Download Musuem

MUSEUM OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
As mentioned during our first class period the culminating activity for grade eight social studies
will be to develop a museum of ancient civilizations. This project will serve as your final
examination and thus you SHOULD NOT PROCRASTINATE!!
During the first phase of your planning your group should:
READ the summaries of the civilizations we will be covering this year. As a group decide your
top three choices for your project. I cannot guarantee that you get any of your top three as all
civilizations will be represented in our museum. But, I will attempt to get you your group’s
highest rated choice.
Now…
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Sketch a plan for your display
o You can add a title to your display drawing once it is established what civilization
you will be presenting
List the type of things you would need for your groups exhibit
o List everything you think you need!
 Be as specific as you can
o How are you going to find them?
Any other brain-storming you can
I will let you know ASAP which civilization your group has been given. Moreover, I will be
reminding you often about this project. It should be fun so pick your partners and your topic
wisely.
I have VERY HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR THIS; DON’T LET YOURSELF OR YOUR GROUP DOWN
RUBRIC TO FOLLOW
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia widely considered to be the cradle of
civilization in the West, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included
Sumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires,
all native to the territory of modern-day Iraq. In the Iron Age,
it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian
empires. The indigenous Sumerians and Akkadians (including
Assyrians and Babylonians) dominated Mesopotamia from
the beginning of written history (c. 3100 BC) to the fall of
Babylon in 539 BC, when it was conquered by the
Achaemenid Empire. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC
and, after his death, it became part of the Greek Seleucid
Empire.
Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern
Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River
in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian
civilization coalesced around 3150 BC (according to
conventional Egyptian chronology) with the political
unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh
The history of ancient Egypt occurred in a series of stable
Kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known
as Intermediate Periods: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze
Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the
New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age. Egypt reached the
pinnacle of its power during the New Kingdom, in the
Ramesside period, after which it entered a period of slow
decline. Egypt was invaded or conquered by a succession of
foreign powers (such as the Libyans, Nubians, Assyria,
Babylonia, Persian rule and Greece) in the Third Intermediate
Period of Egypt and Late Period. In the aftermath of
Alexander the Great's death, one of his generals, Ptolemy
Soter, established himself as the new ruler of Egypt. This
Ptolemaic Dynasty ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when it fell to the
Roman Empire and became a Roman province.
The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age
civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE)
that was located in the northwestern region of the Indian
subcontinent, consisting of what is now mainly present-day
Pakistan and northwest India. Flourishing around the Indus
River basin, the civilization extended east into the GhaggarHakra River valley and the upper reaches Ganges-Yamuna
Doab; it extended west to the Makran coast of Balochistan,
north to northeastern Afghanistan and south to Daimabad in
Maharashtra. The civilization was spread over some
1,260,000 km², making it the largest ancient civilization.
Indus Valley
The Indus Valley is one of the world's earliest urban
civilizations, along with its contemporaries, Mesopotamia
and Ancient Egypt. At its peak, the Indus Civilization may
have had a population of well over five million. Inhabitants of
the ancient Indus river valley developed new techniques in
handicraft (carnelian products, seal carving) and metallurgy
(copper, bronze, lead, and tin). The civilization is noted for its
cities built of brick, roadside drainage system, and
multistoried houses.
Greece
Rome
Middle Ages (overview and
Legacy)
Rise of Islam
Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of
Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th
to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity (ca. 600 AD).
Immediately following this period was the beginning of the
Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient
Greece is the period of Classical Greece, which flourished
during the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Classical Greece began
with the repelling of a Persian invasion by Athenian
leadership. Because of conquests by Alexander the Great,
Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the
western end of the Mediterranean Sea.
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that began growing
on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC.
Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the
city of Rome, it expanded to become one of the largest
empires in the ancient world.
In its approximately twelve centuries of existence, Roman
civilization shifted from a monarchy to an aristocratic
republic to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through
conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate Southern
Europe, Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and parts
of Eastern Europe. Rome was preponderant throughout the
Mediterranean region and was one of the most powerful
entities of the ancient world. It is often grouped into
"Classical Antiquity" together with ancient Greece, and their
similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman
world.
The Middle Ages is the period of European history
encompassing the 5th to the 15th centuries, normally
marked from the collapse of the Western Roman Empire (the
end of Classical Antiquity) until the beginning of the
Renaissance and the Age of Discovery, the periods which
ushered in the Modern Era. The mediaeval period thus is the
mid-time of the traditional division of Western history into
Classical, Medieval, and Modern periods; moreover, the
Middle Ages usually is divided into the Early Middle Ages, the
High Middle Ages, and the Late Middle Ages.
Rise of Islam began when Muhammad (570 - 632) began
publicly preaching that he had received revelations from God
and claimed to be a prophet at the age of 40 . During his
lifetime the Muslim ummah was established in Arabia by way
of their conversion or allegiance to Islam. In the first
centuries conversion to Islam followed the rapid growth of
the Muslim world created by the conquests of the Rashidun
and Umayyad Caliphs.
Rise of the Ottoman Empire
China
Mongol Empire
Muslim dynasties were soon established and subsequent
empires such as those of the Abbasids, Fatimids, Ajuuraan,
Adal, Warsangali in Somalia, Almoravids, Seljuk Turks,
Mughals in India and Safavids in Persia and Ottomans were
among the largest and most powerful in the world. The
people of the Islamic world created numerous sophisticated
centers of culture and science with far-reaching mercantile
networks, travelers, scientists, hunters, mathematicians,
doctors and philosophers, all of whom contributed to the
Golden Age of Islam.
Ottoman Empire also historically referred to as the Turkish
Empire or Turkey, was a state founded by Turkish tribes
under Osman Bey in north-western Anatolia. With the
conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed II in 1453, the
Ottoman state became an empire. The empire reached its
peak at 1590, covering parts of Asia, Europe and Africa. The
reign of the long-lived Ottoman dynasty lasted for 623 years,
from 27 July 1299 to 1 November 1922, when the monarchy
in Turkey was abolished
Chinese civilization originated in various regional centers
along both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys in
the Neolithic era, but the Yellow River is said to be the cradle
of Chinese civilization. With thousands of years of continuous
history, China is one of the world's oldest civilizations. The
written history of China can be found as early as the Shang
Dynasty (c. 1700–1046 BC),[2] although ancient historical texts
such as the Records of the Grand Historian (ca. 100 BC) and
Bamboo Annals assert the existence of a Xia Dynasty before
the Shang.[2][3] Much of Chinese culture, literature and
philosophy further developed during the Zhou Dynasty
(1045–256 BC).
Mongol Empire existed during the 13th and 14th centuries
A.D., and was the largest contiguous land empire in human
history. Beginning in the Central Asian steppes, it eventually
stretched from Eastern Europe to the Sea of Japan, covering
large parts of Siberia in the north and extending southward
into Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Iranian
plateau, and the Middle East. At its greatest extent it
spanned 9,700 km (6,000 mi), covered an area of 24,000,000
km2 (9,300,000 sq mi), 16% of the Earth's total land area, and
held sway over a population of 100 million.