evolución de la devoción budista hacia su afirmación como religión, sino también el florecimiento de las prácticas monásticas y educativas tradicionales.

source: UNESCO/ERI
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0

ビハール州ナーランダ・マハーヴィハーラ（ナーランダ大学）の遺跡

多くの僧が集ったインド随一の学問寺の遺構。インド北東部ビハール州に位置するナーランダにある、紀元前3世紀から後13世紀にかけて運営された、修道的・教育的な機関の考古学的遺構。ナーランダの大学は、インド亜大陸において最古の大学として顕著な存在で、ここでは800年も途切れることなく系統的な知識の伝達が続けられた。遺構にはストゥーパや聖廟、住居や教育関連の建物としての僧院、漆喰や石、金属で作られた重要な美術作品も含まれ、当地の歴史は、仏教の宗教への発展および修道と教育の伝統の繁栄を証明している。

source: NFUAJ

Archeologische site van Nalanda 'Mahavihara' (Universiteit van Nalanda) in Nalanda, Bihar

Nalanda Mahavihara ligt in de staat Bihar in Noordoost-India. Het omvat de archeologische overblijfselen van een kloosterschool-complex daterend uit de derde eeuw v.Chr tot de dertiende eeuw n.Chr.. Het complex omvat stoepas, altaren, vihara's (woon- en onderwijsgebouwen) en belangrijke kunstwerken in gips, steen en metaal. Nalanda is de oudste universiteit van het Indiase subcontinent waar gedurende een onafgebroken periode van 800 jaar kennis werd overgedragen. De historische ontwikkeling van de site getuigt van de ontwikkeling van het Boeddhisme tot een religie en de bloei van onderwijs- en kloostertradities.

Source: unesco.nl

Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
The Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavihara is located in the North-eastern state of Bihar, India. Spread over an area of 23 hectares the Archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara presents remains dating from circa. 3rd Cen BCE with one of the earliest, the largest of its time and longest serving monastic cum scholastic establishment in Indian Subcontinent from 5th Cen CE - 13th Cen CE before the sack and abandonment of Nalanda in the 13th Century. It includes stupas, chaityas, viharas, shrines, many votive structures and important art works in stucco, stone and metal. The layout of the buildings testifies to the change from grouping around the stupa-chaitya to a formal linear alignment flanking an axis from south to north. The historic development of the property testifies to the development of Buddhism into a religion and the flourishing of monastic and educational traditions.

Criterion (iv): The Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavihara established and developed planning, architectural, artistic principles that were adopted later by many similar institutions in the Indian Subcontinent, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Standardisation of the architecture of viharas and the evolution of temple-like chaitya into Nalanda prototypes manifests the sustained interchange and patronage towards the expansion of physical infrastructure. The quadrangular free-standing vihara of Gandhara period evolved into a complete residential cum-educational infrastructure borrowed by monastic-cities of South Asia such as Paharpur, Vikramshila, Odantapuri and Jagaddala.

Nalanda shows emergence and mainstreaming of a chaitya having quincuxial (five-fold) form. As a reflection and representation of changing religious practices, this new form replaced the traditionally dominant stupa and influenced Buddhist temples in the region.

Criterion (vi): Nalanda Mahavihara, as a centre for higher learning marks the zenith in the evolution of sangharama (monastic establishment) into the earliest higher learning establishment of early medieval India. Its merit-based approach said to have embraced all contemporary sources of knowledge and systems of learning practiced in the Indian subcontinent.

Nalanda remains one of the earliest and longest serving extraordinary institution-builder. Its systems of pedagogy, administration, planning and architecture were the basis on which later Mahaviharas were established. Nalanda continues to inspire modern university establishments in the region like Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda University and several others across Asia.
Integrity
Archaeological remains of Nalanda Mahavihara were systematically unearthed and preserved simultaneously. These are the most significant parts of the property that demonstrate development in planning, architecture and artistic tradition of Nalanda. As evinced by the surviving antiquities, the site is explicit of a scholar's life recorded a monastic cum scholastic establishment.

While the original mahavihara was a much larger complex, all surviving remains of Nalanda present in the property area of 23 hectares comprising 11 viharas and 14 temples, besides many smaller shrine and votive structures, demonstrate amply its attributes such as axial planning and layout along north-south axis, its architectural manifestation and extant building materials and applied ornamental embellishments. Preserved in-situ are the structural remains of viharas and chaityas whose layers of construction show evolution of the respective forms. The positioning of these structures over the extent of the site shows the planned layout unique to Nalanda. The property also retains a corpus of moveable and immoveable artefacts and artistic embellishments that show iconographic development reflecting changes in Buddhist belief system.

Archaeological remains including the entire protected area of the property are maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The buffer zone of the property is sparsely populated with agricultural land and seasonal water bodies and thus poses no threat to the property. The property and the buffer zone are protected by a national-level law, the Ancient Monument and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (AMASR), 1958 and (Amendment and Validation, 2010) and is monitored by the National Monument Authority (National level) and office of the District Commissioner, State Government of Bihar (local level).
Authenticity
In subsurface condition for over seven centuries the archaeological remains of Nalanda Mahavihara were systematically excavated in the early 20th Cen. CE and conserved in-situ by the Archaeological Survey of India. Methodology adopted by the Archaeological Survey of India for the conservation and consolidation of its viharas and temples ensured the preservation of its historic fabric through adequate capping by reversible and sacrificial layers and providing supports wherever necessary. All conservation works and interventions are documented through photographs and drawings and published in the annual reports of ASI.

Historical research should be continued, supported by appropriate documentation, with particular attention to the identification of all excavation works carried out before the Archaeological Survey of India, as well as excavations by any other parties of the property, and the identification of all repair works carried out throughout the site, with particular attention to the repairs of brickwork and the documentation of the differentiation of authentic archaeological fabric and added repairs and added capping and sacrificial layers, some of which are marked by way of inscription of dates on select bricks at inconspicuous locations.

Nalanda's layers of construction, iconography and records testify these remains to be its oldest surviving parts. The spatial organization evident in these excavated remains demonstrate its systematic planning. Temple-like form of chaityas and quadrangular-form of viharas replete with infrastructure authenticate Nalanda's contribution in developing sacred architecture of the Buddhists and residential-cum-scholastic facilities. Its stucco, stone and metal art retain iconographic features that enabled changes in Buddhist belief system and transition of Mahayana to Vajrayana.

Ceasing functionally as an institution (13th century CE), Nalanda's role as an institutionbuilder is testified by the borrowing of its system of organization by later Mahaviharas of the 8th century CE. Nalanda's system of pedagogy is best preserved in Tibetan monasteries where discourses are conducted through debate and dialectics. Furthermore, universities across Asia consider Nalanda the landmark of academic learning excellence.
Protection and management requirements
The property is owned, protected, maintained and managed by Archaeological Survey of India vide national level laws - the Ancient Monuments and Sites Remains Act of 1958 (Amendment and Validation, 2010) Decisions pertaining to its conservation and management are governed by National Conservation Policy for Monuments, Archaeological Sites and Remains promulgated by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Conservation and management of the property is ordained by a perspective plan and an annual conservation programme. An in-house committee of the Archaeological Survey of India monitors its state of conservation and conducts need-analysis. A conservation plan for the excavated remains of the property should be worked out for the safeguarding of its Outstanding Universal Value and authenticity. This apart, plans for visitor should be developed to strengthen approaches to visitor management and interpretation. Also the risk preparedness plan should be completed.

The buffer zone is also managed by the National Monument Authority vide Ancient Monument and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (AMASR), 1958, (Amendment and Validation, 2010) in consultation with National Monument Authority (NMA), New Delhi and the State Government of Bihar. The buffer zone also has facilities to augment visitor's experience.

The Integrated Master Plan of Nalanda should be prepared and implemented by the State Government of Bihar, keeping in mind national and regional laws, to mitigate concerns by any development in the vicinity of the property that may impact its Outstanding Universal Value. And a Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) should be conducted for any development plans within the vicinity of the property, which are vetted by the competent authorities, Archaeological Survey of India, State Government of Bihar and Nalanda's District Collectorate's Office.

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Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavihara at Nalanda, Bihar

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Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavihara at Nalanda, Bihar The Nalanda Mahavihara site is in the State of Bihar, in north-eastern India. It comprises the archaeological remains of a monastic and scholastic institution dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE.

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This is a site from after the Aryans moved into the region. Scroll to the bottom for additional images.

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There's no clear path to Hire Benakal in the hills north of the Tungabhadra River in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. If you have to double back only two or three times on the way, you've done well. University of Chicago anthropology graduate student Andrew Bauer leads me through the thorns and boulders until we emerge on a high plain surrounded by ridges. He points out knee-high aligned stones and propped-up slabs that mark the edges of the site. As we navigate through it, we walk around a pile of house-sized boulders, and the massive scale of Hire Benakal, like a city skyline in the distance, becomes apparent.

On a gentle slope are scores of dolmens (megalithic tombs) resembling houses of cards-if playing cards were slabs of granite 10 feet tall and weighed 10 tons or more. The monuments were built over more than 1,000 years spanning the southern Indian Iron Age (1200-500 B.C.) and Early Historic (500 B.C.-A.D. 500) periods, and there are more than 1,000 of them across nearly 50 acres, from modest rock enclosures to mausoleum-like tombs.

Historical sources are vague, but Hire Benakal's existence may have been documented as early as the 1850s, and the site was first examined in detail by historian A. Sundara of Karnatak University in the 1960s. In 2007, Bauer conducted the first systematic survey of the site and its environs. It was long thought that the Iron Age people of India were nomadic, making a megalithic site such as Hire Benakal difficult to explain. But recent surveys, including Bauer's, have turned up many settlements, including two within a mile of Hire Benakal, that show the people lived in villages and practiced agriculture and pastoralism. "The site appears to be a principal center of culture in the region," says Sundara.

Though visiting the site today is an eerie experience-akin to walking through a ghost town of stone-Bauer has concluded that Hire Benakal was more than just an isolated cemetery; it was also a part of an active landscape, and a place where social status and inequality first began to develop. "We really understand the site much more in context now, because I surveyed all around it," he says. It was important socially and is absolutely overwhelming to the eye. If it were not so remote, Hire Benakal might be a national treasure.

Samir S. Patel is a senior editor at ARCHAEOLOGY.

Letter from India:
Living Heritage at Risk

Slideshow: Exploring Hampi

Oceans of Dharma

On the Hilltop and
Down By the River

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India's Village of the Dead - Archaeology Magazine Archive

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There's no clear path to Hire Benakal in the hills north of the Tungabhadra River in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. If you have to double back only two or three times on the way, you've done well.

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A web-based geographic information systems app that has a limited view of some features of the ancient Mediterranean world. The Ancient World Map Center does have some additional resources.
http://awmc.unc.edu/awmc/applications/alacarte/

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Digital collections from Boston Public Library

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Digital collections from Boston Public Library

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This links you to the Norman Leventhal Map and Education Center digital collections at the BPL.
https://www.leventhalmap.org/collections/digital-collections/

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Using the digital collections

The Leventhal Map & Education Center has one of the most significant digital collections of any North American map library. We encourage all kinds of research and exploration into our collections through digital access, and seek to make digital material available on the most permissive licenses possible.

This early twentieth century map of the libraries of Massachusetts celebrated the statewide circulation of nine million volumes of library material.

Digital repositories

Our materials are mainly available on two online repositories, both of which are free to access without registration.

Other digital discovery tools

Atlascope. The Atlascope project involves the digital transformation of over a hundred fire insurance and real estate atlases of Boston and its inner suburbs, showing detail down to the parcel and building level for a period from 1860-1940. Go to the Atlascope web app

Digital Commonwealth. Our Digital Collections portal is part of Digital Commonwealth, a consortium of more than 180 cultural heritage organizations across Massachusetts. From the Digital Commonwealth repository, you can search Map Center collections together with maps, images, texts, sound records, and millions of other objects from other institutions. Go to the Digital Commonwealth portal

Flickr. Before the development of our Digital Collections portal, we uploaded full-resolution images to the photo-sharing site Flickr. You can browser our images here. We are no longer actively adding new material to our Flickr collections.

Searching the digital collections

Advanced access to digital objects

IIIF Manifests and Images

All objects in the Digital Collections portal are available for access through the International Image Interoperability Format ( IIIF). To access the IIIF Manifest for an object, add the suffix /manifest.json to the end of the collections.leventhalmap.org URL. For example, the Manifest of the Bonner map of Boston can be found here.

Search API

JSON search results of the Digital Collections portal are available at the endpoint https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search.json, which takes the same query parameters as the search portal. For example, a search returning results for the keyword "Boston neck" can be found here.

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The Leventhal Map & Education Center has one of the most significant digital collections of any North American map library. We encourage all kinds of research and exploration into our collections through digital access, and seek to make digital material available on the most permissive licenses possible.

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General topo map listing from this particular Texas library collection

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General topo map listing from this particular Texas library collection

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https://maps.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/massachusetts/
This collection covers most of the communities in the Commonwealth.

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Massachusetts Historical Topographic Maps - Perry-Castañeda Map Collection - UT Library Online

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Massachusetts - Topographic Map Index 1925 (5.6MB)

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Bedford map in relation to Gersmehl exercise from October 5

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Bedford map in relation to Gersmehl exercise from October 5

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A 1947 map that is technically centered on Concord, but includes Bedford shoudl be recognizable to students.
https://maps.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/massachusetts/txu-pclmaps-topo-ma-concord-1946.jpg

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Boston map in relation to Gersmehl exercise from October 5

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Boston map in relation to Gersmehl exercise from October 5

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This map is from 1900 and includes quite a bit of the immediate Boston area.
https://maps.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/massachusetts/txu-pclmaps-topo-ma-boston_and_vicinity-1900.jpg

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Maps in relation to Gersmehl exercise from October 5

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Maps in relation to Gersmehl exercise from October 5

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On October 5 we took a look at one of Phil Gersmehl's "where" and "when" slides. The real place that was "hidden" can be seen on this map.
https://maps.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/massachusetts/txu-pclmaps-topo-ma-salem-1886.jpg

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This is another great resource on showing how the world population developed over time. It runs through ancient history, right into the present day, and even predicts the future. I've used it a lot. The kids love it.

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Our population is expected to grow to over 9 billion by 2050, yet the ability of our environment to provide space, food, and energy are limited. Explore population growth from 1 CE to 2050, see how our numbers impact the environment, and learn about the key advances and events allowing our numbers to grow.

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These are some readings from InspirEd Educators Inc. They are easy to read biographies on the revolutionary leaders in Latin America. I know this isn't exactly ancient history, but they are a really great resource for teaching about the relationships between colonies in their ruling countries.

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These are some readings from InspirEd Educators Inc. They are easy to read biographies on the revolutionary leaders in Latin America. I know this isn't exactly ancient history, but they are a really great resource for teaching about the relationships between colonies in their ruling countries.

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Latin American Liberation- Taking the Lead

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There is an episode in this DVD series called "Deserts." It shows a family of woman merchants who travel by camel across the Sahara desert in modern day, but they still use navigation techniques used my merchants in the ancient world. It's a great documentary, really well done. It really shows the danger that these merchants faced, and continue to face. It's fun to have students first brainstorm on he skills needed to cross the Sahara on camel. And reflect afterwards about how skills are passed from generation to generation.

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Documentary Films Trailer | Cosmos Documentaries

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PBS- The Kingdom of Aksum: Trade and Ancient Africa

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PBS- The Kingdom of Aksum: Trade and Ancient Africa

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Henry Louis Gates describes how important trade was to Aksum. This source has great footage from the actual ruins of different parts of the kingdom in modern day. (Lizzie Grillo)

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The Aksum Kingdom: Trade and Ancient Africa | Africa's Great Civilizations | PBS LearningMedia

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"Between the first and the twelfth centuries, extraordinary events happened in Africa, events that transformed not just the history of the continent but the history of the world." - Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Africa's Great Civilizations Between 300 BCE through 1,000 CE trade began to play a key role in this developing continent, linking more of Africa into networks of exchange that extended across the Eastern Hemisphere.

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https://www.geoguessr.com/

This can be a fun activity for students to practice using context clues and investigating geography. The game places you in a random spot in the world in Google Maps street view and then you can look around and place a pin on the map where you think you are (you get more points the closer you are to the correct location).
-Remy Nikka

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GeoGuessr is a geography game which takes you on a journey around the world and challenges your ability to recognize your surroundings.

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This site allows students to take a virtual tour of one of the most amazing caves in Europe where Paleolithic cave art has been found.

~Marie Mallott

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Self visit

Discover at your own pace one of the most amazing and oldest parietal art masterpieces.

Guided tour

Follow the guide and discover the masterpieces of the Chauvet cave, room after room

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Discover at your own pace one of the most amazing and oldest parietal art masterpieces. Follow the guide and discover the masterpieces of the Chauvet cave, room after room

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Mankind The Story of All of Us: Domesticating the Dog 

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Mankind The Story of All of Us: Domesticating the Dog 

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A brief video about the domestication of dogs. It was used with a reading to help students think about the benefits that came along with domestication. Such early men/women being able to start to settle down. Paula Bakerian

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Mankind The Story of All of Us: Domesticating the Dog | History

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If you scroll down a bit on this BBC page there is an interactive drawing of "Grey Otter", an imaginary boy. Students click on the different "cave paintings" to learn more about life during the Paleolithic Age based on evidence found at a camp in Star Carr in Yorkshire.

~ Marie Mallott

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Hunting and gathering was the focus of everyone's lives. It only began to change when humans began to farm. In the early Stone Age, people made simple hand-axes out of stones. They made from bones or antlers and they sharpened sticks to use as hunting spears.

Stone Age people cut up their food with sharpened stones and cooked it on a fire . After a good day's hunting people could feast on meat. But the next day they had to start finding food again!

They used animal skins to make clothes and shelters.

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What was life like in the Mesolithic Stone Age?

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Hunting and gathering was the focus of everyone's lives. It only began to change when humans began to farm. In the early Stone Age, people made simple hand-axes out of stones. They made from bones or antlers and they sharpened sticks to use as hunting spears.

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Newsela: The Harappan Civilization lived in the same era as ancient Egypt

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Newsela: The Harappan Civilization lived in the same era as ancient Egypt

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There is ongoing research about the Harappan civilization, one of the world's earliest civilizations of urban life. The Harappan civilization was located in modern-day Pakistan and northwest India. I found it interesting that Harappans had written language but has not been able to be deciphered. Paula Bakerian

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Newsela | A guide to the ancient Harappans, an ancient Indus Valley community

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How advanced was the Harappan Civilization of the Indus Valley?

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I use this video to introduce the origins of humans. Students are always excited about the unit after they see this video. There are a lot of talking points about the evolution from chimpanzee to hominid and the similarities/differences of Lucy to a modern human.

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Walking With Lucy | California Academy of Sciences

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Time Maps has been a great secondary source for my students on numerous topics, especially during independent research projects. The website does have the option to subscribe for more content, but I've found the free level to be perfectly adequate.

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Prior to the rise of the Maurya, numerous states, large and small, covered northern India. This was the classical age of the history of ancient India, a time of religious ferment when two new faiths, Buddhism and Jainism, appeared.

One of the largest of these states was Magadha. It was located in the eastern part of the Ganges plain, on the periphery of the Aryan cultural area. At this stage in Indian history other states apparently regarded Magadha as semi-barbarous. Perhaps its position on the frontiers of the Aryan world meant that its people were not too strict in their commitment to the old Vedic religion of northern India. It is certainly the case that the two non-orthodox faiths of Jainism and Buddhism flourished here in their early days, and found patrons amongst the Magadha kings.

Gradually, over a century or more, Magadha extended its borders. Then, under a line of kings of the Nanda dynasty (reigned c. 424-322 BCE), the kingdom dramatically expanded, to cover a large part of northern India.

Chandragupta

The Mauryan period of ancient Indian history was really inaugurated by the conquest of northwest India by Alexander the Great, in 326 BCE. This seems to have destabilized the political situation amongst the Aryan states in the region, allowing the first great conqueror in Indian history, Chandragupta Maurya (reigned 322-298 BCE), to rise to power.

Chandragupta - Statue of a standing young man in red stone.

Chandragupta seized control of the throne of Maghada from the last Nanda king, and then proceeded to conquer that part of northern India which still remained outside Magadha's borders. He drove out the Seleucids, Alexander's successors, from the Indian subcontinent, and went on to conquer the easternmost provinces of Alexander's former empire, reaching into Afghanistan and eastern Iran.

Internally, building on foundations laid by the Nanda kings, his reign saw the establishment of a strong central government. This was the work of his highly capable chief minister, Chanakya.

Chandragupta was succeeded by his son, Bindusara (reigned 298-272 BCE). He continued his father's conquests by extending Mauryan power down into central India.

Bindusara was followed by his son, Ashoka (also spelt Asoka - reigned 272-232 BCE). Asoka proved to be one of the most remarkable, and attractive, rulers in the history of India, and indeed the whole of world history.

After a bloody war against Kalinga, in eastern India, Ashoka renounced warfare and converted to Buddhism. He determined that henceforward he would reign in peace.

Indian relief from Amaravati, Guntur. Preserved in Guimet Museum. Reproduced under
Creative Commons 3.0

He actively promoted the spread of Buddhism; and sent missions abroad, to Sri Lanka (headed by his son, Mahinda) and South East Asia. Here they laid the foundations for Buddhism's later triumph as the predominant faith. He also sent missions to the Greek-speaking kingdoms to the west, which had carved up Alexander the Great's conquests between them. Here they seem to have made little impact.

We can still see the pillars Ashoka erected around his empire, on which were inscribed royal edicts and encouragements to his subjects to live in harmony with one another. These edicts and exhortations give an insight into Ashoka's mind. What comes across is a compassionate, tolerant but firm ruler, seeking justice and well-being for all his subjects.

Mauryan Government

There seems little doubt that one of the main architects of Maurya power was Chandragupta's chief minister, Chanakya. He is widely regarded as the author of a political treatise called the Arthashastra, a down-to-earth manual on how to rule. Although most scholars agree that this work was in fact written a long time after the Maurya had left the stage, many think it does reflect conditions from that time. In any case, Chanakya seems to have organized an efficient military and civil administration, on which the Mauryan kings could build a solid power.

Maurya kings were advised by a council of advisors, and was served by an elaborate administrative structure. The empire was divided into provinces, each governed by a member of the royal family. Under them, local rulers seem to have been kept in place, if they were loyal to the Maurya and forwarded the taxes from their domains promptly to the imperial treasury in the capital. Their activities, however, were checked on by senior royal officials, through regular inspections, and also watched by Mauryan spies, secretly. The Mauryan regime had an extensive espionage system, which Chandragupta in particular used to great effect.

The cities of the empire were directly administered by a hierarchy of royal officials, responsible for the upkeep of such public facilities as roads and wells, and for the maintenance of justice.

Mauryan power rested ultimately on its formidable army, which Greek and Roman authors regarded (probably wrongly) as the largest in the world at that time. One claimed that it included 700 elephants, 1000 horses and 600,000 infantry, surely an exaggeration.

The Mauryan government and the economy

As with most ancient administrative systems, the Mauryan bureacracy's main purpose was to collect taxes. These consisted primarily of the land tax. Since this depended on agricultural prosperity, the government sponsored the reclamation of large amounts of land from forests and wastelands (it seems to have been illegal for private persons to clear land). Irrigation projects were undertaken to increase productivity.

Taxes were also levied on trade, and trade was officially encouraged. The construction of a network of roads, certainly as much for military as commercial purposes, will have significantly affected trade for the better; and such measures as the planting of roadside trees for shade; and the construction of rest houses every few miles, illustrates the government's concern in this area.

Economy and society

The Mauryan period, particularly during the reign of Ashoka, was one of the very few times in Indian history when the population as a whole experienced an extensive period of peace. As always, peace encouraged prosperity, and as we have seen, the government actively sponsored agriculture and trade. Trade routes would have been more secure than at any time before in ancient India, and indeed for most periods since. This would have made long-distance commerce easier.

Silver punch mark coin of the Maurya empire, with symbols of wheel and elephant. 3rd century BCE

The archaeological record suggests that the standard of living rose appreciable under Mauryan rule. Iron implements came into wider use, which would have helped the reclamation of land for farming, and led to greater productivity for farmers. Metal coinage became more widespread, which would have stimulated trade. The expansion of trade is reflected in the spread of northern pottery styles into south India. Palitpura, the Mauryan capital, was a large and imposing city.

Links with other regions of the world

The Mauryan government was in regular diplomatic relations with the Greek-speaking kingdoms to its west. This was of course specially true for the Seleucid empire, the nearest, but contacts with Macedonia, Egypt and other kingdoms of the Hellenistic world are also mentioned. One of the Seleucids' ambassadors to the Mauryan court was an official called Megethsenes, from whose account, the Indica, we can glean much information about India at the time of the Mauryan empire. There seem to have been marriage alliances between the Seleucid and Mauryan royal families.

These diplomatic relations also involved trade missions, and under Asoka, missionary expeditions as well. In 251 BCE Ashoka's son, Mahinda, led a missionary expedition which introduced Buddhism to Sri Lanka.

Religion

Buddhism flourished under the Maurya. Some scholars believe that it was in this period of ancient India, especially under Ashoka, that Buddhism became established as a major religion within the Indian sub-continent. Jainism also flourished, especially amongst the merchants of the cities - who, as we have seen, were experiencing a time of prosperity. The merchants were to some extent on the margins of the early Hindu scheme of society. They would probably have been less patient than other social groups with the traditional Brahmin dominance over religious matters, and hence more attracted to the new heterdox faiths of Buddhiam and Jainism.

(Read more on ancient Indian literature and art and architecture, including from the Mauryan period)

Fifty years or so after Ashoka's death, perhaps sooner (there is very little evidence from the later Maurya period), the huge empire began to crumble. Outlying provinces fell away, and by the mid-2nd century BCE the empire had shrunk to its core areas.

Why did this decline set in, and why was it so rapid?

Ashoka has sometimes been blamed for sowing the seeds of decline by his too-gentle rule. He might have left unchecked destabilizing forces, which came to full power after he was gone.

For this idea there is no evidence; indeed the edicts scattered around the empire suggest a firm and vigorous ruler. The causes of decline probably lie elsewhere, and can be summarized as follows:

Causes of decline

First, Ashoka seems to have been followed by a succession of weak rulers, who could not exert their will over such a large empire.

This is related to the second reason, the Maurya's failure to develop robust imperial institutions. Unlike the Han empire in China, which continued to run smoothly for almost 400 years, even when the emperors were nonentities, the effectiveness of Mauryan rule was always directly dependent upon the personal ability and energy of the king.

Later experience from around the world - for example, from China and the Roman empire - shows that, unless there is a well-working system for selecting and promoting capable and comparatively honest officials, a bureaucracy can soon become fragmented amongst the followers of over-powerful ministers and provincial governors. Something like this may well have occurred in late Maurya times, culminating in the breaking-away of large provinces from the empire.

Finally, the fragmentation of the Mauryan empire was, to some extent, a product of its very success. During the peace and unity the Mauryan kings had brought ancient India, Aryan culture had spread throughout much of the sub-continent. Towns and cities had sprung up - normally as centres of Mauryan administration - in places distant from the old seats of civilization. Economic development had come to areas which were previously the abode of forest peoples, of nomads and hunter-gatherers. All this had put in place the economic and administrative foundations upon which new, independent states could be built; and, with the firm hand of the early Mauryan kings gone, such states soon appeared.

The Mauryan legacy

In later Indian records, the Mauryan empire appears only as an entry in the long list of kingdoms that made up the vast and complex history of India; no special significance was attached to it.

No magnificent architecture was left - the towns where the Maurya carried out most of their building work continued to be lived in right up to the present day, and so Mauryan remains are buried under streets and buildings used by later generations.

Apart from a few brief mentions in some accounts, this great empire was all but forgotten - an astonishing fact given the great importance accorded by peoples in other parts of the world to their ancient empires.

In the 19th century, however, some British officials began to wonder, who built those mysterious pillars dotted around India? How come they are hundreds - thousands - of miles apart from one another? What do the inscriptions on them mean?

Then the truth about the Maurya gradually began to emerge. When it was realised that these pillars were the work of one king, Ashoka, whose realm covered a vast area of India and beyond, it was realised that here was a phenomenon of huge significance for the history of ancient India.

The Mauryan empire in world history

The Mauryan empire was the first great empire of the history of ancient India, and that in itself gives it major importance in world history.

Mauryan architecture in the Barabar Mounts. Grottoe of Lomas Richi. 3rd century BCE.

It was one of the great empires of the ancient world; in size if not in longevity it was on a par with the Persian, Roman and Han empires.

The spread of Indian civilization

The Mauryan empire spread Aryan culture throughout most of India. It stimulated the economic development of then-peripheral regions, as these were incorporated into Aryan society. In accomplishing this, the Mauryan empire vastly expanded the horizons of ancient Indian civilization, and so made it a more powerful force in world history.

In due course, southern India, which only under the Maurya began to be drawn into what we today think of as Indian culture, would play a pivotal role in the development of Indian Ocean trade networks, and act as a bridge for goods and ideas between the Middle East and South East Asia.

The spread of Buddhism

The Mauryan empire played a key role in the spread of Buddhism. It is quite possible that it was the Mauryan period which saw Buddhism's establishment as a major religion within ancient India - a development encouraged by official policy under Ashoka. This will have helped establish the sub-continent as a base from which Buddhism could later spread to other parts of Asia.

Moreover, the Maurya directly promoted Buddhist missions to other regions, and although in most cases it was only later that the peoples of many of these countries became Buddhist to any large extent, these Maurya missions seem to have been directly responsible for the conversion of the ruling class of at least one country, Sri Lanka.

In any case, the fact that China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia all now have large Buddhist populations is in some part owing to the great Maurya king, Ashoka.

A saintly ruler

Asoka offers a rare example in world history of a saintly yet capable ruler. Although his outstanding personality was hidden in the historical records until the 19th century, since then it has given all those who study world history pause for thought. As world history becomes a subject of more widespread study, his example can only become more widely known.

Institutional failure

Nevertheless, there is a negative side to the Maurya's role in world history: their failure to create an empire that endured for more than a century. This meant it did not play in Indian history the role that the Han empire played in Chinese - that is, act as a powerful model for a unified government system which future generations would set about recreating, and leaving to them the institutional means by which they could do that.

Unlike in Chinese history, the history of India is not one of a succession of great empires under which the sub-continent was united under a single regime. It is interesting to ponder the question - had the Mauryas succeeded in creating a tradition of unity, and Indian history had been more like China's, with a series of great empires providing unity and strength for the nation as a whole, how would world history have been different?

It would be one and half millennia before India again came near to unification, under the Delhi Sultanate - and then only very briefly. Likewise the Mughals and the British after them achieved brief moments of unity; but there was no ingrained habit of unity, no urge to merge, which rulers could draw on - a situation so different in Chinese history, where the only truly legitimate rulers are those who govern the entire (or at least the bulk) of that giant country.

Further Study

Articles on Ancient India:
Ancient India - an overview of the civilization of Ancient India The Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient India The Vedic Age of Ancient India The Classical Age of Ancient India
History maps
Ancient India and South Asia in 3500 BCE: Prehistory
Ancient India and South Asia in 2500 BCE: Indus Valley Civilization
Ancient India and South Asia in 1500 BCE: The Aryan Migrations
Ancient India and South Asia in 1000 BCE: The Vedic Age
Ancient India and South Asia in 500 BCE: India at the time of the Buddha
Ancient India and South Asia in 200 BCE: The Mauryan empire

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The Mauryan Empire of Ancient India - TimeMaps

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Prior to the rise of the Maurya, numerous states, large and small, covered northern India. This was the classical age of the history of ancient India, a time of religious ferment when two new faiths, Buddhism and Jainism, appeared. One of the largest of these states was Magadha.

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At the beginning of each unit throughout the year, I like to have kids create a tour of the area being studied on Google Earth. I give them places to mark as well as preview questions.

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Aw snap! Google Earth isn't supported on your browser. You may need to update your browser or use a different browser. Please see our system requirements for more information. Chrome is a great choice and you can download it here.

Or if you're feeling adventurous, you can try Earth anyway by choosing an option below.

Learn more about Google Earth.

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Aw snap! Google Earth isn't supported on your browser. You may need to update your browser or use a different browser. Please see our system requirements for more information. Chrome is a great choice and you can download it here. Or if you're feeling adventurous, you can try Earth anyway by choosing an option below.

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This site not only is a great resource about the Neolithic village of Catal Huyuk, but also features great information about archaeology and the process of uncovering ancient sites and artifacts. Students are able to navigate and investigate this site easily.

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Rossella Biscotti, The City, 5-channel video and 8-channel audio installation, 50 minutes, 2018. This preview is for documentation purpose only.

Rossella Biscotti, The City, 5-channel video and 8-channel audio installation, 50 minutes, 2018. This preview is for documentation purpose only.

Watch the preview here: http://www.catalhoyuk.com/video/city

The video installation subtly narrates past and present stories of Çatalhöyük. The artist Rossella Biscotti spent several months on site, documenting the international network of specialists, excavators and academics who are part of the Çatalhöyük Research Project, a living community uniting both professional agents and local actors.

In an associative montage of recorded material, Biscotti weaves together a narrative that links the ways of living and organisation of a very early form of society to the contemporary community. The timelessness of the narration gets interrupted by the sudden closure of the excavation site after the attempted military coup in Turkey in 2016. It brings us back to the here and now, pointing out the power relations that determine social structures and forms of organisation.

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This Web site is designed for those interested in the ongoing archaeological excavations at Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Its aim is to provide information about the activities of the Project and of the different aspects of the research being conducted at Çatalhöyük.

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A district needs to pay for this source, but really helps break down big events in history for kids. Their 5 minutes video clips are a great place to start before diving into a difficult concept. (Matt McGonagle)

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Their YouTube channel has several great videos from a wide variety of ancient civilizations. I frequently use them in the classroom.

-Matt McGonagle

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Khan Academy is a nonprofit providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Our interactive practice problems, articles, and videos help students succeed in math, biology, chemistry, physics, history, economics, finance, grammar, and many other topics. Khan Academy provides teachers with data on how their students are doing so they can identify gaps in learning and provide tailored instruction. We also offer free personalized SAT and LSAT practice in partnership with the College Board and the Law School Admission Council. Our resources have been translated into dozens of languages, and 15 million people around the globe learn on Khan Academy each month. Want to extend your learning beyond YouTube? Practice what you’ve just discovered for free: www.khanacademy.org

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This site has come in handy when trying to introduce topics to my students and also gives me the ability to control the difficulty of the reading. It also provides centralized loction for students to find articles to help support arguments when we are debating historical or geographical (economics, politics, religions) topics.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Videos such as this onecan help my students get a better idea of what life is like in other parts of the world and it helps me to tie in the value or salt today with the value it had in the time of some of the great Sub-Saharan empires.

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Salt Mines of Mali | National Geographic

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This has a great overview of many ancient sites. I lived in South Africa in 2008 on a property with some rock art pictures so this has some personal interest to me.

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Website Category: Rock-art and Pre-history

Inscribed: 2000

Criteria: (i) creative masterpiece (iii) cultural tradition

Location and Values: The Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains form a steep escarpment along South Africa's border with the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. It is one of the five world heritage sites in Africa that satisfy the Convention's natural and cultural criteria. From a cultural perspective it is outstanding for the wealth of its rock art heritage, created over a period of about 4,000 years by San hunter-gatherer people. The San and their ancestors have lived in rock shelters and caves in these mountains for about 8,000 years, producing an incredible quantity and variety of paintings right up until the time the last San were driven out (or killed) from the area a little over 100 years ago.

There are more than 600 individual rock-art sites ranging from large rock-shelters containing over 1,000 individual images to small rock overhangs or the vertical faces of fallen boulders with only a few paintings. More than 22,000 individual paintings have been recorded, mostly images of animals, especially eland - a type of large antelope that was clearly revered as the San's most important hunting quarry. Many sites show scenes of hunting, dancing, fighting, food gathering, ritual and trance. Human subjects often appear naked, but some of the more recent images show dressed figures clad in a variety of garments, recalling the early days of the colonial era.
Slideshow of the Maloti-Drakensberg Park:
Slideshow Description: The slideshow features two of the principal rock-art sites in South Africa's uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park, namely the Main Caves in Giants Castle Game Reserve (where there is an exhibit with models of San people in an authentic environment, as well as platforms for visitors to get close-up views of some of the more inaccessible art); and Shelter Cave (also known as Game Pass Cave) at Kamberg a little further south. Here there are paintings of people in trance as well as some impressive friezes featuring polychrome images of eland, many super-imposed on one another. Additional photos of the area's stunning natural heritage are available , where there is an extra web-page covering the site's natural attributes.

Visitor Information, Facilities and Hiking Opportunities: On the South African side of the international border the park is readily accessible, there are some superb accommodation facilities run by KZN Wildlife and plenty of opportunities for hiking. Full details of visitor facilities at each of the main entry points is provided in a series of KZN Wildlife brochures which can be viewed (and downloaded) by clicking here. Don't miss the superb rock-art interpretative centres at Didima and Kamberg! Further details are provided in the brochure pack.

There are abundant opportunities for hiking throughout the Maloti-Drakensberg world heritage site, and for 'wild camping' away from the main visitor hot-spots. Two of the best places to undertake an exhilarating climb in the area are Royal Natal National Park, and the Giants Castle area, where the shorter walking trails are well maintained and marked. To download maps of these two areas, showing the hiking trails and providing guidelines for hiking in the area click here.

Google Earth View: To view satellite imagery of the area around the Main Caves rock-art site in Giants Castle Game Reserve on Google Earth, click here. This opens a new window, so when you are finished, just close the Google Earth page and you will be straight back here to continue browsing.
Links to other places in the rock-art and pre-history category: Tassili n'Ajjer I Tsodilo I Stone Circles I Tiya I Tadrart Acacus I Chongoni I Twyfelfontein I Kondoa
Other Links: Official UNESCO Site Details I Trust for African Rock Art

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Maloti-Drakensberg Park (South Africa & Lesotho) | African World Heritage Sites

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Website Category: Rock-art and Pre-history Inscribed: 2000 Criteria: (i) creative masterpiece (iii) cultural tradition Location and Values: The Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains form a steep escarpment along South Africa's border with the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. It is one of the five world heritage sites in Africa that satisfy the Convention's natural and cultural criteria.

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I really like crash course videos. They pack in a ton of info and provide generally a good overview in 10-13 minutes. I would view them before showing to middle school students.

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Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa: Crash Course World History #16

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I find this BBC website helpful in giving overviews of many of the world's religions.

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Religion can be explained as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

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Religion can be explained as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

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One of my colleagues showed me this project through National Geographic. A journalist is currently walking around the world following the migration patterns of our early human ancestors.

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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and National Geographic Fellow Paul Salopek is retracing on foot the global migration of our ancestors in a 21,000-mile, seven-year odyssey that begins in Ethiopia and ends in Tierra del Fuego.

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This website allows students to practice their geography skills at various levels. It is not a "game" and there is no way of teachers viewing a student's progress. However, it does allow students to learn, practice with a word bank or not, or even learn cities.

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This has access to a lot of information and great artifacts, including some 3d exhibits. Students could work independently, or within groups to explore.

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The Hall of Human Origins offers a welcoming place to explore one of the most exciting areas of science, the study of human evolution. Despite strong public interest in the science, however, many people find this topic troubling when viewed from a religious perspective. Representatives of diverse religious communities encourage a larger, more respectful understanding of both the scientific evidence and religious belief.

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The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program

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The Hall of Human Origins offers a welcoming place to explore one of the most exciting areas of science, the study of human evolution. Despite strong public interest in the science, however, many people find this topic troubling when viewed from a religious perspective.

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This is a great interactive archaeological website for a Neolithic village that includes artifact examination and games for students to use. There are some portions of the site that run flash, but most of the site works without it.

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Welcome to Çatalhöyük. Continue reading below to answer some of your questions about Çatalhöyük. Explore the website to learn even more about this fascinating place.

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Middle Grades Curriculum
A Humanities Approach
using
Five Themes of Geography
Gold Trade of Ancient West Africa
&
Epic of Sundiata of Ancient Mali

Monique van Gigch
Boston, Massachusetts

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A Curriculum Unit for Middle Grades

A Humanities Approach
using
Five Themes of Geography
Gold Trade of Ancient West Africa
&
Epic of Sundiata of Ancient Mali

Acknowledgments

Special credit goes to a number of people that contributed significant aspects, ideas, or inspiration to this curriculum unit. Special thanks to Barbara Brown, coordinator at the African Studies Center, Boston University, and all the speakers at the summer/fall 2001 African History Institute. Credit goes to the Teachers Curriculum Institute for their curriculum unit Empires and Kingdoms of Sub-Saharan Africa, from which I excerpted two lessons.[1] Special credit also goes to the authors of the three versions of the Sundiata epic that provides both inspiration and a focus for this unit. Special acknowledgement goes to Carol Bearse, Curriculum Coordinator for the ESL/Bilingual Program at Fuller Middle School, Framingham, MA, for her essential contributions to the lessons on Sundiata and honoring our ancestors. Thanks also to Lenna Dower, Milton Academy, for sharing her unit on Sundiata. See the Teacher Resources in the appendix for additional sources.

Introduction

Ancient West Africa: An Introduction, designed for the middle grades (6 - 8), uses a humanities approach. The three areas of focus are physical geography, the gold trade of ancient West Africa, and the epic of Sundiata of Mali. The unit applies the Five Themes of Geography throughout. Strategies for students with special needs and students acquiring English are also applied.[2]

Purpose

The primary purpose of this unit is to introduce students to West African culture and history. Within this objective, the unit also hopes to:

Enrich, complicate, and humanize students' understandings and perceptions of Africa;

Focus on West Africa, (in anticipation of a subsequent unit on slavery in the U.S.), expanding students' perceptions of Africans beyond the narrow scope of the Atlantic slave trade; and,

Dispel misconceptions and assumptions about Africans as "simple" or "uncivilized" peoples.

Curriculum Context

Prior to this unit, students will have studied the dawn of humans in Africa; Ancient Egypt; and ancient empires that extended into Africa (including empires of Greece, Alexander the Great, Phoenicia, and Rome).

After this unit, students will study U.S. history beginning with the thirteen colonies, including the Atlantic slave trade and influences of West African culture on the Americas.

Objectives for Student Learning
During this unit, students will:

apply the Five Themes of Geography (location, regions, human-environment interaction, movement, and place) to study Africa

understand that Africa is vast

appreciate that Africa is diverse, geographically, linguistically, culturally, and economically

recognize that we cannot learn all of Africa in this mini-unit (as a result of being vast and diverse across space and over time)

learn simple physical geography of Africa and some implications for human-environmental interaction

be able to describe the Ancient West African gold trade

synthesize aspects of the culture, religions, politics, and history of ancient Mali from studying the epic tale of Sundiata

apply their understanding of the African tradition of honoring ancestors by creating "Honoring My Ancestors" projects

Outline of the Unit

Lesson 1

Activating & Assessing Prior Knowledge

Lesson 2

Review the Five Themes of Geography

Lesson 3

Introduction to African Maps ( Location, Place)

Lesson 4

Physical Geography of Africa & Human Adaptations to the Environment ( Location, Regions, Human-Environment Interaction)

Lesson 6

Honoring the Ancestors: The Kingdom of Ancient Mali & the Sundiata Epic ( Place)

Lesson 7

Student Projects "Honoring Our Ancestors"

Lesson 1: Activating & Assessing Prior Knowledge

(Approximately 30-60 minutes)

Materials: Graphic organizers (word-splashweb, Before & After Reading, and pre-unit vocabulary assessment)

Purpose: To activate and assess prior knowledge and identify misconceptions.

Procedure: Students will complete the graphic organizers. Use the organizers for class discussion and to activate inquiry questions. If appropriate, use student responses to modify lessons. Retain the organizers to compare understands at the completion of the unit.

Lesson 2: Review of 5 Geography Themes

(Approximately 30-45 minutes)

Materials: Handout "100+ Generic Geography Questions;

Purpose: To review the 5 themes of geography so that students may apply them in the Africa unit.

Procedure: Review the 5 themes, briefly defined below. Use the handout for students to practice with topics familiar to them, such as their home, school, and town.

Brief Definitions: 5 Geography Themes[3]

Location: The location theme helps answer the question "Where is it?"

Place: The theme of place answers the question "What is the place like?" Places can be described by their physical characteristics such as climate, mountains, deserts, bodies of water, plants, and animals. Places can also be described by their human characteristics, such as many people live in a place, what language they speak, and what they do for a living.

Human-Environmental Interaction: The theme of human-environmental interaction deals with how people use, adapt to, or change their environment.

Movement: The theme of movement looks at how people, objects, and ideas are linked to places through movement.

Regions: The theme of regions looks at places divided and defined by physical or human characteristics or categories.

Lesson 3: Introduction to African Maps

(Approximately ½ hour)
Materials:

Slide projector

Overhead projector

Map: How Big is Africa?

Political map of modern Africa

"Messy Map" of African language groups

Map of ancient Africa (from African Beginnings)

Map of physical features of Africa (TCI slide CP.B)

Purpose: To introduce Africa as a huge and diverse subject that we cannot fully study and understand in this unit.

Geography Themes: Location & Place.

Procedure: Students will briefly examine a series of maps of Africa to appreciate the following:

Africa is huge

Modern Africa has 52 nations

Africa has 100's of languages and many ethnic and culture groups

Human history in Africa spans millions of years - from the dawn of humans through ancient civilizations to the present

The physical geography of Africa is diverse, therefore people's lives vary as they adapt to their environment

Lesson 4: Physical Geography of Africa & Human Adaptations to the Environment

(Approximately 1 ½ - 2 hours)
Materials:

Slide projector

Overhead projector

TCI Slides (1.1E, 1.1D, 1.1Q, CP.B, 1.2B, 1.2C, 1.1A, 1.2H)

TCI Handouts (map: Student Handout 1.1A - modified; Student Handouts 1.2A - one for each zone; checklist for labeling map)

TCI Teacher Guides to Slides 1.1 and 1.2 (modified)

Color markers, pencils, or crayons

Teacher master of completed map

Notes on Human-Environment Interaction

Purpose: To introduce students to simple physical geography of the African continent and some examples of how Africans adapted to their diverse environments.

Primary Geography Themes: Regions & Human-Environment Interaction

Procedure: Follow the procedures outlined below.

Part I Major African Water Bodies

1. Give each student a map outline of Africa (TCI Student Handout 1.1A -modified) and Checklist for Labeling Map

2. Use the TCI Teacher Guide to Slides 1.1 to narrate the slides & guide class discussion.

3. Students will locate, draw, and color major water bodies onto their maps using the Checklist Students will check their work against teacher master on transparency.

Part II Four Major Regions/Zones of Physical Geography

1. Show TCI Slide CP.B of African physical geography zones (in color)- four major geographic zones: tropical rainforest, savanna, semi-arid, and desert.

2. Use Teacher Narrative: Introduction to Zones of Physical Geography to introduce the unifying theme of water for the zones and human-environment interaction.

3. Pass out Student Handouts TCI 1.2A (one for each zone). Students will read and study these handouts to draw, in pencil, each zone onto their outline maps of Africa. After checking their work against teacher master, students will color the zones and complete the key. Maps will be stored in student notebooks.

Part III Mini-Lecture on Human-Environmental Interaction

1. Show TCI slides of examples of the 4 zones. (1.2B women in tropical rain forest, 1.2C grasslands of the savanna, 1.1A Sahel semiarid region, and 1.2H camels in the Kalahari desert.)

2. Use the TCI Teacher Guide to Slides 1.1 & 1.2 (modified) including these questions:

Can you identify the zone based on evidence you see in the slide?

What predictions can you make about how people might adapt their way of living to fit or use the environment?

3. Reveal teacher notes (on transparency) for students to record as the discussion proceeds through each slide.

Lesson 5: Caravans of Gold

(Approximately 45-60 minutes)
Materials:

Video "Caravans of Gold"

TV/VCR

Video guide sheet

Purpose: To learn about the ancient West African gold trade. For students to see and hear some of the people, architecture, geography, clothing, music, dance, and other aspects of West African cultures, including the ancient empire of Mali (which is the focus of future lessons).

Primary Geography Theme: Movement
Procedure:

1. Read Teacher Narrative Introducing "Caravans of Gold" Video

2. Preview the questions on the student video guide sheet. Students will complete the sheet while viewing the video.

3. Show the first section of the video through the section on Cairo (totaling approximately 30 minutes).

4. After the video, discuss the video questions with students, along with their impressions and questions.

Extension Activity:

1. Show TCI slide 2.1A map of the salt/gold trade.

2. Give students a blank outline map of Africa.

3. Have students draw in locations for the gold/salt trade with a map key.

Lesson 6: Honoring the Ancestors & the Epic of Sundiata

(Approximately 1 week: 4 - 5 periods)
Materials:

Slide projector

Overhead projector

Cassette player

Sundiata epic (Wisniewski & excerpts of Niane version)

Excerpt of TCI Activity 2.2 on the Kingdom of Gold & Mansa Musa in Mali (Slides 2.2B, 2.2C, excerpt of Teacher's Guide to Slides, Student Handouts for slides 2.2B & 2.2C,Teacher Master of handouts)

"Breaths" poem & tape

TCI slides 4.1A, 3.3A, & CP.A & narrative text on griots

Tape of traditional griot and kora music

Literature Circle handouts

Large poster paper & markers

Purpose: For students to learn the African traditions of honoring ancestors and oral literature by hearing a poem and an epic story of West Africa. Students will deepen their understanding of cultural traditions and political history of Mali including respect for elders, music, clothing, and the rise and fall of kingdoms.

Primary Geography Theme: Place.

Procedure: Follow the instructions in the following parts to the lesson.

Part I: Building Background Knowledge on Mali

(Approximately ½ period)

1. Review student notes from video "Caravans of Gold" on Mali's gold trade.

2. Use excerpt of TCI Activity 2.2 Kingdom of Gold and Mansa Musa in Mali to build student background knowledge.

3. Show TCI slides (2.2B & 2.2C) & narrate from the Teacher's Guide to Slides.

4. Show Teacher Masters for students to record notes on Student Handouts.

Part II: Introducing the Tradition of Honoring Ancestors

(Approximately 1 - 1 ½ periods)

1. Show TCI slide 4.1A (elder speaking with children) & introduce the African tradition of honoring elders and ancestors

2. Read aloud "Breaths" by Senegalese poet Birago Diop & listen to the musical rendition by Sweet Honey in the Rock

3. Discuss and analyze the images, feelings, and meanings in the poem

4. Model writing one's own "ancestor poem"

5. Students will write at least one stanza of their own poem, using "Breaths" as their model and inspiration, to honor their own ancestors, traditions, or cultures

6. Share student poems

Part III: Oral Literature, Griots, & Sundiata Epic

(Approximately 1 1/2 periods)

1. Show slides 3.3A & CP.A (Gambian griots/jali with kora string instrument)

2. Read TCI narrative text to introduce oral tradition and griots

3. Define "What is an epic?" An epic is a kind of poem that focuses on a national theme and relates enough details and events to create a sense of history and a feeling of pride in the nation's past.[4]

4. Teacher reads excerpts from background notes (synthesized from three Sundiata versions to introduce this oral literature)

5. Optional: play djembe drum from Guinea and Mali and sing song for lamba rhythm which is dedicated to the griots, teach song to the students.

6. Play tape of traditional griot & kora music while reading epic

7. Teacher does a dramatic reading of the epic (Wisniewski version) & shows illustrations

Part IV: Literature Circles on Sundiata

(Approximately 2 periods)

Purpose: To ensure all students understand the basic plot and story line of Sundiata. To enrich the text and challenge students by adding excerpts from a traditional griot rendition of the epic. To allow students to engage the epic kinesthetically and internalize it by enacting scenes.

Extension Activity: The Story of Mansa Musa

Purpose: To continue studying the history of the Malian Empire through the story of a later king, Mansa Musa. See the Teacher Resources for materials to use for this lesson.

Lesson 7: Student Projects - Honoring Our Ancestors

(Approximately 2 - 3 periods in class & homework)
Materials:

Models for each format of student project

Criteria chart

Primary Geography Theme: Place

Purpose: Inspired by the epic storytelling of Sundiata and the Senegalese poem "Breaths" , students will create individual projects to honor their ancestors, cultures, or traditions. This will allow students to apply their understandings from this unit to their own lives. The individual projects will serve as assessments of learning.
Procedure:
Teacher Narrative: Introduction to Zones of Physical Geography
Water is a defining factor for life in Africa. Find the equator on your map of Africa. Along the equator is a force called the "tropical convergence zone" where the interplay between the physical geography and the atmospheric conditions mean lots of turbulence, which means RAIN! Lots of RAIN! Rain all year long. The "tropical convergence zone" bounces up and down like a yo-yo, sometimes moving north, sometimes moving south. So people move to follow the yo-yo effect - wanting to use the rain to their advantage for living, following wild game animals, growing crops, or raising livestock animals. In the African climate, the most significant factor is rainfall. Along the equator, rain all the time. In the rest of Africa, rain is seasonal; winter is the dry season, summer is the rainy season. Remember the four zones: tropical rainforest (most rain, along equator), savanna (both sides, north and south of the rainforest), the semiarid (between the savanna and the desert), and the deserts. Access to water, rain or water bodies, deeply affected the lives of Africans. For example, in the tropical rainforest, the tsetse fly killed domesticated animals like horses and cattle, so armies based on cavalry and cattle farmers could not exist in the tropical zones. Also, in the tropical zones, diseases like malaria kill many people, though the Africans found herbal/plant medicines to help heal malaria.
Teacher Narrative Introducing "Caravans of Gold" Video
Movement is an important geography theme. Movement includes the movement of people, goods, and ideas. In ancient Africa, river and sea systems were critical to ancient African trade and cultural exchanges within Africa as well as with cultures in Europe, Arabia, India, and as far away as China. For example, along the Indian Ocean, monsoon winds carried trade boats south along the east coast of Africa from November to March, and north from April to October. The Red Sea and the Nile River connected Africa and the world around the Mediterranean Sea. However, don't think of the Saharan Desert as a barrier to trade and cultural exchange! The Sahara used to be wetter. Ancient Saharan desert cave drawings show that the desert used to be an area with more water. For thousands of years, the Berber people of northwest Africa crossed the Sahara to trade and for cultural exchanges. Then, in approximately AD 300, the Romans brought an important technology to the Sahara. Any idea what? The camel! Romans needed African grain to feed the Empire. The Berber people, who had been crossing the Sahara for hundreds of years before the Romans came, creatively adapted the camel to the Sahara to make trade easier. A major part of the trade across the Sahara was for gold and salt. Salt was so valuable, it was used as money in trade.
Social Studies
Ms. van Gigch

Checklist for Labeling Physical Geography of Africa

Major African Water Bodies:
Check off when you have located, drawn, and labeled the following:
____ Nile River
____ Lake Victoria
____ Mediterranean Sea
____ Atlantic Ocean
____ Indian Ocean
____ Red Sea
____ Niger River
____ Congo River

Four Major Physical Geography Regions/Zones:
Check off when you have drawn & colored the zones and key:

____ Tropical Rainforest
____ Savanna/Grasslands
____ Semiarid (northern strip of semiarid is called The Sahel)
____ Deserts

____ color-code your key

Teachers' Resources & Works Cited

Resources:
African Studies Center, Boston University, Boston, MA (to borrow materials and receive training)

Curricula:
Teachers' Curriculum Institute. Empires and Kingdoms of Sub-Saharan Africa (for slides and lessons on geography; copy can be borrowed from B.U. African Studies Center or purchased from TCI)

Videos:
Davidson, Basil. "Africa: Story of a Continent, Program 3: Caravans of Gold" R.M. Arts, 1984. (available from Social Studies Service)

Books:
Burns, Khephra, author, Dillon, Leo & Diane, illustrators, Mansa Musa: The Lion of Mali, Gulliver Books, Harcourt, Inc., San Diego, 2001. (children's picture book)

Hamdun, Said, and King, Noel. Ibn Battuta in Black Africa, Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, 1975. (for primary sources on Mansa Musa)
Haskins, James, Benson, Kathleen, authors, Cooper, Floyd, illustrator, African Beginnings, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, Morrow, New York, 1998. (children's history book)
Lomax, Alan and Abdul, Raoul, eds. 3000 Years of Black Poetry: An Anthology. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. 1970. See poem Breaths by Diop, Birago.
Niane,D.T. Sundiata, An Epic of Old Mali, Longman, England, 1960. (translated from an oral rendition of the epic by a griot)
Shillington, Kevin. History of Africa. St. Martin's Press, New York. 1995. (teacher resource)
Wisniewski,David. Sundiata, Lion King of Mali, Clarion Books, New York, 1992. (children's picture book version of epic)

Periodicals:
Coulson,David. "Ancient Art of the Sahara", National Geographic, Vol. 195, No. 6, June 1999, pages 100 - 119. (rock art of Sahara shows moister period)
Lange, Karen E. and Leen, Sarah. " Djenne, West Africa's Eternal City" , National Geographic, June 2001, pages 100 - 117.
Logan, Roberta A. "Sundiata of Mali", in Calliope, January/February 1994, Cobblestone Publishers.

Miscellaneous:
Map of African language groups ( "messy map" - source?)
"100+ Generic Geography Questions" by Ginny Wilkins, Colorado Geography Alliance member

Literature Circle Worksheets

Students are in six heterogeneous groups. (Group size and allotment of scenes can be adjusted depending on the number of students per class.)

Allotment of Scenes

Maghan Kon Fatta

Sundiata's father, King of Mali

Sogolon Kedjou

Sundiata's mother, 2 nd wife of the King

Sundiata

Other names:
Son of Sogolon
The Lion King
Son of the Buffalo, Son of the Lion
Maghan Sundiata
Sogolon Mari Djata
Mari Djata
Djata
Sogolon Djata

Sassouma Berete

1 st wife of the King

Balla Fasseke

Sundiata's griot and friend

The Nine Witches

Sumanguru

Sorcerer King of Sosso, also known as Soumaoro

Soumaoro

Sorcerer King of Sosso, also known as Sumanguru

Nana Triban

Sundiata's half-sister

Characters for Sundiata Plot Summaries

Group 1 Scene 1

Student Names
Griot (storyteller) ___________________________________
Griot's Audience ____________________________________

Scene 2

Group 2 Scene 3

Scene 4

Group 3 Scene 5

Group 4 Scene 6

Group 5 Scene 7

Student Names
Sundiata ______________________________________
Balla Fasseke (griot) _____________________________
Nana Triban (Sundiata's sister) _____________________
Sumanguru (King of Sosso) ________________________

Group 6 Scene 8

Literature Circle Worksheet for Scene 1: Words of the Griot

Main Characters: the Griot & audience members
Plot Summary
1. _____________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________

Key Question
What is the job of the griot?

The job of the griot is ______________________________________________

________________________________________________________________.

Literature Circle Worksheet for Scene 2: The Buffalo Woman

Main Characters: King Maghan, hunters, Sogolon
Plot Summary
1. ______________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________________

Key Question
Why did the King marry Sogolon?

King Maghan Kon Fatta married the hunchback woman named Sogolon Kedjou because

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________.

Vocabulary for Niane text excerpts
successor: person who will follow in that position
ravaging: destroying
vanquisher: conqueror

Literature Circle Worksheet for Scene 3: The Lion Child

Main Characters: Sogolon,Sundiata, Sassouma
Plot Summary
1. ______________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________________

Key Question
Why was Sassouma jealous of Sogolon when Sundiata was born?

Sassouma was jealous because

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________.

Literature Circle Worksheet for Scene 4: Childhood

Main Characters: King, Sundiata, griot
Plot Summary
1. ______________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________________

5. ______________________________________________________________
Key Question
Why did King Maghan make his son Sundiata his heir even though Sundiata was not his first born son and Sundiata could neither walk nor talk by age 7?

King Maghan made Sundiata his heir because

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________.

Vocabulary for Niane text excerpt
successor: person who will follow in that position

Literature Circle Worksheet for Scene 5: The Lion's Awakening

Main Characters: Sassouma, witches, Sundiata
Plot Summary
1. _____________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________________

5. ______________________________________________________________

6. ______________________________________________________________

7. ______________________________________________________________
Key Question
Why were the nine great witches of Mali powerless against Sundiata?

The nine great witches were powerless against Sundiata because

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________.

Literature Circle Worksheet for Scene 6: Exile

Main Characters: Sundiata, Sogolon, King of Mema
Plot Summary
1. _____________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________________

5. ______________________________________________________________

6. ______________________________________________________________

7. ______________________________________________________________

8. ______________________________________________________________

Key Question
Why did the King of Mema make Sundiata his heir?

The King of Mema made Sundiata his heir because

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________.

Vocabulary Definition for Niane Excerpts
soothsayer: someone who predicts the future

Literature Circle Worksheet for Scene 7: The Battle at Kirina

Main Characters: Sundiata, Balla Fasseke, Nana Triban, Sumanguru
Plot Summary
1. _____________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________________

5. ______________________________________________________________

6. ______________________________________________________________

7. ______________________________________________________________

8. ______________________________________________________________
Key Questions
Why does Sundiata leave Mema to fight Sumanguru?

Sundiata leaves Mema to fight Sumanguru because

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________.

Why does Sumanguru run away from the battle and Sundiata even though the arrow only touched his shoulder without making a wound?

Sumanguru ran away from the battle and Sundiata even though the arrow only touched his shoulder without making a wound because

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________.

Literature Circle Worksheet for Scene 8: The Lion King Returns to Mali

Main Characters: Sundiata, Balla Fasseke, kings, crowd
Plot Summary
1. _____________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________________

5. ______________________________________________________________

6. ______________________________________________________________
Key Question
How does Sundiata connect the reason for his exile from Mali to his promise to the people of Mali?

Sundiata said that "hatred drove me from this land" because

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________.

So now Sundiata promised

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________.

Teacher Master of Plot Summary for Wisniewski version of Sundiata
Scene 1: Words of the Griot

1. The griot introduces himself & explains the role of griots

2. griot tells audience he will tell the story of Sundiata

Scene 2: The Buffalo Woman

1. Two hunters come to King Maghan

2. Hunters bring him Sogolon, spirit of the buffalo

3. Griot says a great king will born to Sogolon

4. The king marries Sogolon & loves her

Scene 3: The Lion Child

1. Sogolon gives birth to a boy

2. Everyone is happy except Sassouma, 1st wife of king

3. Sundiata can't walk or talk

Scene 4: Childhood Scene 5: The Lion's Awakening

1. When King dies, council makes Sassouma's son king

2. Sassouma taunts Sogolon

3. Sundiata uses iron rod to stand and walk

4. Sassouma calls the witches to kill Sundiata

5. Witches go to Sogolon's garden to steal spices

6. Instead of being angry, Sundiata gives the witches the spices

7. Witches can't hurt Sundiata because he is kind to them

Scene 6: Exile

1. When Sundiata was 10, Sassouma sends Balla away

2. Sumanguru decides to keep Balla

3. Sogolon & her children leave Mali

4. Family travels for 7 years

5. Many rulers turn away the family

6. Sundiata grows up

7. King of Mema took Sundiata on military campaigns

8. King of Mema makes Sundiata his heir, like a son

Scene 7: The Battle at Kirina

1. Messengers tell Sundiata to return home

2. Sumanguru has invaded Mali

3. Sundiata gathers an army on horses

4. The armies clash at Kirina

5. Balla finds Sundiata & gives him tana of Sumanguru

6. Sundiata shoots the arrow at Sumanguru

7. The arrow hits Sumanguru & he runs away

8. Sumanguru's army is defeated, Sundiata wins

Scene 8: The Lion King Returns to Mali

1. Sundiata returns to Mali

2. Crowds shout his praises

3. 12 kings swear allegiance to Sundiata

4. Sundiata speaks & Balla tells the crowd his words

5. Sundiata promises that no one will interfere with another's destiny

6. Sundiata rules for many years

Vocabulary Definitions for Wisniewski

griots: people who memorize & tell the history
savannah: grasslands
potions: liquid medicine
heir: the person who is the next king
ancestors: all the dead grandparents, great grandparents, and family who came before you

destiny: the future that is predicted & must occur
smith: blacksmith who makes things from iron
sorcerer: male magician or wizard
exile: long absence from one's country
"found favor with" : became a favorite of
homeland: country where you are born
the bush: the wild forest or grasslands
"the seers" : the people who can see the future
host: army
allegiance: loyalty
tana: a personal taboo, something the person can't touch or do or he/she will be badly hurt
pursued: followed
the multitude: the crowd
"appointed place" : rightful status or position in society

Excerpts from Niane version of Sundiata

Paraphrasing is in regular print; direct quotes are in italics.
Scene 1: Words of the Griot Mamadou Kouyate
Griot: "By my mouth you will get to know the story of the ancestor of great Mali... who... surpassed even Alexander the Great..." (page 2)

Griot: "Listen to the story of the son of the Buffalo, the son of the lion... Maghan Sundiata... the man of many names against whom sorcery could avail nothing." (page 2)
Scene 2: The Buffalo Woman
Griot: A hunter, who is also a seer, does a twelve cowrie shell divination for King Maghan Kon Fatta, that he may see the future. (page 5)

Hunter 1: "...Fine king, your successor is not yet born. I see two hunters coming to your city... a woman accompanies them. Oh, that woman! She is ugly, she is hideous, she bears on her back a disfiguring hump. Her monstrous eyes... but mystery of mysteries, this is the woman you must marry, sire, for she will be the mother of him who will make the name of Mali immortal forever..." (page 5-6)

Griot: Later, two strangers, hunters, arrived at the king's city with a woman. The hunters tell the story of their adventure. (page 6)

Hunter 2: "... After the great harvest my brother and I left our village to hunt... we learned that an amazing buffalo was ravaging the countryside... the King [of Do] had promised the finest rewards to the hunters who killed the buffalo. We decided to try our luck... [when] we saw an old woman... who was weeping, ... gnawed by hunger... Touched by her tears I approached and took some pieces of dried meat from my hunter's bag..." (page 7)

Buffalo Woman: "...arrows are useless against the buffalo; but, young hunter, your heart is generous and it is you who will be the buffalo's vanquisher. I am the buffalo you are looking for, and your generosity has vanquished me." (page 7-8)

Griot: And so the buffalo woman transformed herself into the young hunchback woman named Sogolon and traveled with the hunters to King Maghan Fatta, who married her to complete the destiny told in the 12 cowrie shell divination. (page 8-9)
Scene 3: The Lion Child
Griot: Sogolon became pregnant. When "Sogolon's time came... Thunder began to rumble and swift lightening rent the clouds...the king's griot sings...'I salute you Maghan Kon Fatta... the lion child, the buffalo child is born'" ... The name was given on the eighth day after his birth." His name was Sogolon Mari Djata. (pages 12 - 14)
Scene 4: Childhood
Griot: By the age of 3, Sogolon Mari Djata, as everyone called him, could still not walk or talk. (page 15)

Sassouma: Sogolon, see my eleven year old son! "I prefer a son who walks on his two legs to a lion that crawls on the ground." (page 16)

Griot: At age 7, Mari Djata still crawled. The King speaks to his advisors. (page 17)

King's advisors: "When the seed germinates growth is not always easy; great trees grow slowly but they plunge their roots deep into the ground." (page 17)

King: Mari Djata, I am growing old...but before death takes me off I am going to give you the present which each king gives his successor... In Mali, every prince has his own griot...Doua is mine and the son of Doua, Balla Fasseke here, will be your griot. Be inseparable friends from this day forward. From his mouth you will hear the history of your ancestors, you will learn the art of governing Mali... May you destiny be accomplished, but never forget that Niani is your capital and Mali the cradle of your ancestors." (page 17)
Scene 5: The Lion's Awakening
Griot: One day Sassouma Berete was especially mean to Sogolon, laughing at Sogolon and her son who still couldn't walk at seven. (page 19)

Sundiata: "Very well then, I am going to walk today... Go and tell my father's smiths to make me the heaviest possible iron rod." (page 19)

Griot: Balla Fasseke ran to the master smith to order an iron rod. "[Mari Djata] crept on all-fours... to the iron bar... he picked up the iron bar without any effort and stood it up vertically... With a violent jerk he threw his weight on to it...In a great effort he straightened up and was on his feet at one go - but the great bar of iron was twisted and had taken the form of a bow!... Sogolon Djata walked." (pages 19-22)

Sassouma: (speaking to herself) I will call the nine great witches of Mali and make a plan to kill Sundiata. I must protect the throne for my son. (page 24)

Griot: The next night, Sundiata went to check his mother's vegetable patch and found the nine witches stealing leaves and pretending to run away like thieves. (page 25)

Sundiata: "Stop, stop, poor old women...What is the matter with you to run away like this. This garden belongs to all...Each time you run short of condiments come to stock up here without fear." (page 25)

Witches: "Listen, Djata...we had come here to test you. We have no need of your condiments... We were sent here by the queen mother to provoke you... But nothing can be done against a heart full of kindness... Forgive us, son of Sogolon." (page 26)
Scene 6: Exile
Sogolon: "Let us leave here, my son... You will return to reign when you are a man; for
it is in Mali that your destiny must be fulfilled." (page 27)

Griot: "One morning the king [Sassouma's son] announced his intentions of sending an embassy to the powerful king of Sosso... For such a delicate mission he thought of Balla Fasseke... It was a very clever way of taking away from Sundiata the griot his father had given him." (page 27)

King of Mema: (speaking to Sundiata) "It is destiny that has sent you to Mema. I will make a great warrior out of you." (page 37)

Griot: "After three years the king [of Mema] appointed Sundiata... his viceroy, and in the king's absence it was he who governed. Djata had now seen eighteen winters and at that time he was a tall young man with a fat neck and powerful chest... The soothsayers of Mema revealed the extraordinary destiny of Djata. It was said that he was the successor of Alexander the Great and that he would be even greater." (page 37)
Scene 7: The Battle at Kirina
Griot: While Sogolon's son was fighting his first campaign far from his native land, Mali had fallen under the domination of a new master, Soumaoro (also known as Sumanguru), King of Sosso. (page 38)

Traveler: "Maghan Sundiata, I salute you; king of Mali, the throne of your fathers awaits you. Whatever rank you may hold here, leave all these honours and come and deliver your fatherland. The brave await you, come and restore rightful authority to Mali. Weeping mothers pray only in your name, the assembled kings await you, for your name alone inspires confidence in them. Son of Sogolon, your time has come... for you are the giant who will crush the giant Soumaoro." (page 45)

Griot: "Up until that time, Sundiata and Soumaoro had fought each other without a declaration of war. One does not wage war without saying why it is waged... Here is the dialogue of the sorcerer kings:" (pages 59-60)

Soumaoro: "Stop, young man. Henceforth I am the king of Mali. If you want peace, return to where you came from."

Sundiata: I am coming back, Soumaoro, to recapture my kingdom. If you want peace you will make amends to my allies and return to Sosso where you are the king.

Soumaoro: I am king of Mali by force of arms. My rights have been established by conquest.

Sundiata: Then I will take Mali from you by force of arms and chase you from my kingdom.

Soumaoro: Know, then, that I am the wild yam of the rocks; nothing will make me leave Mali.

Sundiata: Know, also that I have in my camp seven master smiths who will shatter the rocks. Then, yam, I will eat you.

Soumaoro: I am the poisonous mushroom that makes the fearless vomit.

Sundiata: As for me, I am the ravenous [rooster], the poison does not matter to me.

Soumaoror: Behave yourself, little boy, or you will burn your foot, for I am the red-hot cinder.

Sundiata: But me, I am the rain that extinguishes the cinder; I am the boisterous torrent that will carry you off.

Soumaoro: I am the might silk-cotton tree that looks from on high on the tops of other trees.

Sundiata: And I, I am the strangling creeper that climbs to the top of the forest giant.

Soumaoro: Enough of this argument. You shall not have Mali.

Sundiata: Know that there is not room for two kings on the same skin, Soumaoro; you will let me have your place.

Soumaoro: Very well, since you want war I will wage war against you, but I would have you know that I have killed nine kings whose heads adorn my room. What a pity, indeed, that your head should take its place beside those of your fellow madcaps.

Sundiata: Prepare yourself, Soumaoro, for it will be long before the calamity that is going to crash down upon you and yours comes to an end.

Griot: After the war of mouths, swords had to decide the issue. (pages 60-61) "It was announced to Sundiata that his sister Nana Triban and Balla Fasseke, having escaped from Sosso, had now arrived." (page 56)

Nana Triban: Hail, my brother.

Sundiata: Greetings, sister.

Balla Fasseke: Hail Sundiata.

Sundiata: Greetings, my griot.

Nana Triban: (wiping away tears) When you left Mali, my brother [Sassouma's son] sent me by force to Sosso to be the wife of Soumaoro...I was in constant touch with Balla Fasseke, each of us wanting to pierce the mystery of Soumaoro's magic power. One night I ... said to Soumaoro...Tell me, king of kings, tell me what jinn [magic spirit] protects you... he himself boasted to me of the might of his Tana. That very night he took me into his magic chamber and told me all. [A tana is a hereditary taboo. In the case of Soumaoro, he was forbidden to touch a rooster's spur so he could concentrate in himself the power of his ancestors. If he touched the rooster's spur and broke his taboo, his ancestors would withdraw their power and Soumaoro would lose his power.] (pages 57 - 58, 93 - 94)

Griot: In the battle at Kirina, "Sogolon's son looked for Soumaoro... The king of Sosso, who did not want Sundiata near him, retreated far behind his men, but Sundiata followed him with his eyes. He stopped and bent his bow. The arrow flew and grazed Soumaoro on the shoulder. The [rooster's] spur no more than scratched him, but the effect was immediate and Soumaoro felt his powers leave him... A great black bird flew over... the bird of Kirina... The king of Sosso let out a great cry and, turning his horse's head, he took flight." (page 65)
Scene 8: The Lion King Returns to Mali
Griot: "... one by one, the twelve kings of the bright savanna country got up and proclaimed Sundiata 'Mansa' [king] in their turn. Twelve royal spears were struck in the ground in front of the dais. Sundiata had become emperor." (page 75)

One of the 12 kings: Sundiata, Maghan Sundiata, king of Mali, in the name of the twelve kings of the 'Bright Country', I salute you as 'Mansa'.

Griot: Djata's justice spared nobody. He followed the very word of God. He protected the weak against the strong... Under his sun the upright man was rewarded and the wicked one punished."
"In their new-found peace the villages knew prosperity again, for with Sundiata happiness had come into everyone's home. Vast fields of millet, rice, cotton, indigo and fonio surrounded the villages." "There are some kings who are powerful through their military strength. Everybody trembles before them, but when they die nothing but ill is spoken of them. Others do neither good nor ill and when they die they are forgotten. Others are feared
because they have power, but they know how to use it and they are loved because they love justice. Sundiata belonged to this group... He was the father of Mali and gave the world peace. After him the world had not seen a greater conqueror... and [the capital] Niani became the navel of the earth."
"The griots ... used to boast of Niani and Mali saying 'If you want salt, go to Niani, for Niani is the camping place of the Sahel caravans. If you want gold, go to Niani... If you want fine cloth, go to Niani, for the Mecca road passes by Niani. If you want fish, go to Niani, for it is there that the fishermen of ... Djenne come to sell their catches. If you want meat go to Niani, the country of the great hunters, and the land of the ox and the sheep. If you want to see an army, go to Niani, for it is there that the united forces of Mali are to be found. If you want to see a great king, go to Niani, for it
is there that the son of Sogolon lives, the man with two names." (pages 81 - 82)

Social Studies
Ms. van Gigch

Video Guide for Caravans of Gold

Focus Question:
Analyze the ancient West African "caravans of gold" using the geography theme of movement: the movement of people, things, or ideas .

City of Jenne in Mali

600 years ago, there was a trade network linking land and sea as far away as China and India. The African heart of the network was the medieval empire of Mali, now poor, but 600 years ago it was rich.

1. The city of Jenne, in ancient Mali, was a market city. Describe 2 details of the city of Jenne & its market.

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

2. Jenne had an economy based on gold. What evidence of the value of gold do we see in Jenne?

_________________________________________________

Ashante People of Ghana

When the gold near Jenne ran out, new gold was discovered in the south, among the Ashante people of ancient Ghana.

3. How does the Ashanti king today show his wealth & power?

_____________________________________________________________

The Niger River

The trading system of the Malian Empire was one of the largest in the world, with its roots in gold. But no one can eat gold.

4. What do people along the Niger eat? ______________________________

5. Since there are no refrigerators, how do the people preserve the food?

_________________________________________________

6. The Niger River is called a "river highway". Explain why.

_____________________________________________________________

At the Niger River port of Mokti, 1 day's boat journey south of Jenne, the great wealth of the region was traded.

7. Examples of goods traded included:

The prosperity of the West African interior (as opposed to the coastal areas), called for a unifying form of government. For 1,000 years, the ancient empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai provided that stability and peace.

City of Timbuktu, in Mali

In 1324, Mansa Musa, Emperor of Mali, returned from a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. He turned the trading city of Timbuktu into a center of learning and religion.

8. Draw a sketch of the mosque in Timbuktu, showing it's special architecture.

In addition to becoming a center for learning and religion, Timbuktu became a famous market town. Goods came up the River Niger from Jenne, and merchants and traders from neighboring countries got together with the Berber traders who made the voyage across the great desert.

9. Name the great desert that the Berbers crossed: _________________

10. Today you can still see caravans of ______________ carrying slabs of ________ arriving in Timbuktu.

The Berber Tuareg People of North Africa

The journey takes 21 days each way from the salt mines 500 miles in the north, across the Sahara Desert, to Timbuktu.

In ancient days, the Berber camel caravan would have carried gold on the return trip north.

11. Name 4 details you see or hear from the Berber people:

_________________________ _______________________________

_________________________ _______________________________

The Tuareg were the "lords of the long-distance caravan trade" long before the camel was known in Africa, and that was 2,000 years ago! Some say the Romans introduced the camel to Africa, and the Berbers put the camel to good use.

12. It takes _________ days to cross the Sahara by camel, traveling _______miles per day, from oasis to oasis, from Timbuktu to the final destination of Cairo, Egypt.

Cairo, Egypt

Traders, travelers, generals, and kings came through the gates of ancient Cairo.

13. Draw a Cairo mosque (showing at least one detail of the architecture).

An international trading system, reaching from the Atlantic to China, had its heart & center in Cairo. Cairo was a city of Islam since the 7 th century. It became a rich and tolerant city that dominated commerce of ½ the world.

All this grand structure of learning and devotion was supported by a standard of coins minted from West African gold.

Coins minted from Cairo to Europe to England were minted with African gold.

14. What was the symbol on the English coin that showed it was made of African gold? __________________________

4 Geographical Zones of Africa

Rainforest:

located mainly on equator

8% of Africa

60+ inches rain/year

temp. between 70-90 degrees Far.

Most diverse plant life on earth

Rains erode soil = poor farm land

Tsetse fly kills cattle, horses, livestock

People eat and trade with roots, fruits, nuts, oils, bananas, forest animals, & woods

Savanna/Grasslands:

Largest, most varied zone in Africa

Spreads north & south of rainforest

Can be forest or grassland

rainy season, followed by dry season

people live by farming, herding, fishing

Semiarid (including Sahel):

between savanna & desert

Sahel is between north savanna & Sahara

Very hot daytime temp.

Little rain - 10-20 "/year with droughts

People live by limited farming, fishing, herding - often moving to follow water

Desert

30% of Africa

daytime temp. 100-140 degrees Far.

Less than 10″ rain/year

Sandstorms

Oases provide food & water

Sparsely populated

Camels used for transport

Introductory Notes for Telling the Sundiata Epic

In 1960, an African historian and playwright, D.T. Niane, listened to the griot Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate tell the Sundiata epic tale. Kouyate was a griot from the great Keita griot family, descended from the same family as Sundiata. Niane wrote down the epic in the Malinke language. It was later translated into English.

David Wisnieski (Wiz - NESS- key) wrote and illustrated an English-language picture book version of the Sundiata epic based on the Niane writing from the griot Mamoudou Kouyate.

Each griot learns the epic from their family and passes it on to their children. Each family might tell the story a little differently, especially because audience participation is important in the telling and would be different each time.

Griots might also use music to accompany the storytelling, using traditional instruments such as the harp-like kora string instrument, or the balafon, which is like a wooden xylophone.

One person, who visited Mali, described hearing the Sundiata epic and after three days of storytelling, Sundiata hadn't yet been born! This can be a long story!

We will hear the picture book version, in English, and we will supplement that with pieces from the longer translation.
This unit is available for free use in classroom but is covered by copyright. Please contact the unit author for permission if you would like to use it in other way: Monique Von Gigch
Fuller Middle School and Framingham Public School
31 flag Drive 01702
mvgdancer@aol.com
[1] If a teacher or school does not own, or cannot borrow, a licensed copy of the TCI unit, they should create alternative resources for the TCI-based lessons in this unit so as not to infringe the TCI copyright.

[2] This draft is a work-in-progress because I have not taught it yet and it will undoubtedly be revised after being taught in January 2002.

[3] Definitions adapted from Human Heritage, Glencoe-McGraw Hill, New York, 1999.

[4] Definition of epic from Calliope, January/February 1994, Cobblestone Publishing, page 10

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Special credit goes to a number of people that contributed significant aspects, ideas, or inspiration to this curriculum unit. Special thanks to Barbara Brown, coordinator at the African Studies Center, Boston University, and all the speakers at the summer/fall 2001 African History Institute.

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6th grade materials from PG.

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How should we organize a geography class? Some people seem to think that it is crucially important to make an early decision about how to organize a class. Should the units be organized regionally, or topically: Regional - Africa, Europe, South Asia, etc. Topical - environment, population, economy, etc. We suggest that the overall organization of a course does not Read More ...

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How should we organize a geography class? Some people seem to think that it is crucially important to make an early decision about how to organize a class. Should the units be organized regionally, or topically: Regional - Africa, Europe, South Asia, etc. Topical - environment, population, economy, etc.

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From Michigan - material from Phil Gershmel.

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The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Kahn Rescued His Empire 

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The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Kahn Rescued His Empire 

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Recommendation from Karen Albano of Agawam.

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Gandara Scroll - 1st Century Buddhist scroll now online https://www.loc.gov/resource/asianscd.2018305008/?st=gallery

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It seems that the dates of introduction of bananas is in question. So trade networks may have preceded Islam or even the Roman Empire!
This article from Archaeology News explains. https://archive.archaeology.org/0609/abstracts/bananas.html

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This Fleeting World, a Short History of Humanity, David Christian (2nd edition 2018)

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Legalism:

http://www.rodneyohebsion.com/han-fei-tzu.htm

Confucianism:

http://www.acmuller.net/con-dao/analects.html

Taoism (Daoism):

http://ctext.org/dao-de-jing

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm

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As Rich demonstrated, this site can be used in order to break down text and replace words with more easily understood phrases.

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Rewordify.com | Understand what you read

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Rewordify.com helps you read more, understand better, learn new words, and teach more effectively.

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You can find a few different types of resources here that discuss some of the civics issues. The 2010 revision of the thematic standards aimed to provide a framework for teaching, learning, and assessment in social studies that included a sharper articulation of curriculum objectives, and provided examples from classrooms across grade levels. Unfortunately, the link to a PDF version of the book appears to be a "dead-end" currently, but see if your district can get the text. If not, let Pr. Aieta know!
On a positive note, the link to a digital PDF of the C3 framework document (more dense, but somewhat useful for instructors, NOT for students) appears to be active!

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National Council for the Social Studies first published national curriculum standards in 1994. Since then, the social studies standards have been widely and successfully used as a framework for teachers, schools, districts, states, and other nations as a tool for curriculum alignment and development. However, much has changed in the world and in education since these curriculum standards were published. This 2010 revision aims to provide a framework for teaching, learning, and assessment in social studies that includes a sharper articulation of curriculum objectives, and reflects greater consistency across the different sections of the document. It incorporates current research and suggestions for improvement from many experienced practitioners. These revised standards reflect a desire to continue and build upon the expectations established in the original standards for effective social studies in the grades from pre-K through 12.

This edition, like the 1994 social studies standards, continue to be stuctured around the ten themes of social studies. However, the revised standards offer a sharper focus on:

Purposes

Questions for Exploration

Knowledge: what learners need to understand

Processes: what learners will be capable of doing

Products: how learners demonstrate understanding

The revised standards also include:

Enhancements in the descriptions of the ten themes and the associated learning expectations

The addition of new descriptions of standards-based class practices to time-tested descriptions that were included in the original edition of the standards

A stronger focus on student products and their assessment

An updated list of essential social studies skills and strategies, including literacy strategies

The Revised National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

The revised standards, National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, were developed by a Task Force of the National Council for the Social Studies, and approved by the NCSS Board of Directors in March 2010.

Task Force

Table of Contents

Executive Summary
Preface: Steven A. Goldberg 1. Introduction 2. The Ten Themes of Social Studies The remainder of this publication is not available online. See the sidebar at the right of this page for information on how to order the standards.
3. Purposes, Questions for Exploration, Knowledge, Process, and Products.
4. Learning Expectations: Early Grades
5. Learning Expectations: Middle Grades
6. Learning Expectations: High School

Appendix 1: Essential Social Studies Skills and Strategies
Appendix 2: Democratic Beliefs and Values

ISBN 978-0-87986-105-6
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2010934360
Copyright © 2010 National Council for the Social Studies
8555 Sixteenth Street
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
All rights reserved.

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National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

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National Council for the Social Studies first published national curriculum standards in 1994. Since then, the social studies standards have been widely and successfully used as a framework for teachers, schools, districts, states, and other nations as a tool for curriculum alignment and development.

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Civics education standards on a national level are suggested here with a series of questions that are important to consider and perhaps overlap with our state curriculum frameworks. Links to resources you can purchase as well as electronic resources (some overlap with other links) that could be helpful as well.

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the center specializes in civic/citizenship education

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and international educational exchange programs for developing democracies. programs focus on the u.s. constitution and bill of rights; american political traditions and institutions at the federal

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and local levels; constitutionalism; civic participation; and the rights and responsibilities of citizens. 

today

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the center administers a wide range of critically acclaimed curricular

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and community-based programs. the principal goals of the center's programs are to help students develop (1) an increased understanding of the institutions of american constitutional democracy and the fundamental principles and values upon which they are founded

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(2) the skills necessary to participate as effective and responsible citizens

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and (3) the willingness to use democratic procedures for making decisions and managing conflict.

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National Standards for Civics and Government

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The Center for Civic Education is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational corporation dedicated to promoting an enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles and actively engaged in the practice of democracy in the United States and other countries.

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Take a look at the resources here, particularly the "We the People" material. Specifically, take a look at the middle school lesson plans - https://www.masscivics.org/middle-school-lessons - but there are lots of good links and materials to sift through!

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Massachusetts Center for Civic Education Website - Promoting Civic Education In Our Schools & Communities

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Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United State Senate will once again host the Massachusetts on We the People: the Citizen and the Constitution State Competition This is a full-day event with a morning session from 8:30 am - 12:00 pm. The afternoon session begins at approximately 1:00 pm.

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World Digital Library find of a 19th century item housed at the Beinecke Library (Yale University). This set of art is from the 1800s, but illustrates an outsider's perspective and understanding of caste structure in India. As the caste structure has existed for a number of centuries, it could prove useful.

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Seventy-two Specimens of Castes in India: "All people, nations and languages shall serve Him." ... Presented to the Reverend William Twining as a Token of Obligation by His...Friend Daniel Poor...

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This illustrated manuscript made in southern India in 1837 consists of 72 full-color hand-painted images of men and women of the various castes and religious and ethnic groups found in Madura, India, at that time.

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I use this at the very beginning of the year in grade 7 to help the students learn and apply this information - plus the posters can stay up as references all year

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You can give this reference to each student and then a blank one for each civilization throughout the school year.

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I use Brainpop to introduce the 5 Themes.  Then, the students explore them a little using the town they live in.  On chart paper, we find a couple examples for each theme so that we can leave that up as a visual reminder.
https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/geography/geographythemes/

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To encourage students to use maps as a resource, I have them determine where a picture was taken. This also requires students to use their learned knowledge about cultural and physical features as clues.

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A strategy I use is to bring literature into my World Geography class as a way to explore the psychology and the emotional landscape of people living through historical events.  In teaching apartheid, I used the short story, The Bench, to take an internal look at how people can change their thinking.  The story does a good job of showing how this is not necessarily a linear or evenly rising process.  Instead it is a combination of excitement, self-doubt, curiosity, fear, critical thinking and courage that occur intermittently.  The story humanizes the topic in a way that a textbook cannot.

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The display at the World Digital Library. Also at the Library of Congress.

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Description

The Huexotzinco Codex is an eight-sheet document on amatl, a pre-European paper made in Mesoamerica. It is part of the testimony in a legal case against representatives of the colonial government in Mexico, ten years after the Spanish conquest in 1521. Huexotzinco is a town southeast of Mexico City, in the state of Puebla. In 1521, the Nahua Indian people of the town were the allies of the Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortés, and together they confronted their enemies to overcome Moctezuma, leader of the Aztec Empire. After the conquest, the Huexotzinco peoples became part of Cortés's estates. During 1529-30, when Cortés was out of the country, Spanish colonial administrators intervened in the daily activities of the community and forced the Nahuas to pay excessive taxes in the form of goods and services. When Cortés returned, the Nahuas joined him in a legal case against the abuses of the Spanish administrators. The plaintiffs were successful in their suit in Mexico, and later when it was retried in Spain. The record shows (in a document uncovered in the collections of the Library of Congress) that in 1538, King Charles of Spain agreed with the judgment against the Spanish administrators and ruled that two-thirds of all tributes taken from the people of Huexotzinco be returned.

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The Huexotzinco Codex is an eight-sheet document on amatl, a pre-European paper made in Mesoamerica. It is part of the testimony in a legal case against representatives of the colonial government in Mexico, ten years after the Spanish conquest in 1521. Huexotzinco is a town southeast of Mexico City, in the state of Puebla.

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We read during Asia instruction -- it's a realistic fiction about life before and mostly after the Taliban rule.

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For the Standards for History and Social Sciences Practice #3, Organize Information and data from multiple primary and secondary sources, I like to use Newsela. It has great secondary source history articles, which are available at five different reading levels.

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USTR - Office of the United States Trade Representative 

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USTR - Office of the United States Trade Representative 

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This resource is great for finding up to date information on what we exchange with other nations.  It helps students see what resources other countries have and what we might provide them.   Not always easy to predict but super interesting to compare and contrast!

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The United States has trade relations with more than 75 countries around the world. The top five export markets for U.S. goods in 2013 were: Canada, $300.3 billion Mexico, $226.2 billion China, $122 billion Japan, $65.1 billion Germany, $47.4 billion At USTR, trade with countries is coordinated by regional offices.

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An interactive resource that allows students to independently practice their map skills. It helps students gain spatial knowledge of the world as a whole, while making the connection between countries, states, capitals, and physical features.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Geography.htm

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An awesome resource all about Ancient Egypt- in particular, the section about Geography and why the Egyptians settled around the Nile River.

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Thanks for your support over the years. This website is scheduled to close in December 2022 as the technology it uses has reached its end-of-life. We will move key resources to the Schools section of our main website.

Copyright © 1999 The Trustees of the British Museum

Cookie information

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Thanks for your support over the years. This website is scheduled to close in December 2022 as the technology it uses has reached its end-of-life. We will move key resources to the Schools section of our main website. Copyright © 1999 The Trustees of the British Museum Cookie information

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Look at different regions, across time in maps! Can't wait to use this in class. Hope you enjoy it as well.

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If you want to know why our world is the way it is, you're in the right place!

Both an atlas and an encyclopaedia, the Timemap of World History covers all the world's history.

The Atlas gives you a panoramic overview of the grand sweep of history.

The Encyclopedia provides a wealth of information which lets you dig deeper into civilizations, empires and events.

The Education area offers teachers and students ideas for getting the most from the site.

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The Timemap of World History: the online atlas and encyclopedia

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Both an atlas and an encyclopaedia, the Timemap of World History covers all the world's history. The Atlas gives you a panoramic overview of the grand sweep of history. The Encyclopedia provides a wealth of information which lets you dig deeper into civilizations, empires and events.

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I use BrainPop as an activator for many topics in Ancient Civ/Geography. I especially like the Mummies and Pharaohs videos for my 6th graders. (Our school does have an account for this.)

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Both the kids and adult versions are terrific resources for the cultures of countries. The topics range from history to dating and marriage, foods, etiquette, dress, activities, etc. Students have the freedom to read about country topics that interest them and that might relate more to their daily lives.

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This is a tremendous resource for integrating current events into your daily lessons, as well as helping you ELL students.  There are tons of topics to study, including topics related to geography and the stories of people from all over the world. And it's free!

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Listenwise | Listening Comprehension Matters

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Listening comprehension matters | Listenwise

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Explore the best podcast lessons for grade-level rigor. Curriculum aligned lessons with literacy & language supports, great for English Learners. Free sign up!

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The Library of Congress has digitized 1,000 Chinese texts from before 1796.

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The Chinese Rare Book Digital Collection draws from the 5,300 titles of Chinese rare books housed at the Asian Division of the Library of Congress. The initial online presentation includes about 1,000 digitized rare titles, and more will be accessible in following phases. Once complete, the digital collection will comprise nearly 2,000 titles.

According to the International Union Catalog of Chinese Rare Book Project Cataloging Guidelines published by the Council on East Asia Libraries (CEAL) in 2000, rare books are defined as Chinese-language printed books and bound manuscripts produced before 1796.

The Chinese Rare Book Digital Collection includes the most valuable titles and editions housed in the Library's Asian Division, some of which date back to the 11th or 12th century and are the only extant copies in the world. This new digital collection brings together printed books, manuscripts, Buddhist sutras, works with hand-painted pictures, local gazetteers, and ancient maps. These materials encompass a wide array of disciplines and subjects in classics, history, geography, philosophy, and literature. The majority are editions from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and early Qing dynasty (1644-1795), while nearly 30 titles are Song dynasty (960-1279) and Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) editions.

The Library of Congress digitized these Chinese rare books in collaboration with the National Central Library of Taiwan in recognition of the collection's value as a major resource for the study of pre-modern China. The rich resources found in this collection will interest those conducting research on various topics in the study of pre-modern China, including local history, geography, politics, social and economic life, education, agriculture, and biology.

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About this Collection | Chinese Rare Book Digital Collection | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

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The Chinese Rare Book Digital Collection draws from the 5,300 titles of Chinese rare books housed at the Asian Division of the Library of Congress. The initial online presentation includes about 1,000 digitized rare titles, and more will be accessible in following phases. Once complete, the digital collection will comprise nearly 2,000 titles.

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I mentioned Phil Gersmehl's Teaching Geography and use quite a bit of his theories when I am thinking about geography. Fans of Gersmehl have put out a number of his slides on a "slide share" space you can find here. These slides are related to what Gersmehl labeled "2" in his book.  The slides 2I and 2J are interesting as potential organizational models for exploring geography. Examples from his 6th chapter are available as well and some creative internet searches can reveal additional slides. Carol Gersmehl also does tremendous work in training and thinking about geography.

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OurSpatialBrains.com - Helping children learn to think spatially

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PERSIAN WAR DEBATE-Persia Winning

Proposition: Would it have been better for Persia to win the Persian Wars, rather than the Greeks.  One side will argue that if Persia had won it would have been better for the world.  The other side will argue no, that it is better that for the world for Greece to have won.

Links to arguments on the Persian War:  For Persia winning

Facts on the Battles

http://www.historynet.com/greco-persian-wars-xerxes-invasion.htm

http://www.historynet.com/greco-persian-wars-battle-of-thermopylae.htm

https://www.ancient.eu/Persian_Wars/

What if Persia won

https://kwltimes.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/what-if-the-persians-had-won-the-persian-war/

https://prezi.com/cfzfkhb2oghh/what-if-the-persians-had-won-the-greco-persian-war/

https://amngriggs.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/the-persian-war-if-persia-won/

Arguments For Persia Winning:

1.  The Persian Wars led to a decrease in Athens power after losing the Peloponnesian War to Sparta.  This led to a decrease in democracy in Greece.  The Peloponnesian War would never have happened if Persia controlled the Greeks, this could have actually improved democracy and different forms of government.

1. If Persia had won it would not have impacted the development of Western Civilization because the Persian empire was tolerant.  The Greeks could have developed their independent city-states the way they wanted as long as they provided the requirements of the Persians.  The intellectual development could have occurred under the tolerant Persian Empire.

1. It would have prevented the Greeks use of slavery and would have freed all people.  This could have impacted the use of slavery throughout the world.  If the Greeks, Athens and Sparta were not allowed to have slaves then all men would have been equal and it could have stopped the world spread of slavery.

1. The Persians were tolerant of different religions and people were allowed to continue their beliefs.  The Greeks could have continued to worship their gods and goddesses.  Perhaps, Socrates would not have been put on trial and killed.

1. Would the Persians have given women rights and allowed the strengths of Sparta and women’s rights become part of the civilization.  Would it have helped the society to treat all people equally, since there is no slavery then it stands to reason that women may have been treated equally.  All Greeks would have bonded together to work as one group and all the good elements of Greece could have spread to all the region.

Counter Arguments come from selecting one of the arguments on the Greek side.  You will select an argument and tell why that argument is wrong.  How could you beat that argument?

PERSIAN WAR DEBATE-Greeks Winning

Proposition: Would it have been better for Persia to win the Persian Wars, rather than the Greeks.  One side will argue that if Persia had won it would have been better for the world.  The other side will argue no, that it is better that for the world for Greece to have won.

Facts on the Battles

http://www.historynet.com/greco-persian-wars-xerxes-invasion.htm

http://www.historynet.com/greco-persian-wars-battle-of-thermopylae.htm

https://www.ancient.eu/Persian_Wars/

What if Persia had won websites

https://kwltimes.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/what-if-the-persians-had-won-the-persian-war/

https://prezi.com/cfzfkhb2oghh/what-if-the-persians-had-won-the-greco-persian-war/

https://amngriggs.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/the-persian-war-if-persia-won/

Arguments for the Greeks to win the war.

1.  Promoted democracy and Athens as the superior city-state.  It enabled them to start the Delian League which made them rich and Athens entered into the Golden Age of Greece.  This was the time period great achievement and this was a result of democracy.

1. The Western Civilization would never have developed because Greece would not have developed.  This means, no great thinkers and founding of philosophy, political science, theatre, classification system would never have happened.  The great thinkers would not have been allowed or had the time with slavery to create the things they created.

1. There would have been no Macedonia and Alexander the Great.  Since Persia would have been stronger, Macedonia would never have been able to develop.  Philip II would not have conquered Greece and then his son Alexander the Great conquering additional lands and Persia.  How would this have changed the world?  Would Persia have conquered the world and how would this have been bad for the world.  Would Rome and the Roman Empire never have existed?

1. The Persians hated the Greeks and would have treated the Greeks differently than they did the other conquered lands.  The Persians wanted to punish the Greeks for the uprising of the Ionian Islands and planned an invasion until the Greeks cut them off at the coastline of Marathon.  They forced the Persians into the battle and defeated them, King Darius.  His son Xerxes hated the Greeks too and came back to defeat them again at the battle of Thermopylae and Salamis.  It can be argued that the Persians would have killed the Greeks and enslaved them treating them differently than other conquered lands.

2. Christianity as we know it today might not have existed because of Rome possibly not existing.  Also, perhaps, no Islam.

Counter Arguments come from selecting one of the arguments on the American side.  You will select an argument and tell why that argument is wrong.  How could you beat that argument?