Download Fertile Crescent Civilizations

Lesson Plan: Format and Components
Dr. Barbara Slater Stern
Teacher’s name: __Dan Hausman__ Date of Lesson/Class/Period N/A
Subject: _World History 1
Topic: ____Fertile Crescent Migration_
Concepts: This lesson covers migration and the Fertile Crescent.
General Objective[s]:
THEME THREE -- People, Places, and Environment: Social Studies teachers
should possess the knowledge, capabilities, and dispositions to organize and
provide instruction at the appropriate school level for the study of People,
NCSS.1.3
Places, and Environment. Teachers of social studies at all school levels should
provide developmentally appropriate experiences as they guide learners in the
study of people, places and environments.
NCSS.1.3.g
...challenge learners to examine, interpret, and analyze the interactions of
human beings and their physical environments;
VA SOL WHI 1 – The student will improve skills in historical research and geographical
analysis by
e) analyzing trends in human migration and cultural interaction from prehistory to 15000
A.D.
WHI 3. – The student will demonstrate knowledge of ancient river civilizations,
including Mesopatamia, by
a) locating these civilizations in time and place.
Learning Outcomes:
In the study of the fertile crescent students will be able to create a story that shows
their understanding of migration and the Fertile Crescent. (Application)
Content Outline:
Mesopotamia, "the land between the rivers," was the ancient Greek name for the
triangular area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that stretched northward from a
point a little above modern Baghdad to the mountains of Armenia. In modern usage,
however, in reference to antiquity, the term Mesopotamia refers to most of what is now
Iraq. This broader definition--the one used here--adds to the original territory the land
east of the Tigris (ancient ASSYRIA) and the lower Tigris-Euphrates Valley from
Baghdad to the Persian Gulf (ancient BABYLONIA).
Some parts of Mesopotamia were sparsely inhabited--and others not at all--until after
about 8000 BC, when the domestication of plants and animals brought about an
agricultural revolution. This key step in the development of human civilization made
possible an increased food supply and an accompanying growth of population and
allowed nomads and cave dwellers to become farmers and herders. People began to move
down from the mountains to the grassy uplands and well-watered plains of northern
Mesopotamia. By 6000 BC primitive villages stretched from Assyria along a fertile strip
just below the Armenian hills to the Euphrates River and beyond.
Later, about 5000 BC, the occupation of the lower valley (Babylonia) was begun by
people who started at the Persian Gulf and gradually moved upriver. Because of
inadequate rainfall the inhabitants of the lower valley had to resort to irrigation in order
to farm the land. Irrigation required a highly organized governmental structure to
mobilize and direct the efforts of the workers. At the same time, a lack of stone, wood,
metals, and other commodities led the people of the southern valley to develop industry
in order to produce goods that could be traded for the materials needed and to develop an
extensive trade with the outside world. The southern valley's more complex economy,
coupled with its more productive agriculture, induced a more sizable increase in
population and brought the rise of large villages, even cities. Thus by 3100 BC
civilization may be said to have begun in southern Mesopotamia, the area called
SUMER.
Terms:
Fertile Crescent: A semicircle of fertile land stretching from the southeast coast of the
Mediterranean around the Syrian desert north of Arabia to the Persian Gulf.
Migration: To move from one country, place, or locality to another.
Civilization: A society in an advanced state of social development.
Student and Teacher Activities with Estimated Time Blocks:
Time
1- (5 min.)
Teacher
1. The teacher begins the lesson by
asking the students what is migration?
What are reasons that people migrate?
The teacher writes reactions on the
board.
2.-4. (20
min.)
2. The teacher passes out a copy of the
map and the reading (included below)
and tells the students to read over
them. The students must also look at
their textbook to get more
information.
3. The teacher asks where the Fertile
Crescent is located? Why did people
migrate there? What was life like
Student
1. The students call out answers
to the teacher’s questions.
2. The students look at the map
and reading materials.
3. The students answer the
teacher’s guided questions.
there? What was life like on the
journey to migrate there? How did the
people established communities there?
The teacher writes responses on the
board
4. The teacher will tell the students
that they must trace a path settlers
would have taken from Africa to the
Fertile Crescent on their maps.
5. The students are told that they must
5. (20 min.) write one story in which they are a
nomad migrating to the fertile
crescent. They must detail their
migration to the crescent and what
they do once they arrive.
4. Students complete the map
exercise.
5. The students write their stories.
They share with a neighbor as
they finish.
Materials Needed for the Lesson: Each student will need a copy of “Fertile Crescent
Civilizations” Retrieved from: http://killeenroos.com/1/mesodata.htm.
Each student will need a map of The Fertile Crescent, 9000- 4500 BCE Retrieved Nov.
20, 2005 from, http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/map00-fc.html
Spielvogel, J. (Ed.). (2003). World history. New York: Glencoe- McGraw-Hill.
The students will need a piece of paper and writing utensils. Chalkboard and chalk.
Methods of Evaluating Student Progress/Performance:
Students will be assessed informally as they answer the teacher’s guided questions. The
teacher will be looking for appropriate participation and answers that show knowledge of
the Fertile Crescent. The written work will be evaluated informally for completion and
knowledge of the basic concepts.
Subject Matter Integration/Extension: This lesson introduces the ideas of migration
and civilization to the students. It is one of the first lessons in a world history course.
Many of the ideas will be built upon to create a working framework of historical
knowledge for the students.
Reflections/PPT’s in Lesson: The students use this lesson to begin to learn about
important historical concepts. They will have some previous knowledge as this lesson
contains information that they should be familiar with due to spiraling subject matter. The
lesson allows students to creatively respond and apply knowledge.
Fertile Crescent Civilizations
Mesopotamia, "the land between the rivers," was the ancient Greek name for the
triangular area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that stretched northward from a
point a little above modern Baghdad to the mountains of Armenia. In modern usage,
however, in reference to antiquity, the term Mesopotamia refers to most of what is now
Iraq. This broader definition--the one used here--adds to the original territory the land
east of the Tigris (ancient ASSYRIA) and the lower Tigris-Euphrates Valley from
Baghdad to the Persian Gulf (ancient BABYLONIA).
Some parts of Mesopotamia were sparsely inhabited--and others not at all--until after
about 8000 BC, when the domestication of plants and animals brought about an
agricultural revolution. This key step in the development of human civilization made
possible an increased food supply and an accompanying growth of population and
allowed nomads and cave dwellers to become farmers and herders. People began to move
down from the mountains to the grassy uplands and well-watered plains of northern
Mesopotamia. By 6000 BC primitive villages stretched from Assyria along a fertile strip
just below the Armenian hills to the Euphrates River and beyond.
Later, about 5000 BC, the occupation of the lower valley (Babylonia) was begun by
people who started at the Persian Gulf and gradually moved upriver. Because of
inadequate rainfall the inhabitants of the lower valley had to resort to irrigation in order
to farm the land. Irrigation required a highly organized governmental structure to
mobilize and direct the efforts of the workers. At the same time, a lack of stone, wood,
metals, and other commodities led the people of the southern valley to develop industry
in order to produce goods that could be traded for the materials needed and to develop an
extensive trade with the outside world. The southern valley's more complex economy,
coupled with its more productive agriculture, induced a more sizable increase in
population and brought the rise of large villages, even cities. Thus by 3100 BC
civilization may be said to have begun in southern Mesopotamia, the area called
SUMER.
During the Sumerian period, which lasted until about 2000 BC, the Sumerians organized
a system of flood control and a pattern of irrigation and created an enduring writing
system (cuneiform), religious literature, architectural form, and economic organization.
In the centuries after 3100 BC, Sumerian civilization was borrowed and adapted by the
people of northern Mesopotamia as well as by those in the region now called Iran and by
countries west of the Euphrates bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. Mesopotamia,
unlike Egypt, was a land open to invasion, and therefore as time passed the country came
under the political domination of a succession of conquerors. These people often enriched
Mesopotamian culture as they introduced their traditional beliefs, practices, and customs.
However, because of environmental conditions peculiar to Mesopotamia and the
existence of an already complex civilization there, these later peoples adopted Sumerian
culture as the basis for their cultural innovations.
During the Sumerian period Semitic-speaking tribes from the west occupied the
northern part of the lower valley (AKKAD) around Babylon and set up the so-called
Sargonid dynasty (c.2350-2100 BC) that briefly controlled the Sumerians in the south.
More important, however, were the AMORITES, a larger Semitic group that came
shortly after 2000 BC. These people, with their capital at BABYLON, established the
Old Babylonian Kingdom that unified the whole valley. The Amorites were numerous
enough to make their language the prevailing speech in Babylonia and to merge their
culture with that of the Sumerians to create a new literature, a different political
organization, advances in sculpture, and a reorganization of commercial procedures. In
addition, they gave an impressive maturity to the elementary mathematics and astronomy
developed by the Sumerians.
About the same time that the Amorites came to Babylonia, another, related Semitic
group, the Assyrians, took over the eastern part (Assyria) of northern Mesopotamia.
Although they, too, borrowed from the culture of the Sumerians, they proceeded more
slowly than the Amorites, and Assyrian civilization flowered at a later time. Both the
Babylonians and Assyrians were in political eclipse between 1550 and 1100 BC as
invaders from the north dominated their respective territories: Mitannians (see
MITANNI) in Assyria and KASSITES in Babylonia. By about 1100, the Mitannian and
the Kassite regimes had crumbled and disappeared without having materially affected
Mesopotamian culture, and the Babylonians and Assyrians rose to new political and
cultural heights.
Between 745 and 612 BC the Assyrians built up and then lost a great empire that
encompassed Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, with tributary nations in western
Iran as well. Assyrian civilization, an elaboration of the basic Mesopotamian, was the
wonder of the age. After the fall of Assyria, Babylonia under the Neo-Babylonian (or
Chaldean) kings--Nabopolassar (r. c.630-605), NEBUCHADNEZZAR II (r. 605-561),
and others--flourished until the Persian conquest of 539 BC. Henceforth Mesopotamia
was incorporated in foreign empires: the Persian, Seleucid, Parthian, Sassanian, Arab,
and Ottoman. In 1921, following World War I, Mesopotamia was constituted as the new
state of Iraq under British mandate. It became independent in 1932.
Retrieved from: http://killeenroos.com/1/mesodata.htm
__
Retrieved Nov. 20, 2005 from, http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/map00-fc.html