From+Gathering+to+Growing

=Unit 2: From Gathering to Growing=

Unit Objectives

 * Distinguish between prehistory and history
 * Describe characteristics of Stone Age hunting-gathering societies
 * Describe the development of agricultural and pastoral societies
 * Explain how annual river flooding encouraged the development of agriculture
 * Explain the roles of a surplus of food, division of labor, and eh building of cities in the development of civilization
 * Describe how civilization differs from other forms of social organization
 * Explain how climatic and geographic features encouraged humans to migrate, even from one continent to another
 * List ways in which prehistoric people adapted to and influenced their environments
 * Locate Mesopotamia on a map and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers

Keywords

 * history:** the period of the past for which written records exist
 * nomadic:** wandering from place to place in search of food
 * prehistory:** the period of time before human beings could write
 * agricultural revolution:** the giant step forward that humans took when they deliberately planted seeds to grow crops
 * domestication:** the practice of taming wild animals
 * slash-and-burn agriculture:** a method of preparing land for farming by slashing the bark of trees to kill them, and then burning the brush and scattering the ashes

Lesson 1: How Long is Long?
One way to study history is to read a history book. But what if there were no history books? What if people didn't even know how to write? There was a time when writing did not exist. Historians call this period prehistory - - the time before written records. They use the term history to describe the period from which we do have written records. Prehistory spans a much greater length of time than history does.

Lesson Objectives

 * Describe prehistory and history in terms of written records
 * Compare prehistory with history in terms of span of time
 * Identify spans of time between the emergence of hunting-gathering societies and the beginning of agriculture, the beginning of civilization, and the twenty-first century.

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1. Read Chapter 1, the beginning to "The Move to Mesopotamia," pages 17-20 in //The Human Odyssey: Prehistory Through the Middle Ages// //2.// Complete the Visualizing Time Worksheet

Lesson 2: Prehistory: Hunter-Gatherers and Cave Dwellers


Early humans were hunter-gatherers and cave dwellers. From the start, humans distinguished themselves as thinking, inventive beings, they used fire to cook food, warm themselves, and frighten animals away; and they crafted stone tools to help them hunt animals and fashion skins into clothing and shelter. usually we think of that way of life as belonging to the distant pat. but there are people in various parts of the world---including Africa, Australia, and North America--who still live very much as people did in the Stone Age.

Lesson Objectives

 * Recognize that early humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers and cave dwellers
 * Describe characteristics of hunter-gatherers
 * Identify the period of time when humans made tools from stone
 * List examples of ways early humans used and adapted to their environment
 * Describe the importance of the human discovery of the use of fire
 * Explain the main reasons for human migrations at the end of the Ice Age

Bering Land Bridge

Visit some websites and scan briefly to find similarities in the lives of early humans and Australian Aborgines and Canadian Arctic Inuits

In 1991, a group of people hiking in the mountains near the border of Austria and Italy stumbled across something amazing--the body of a man embedded in ice. It turned out that the man had lived and died more than 5,000 years ago. Archaeologists dubbed him "Otzi the Iceman." What did archaeologists learn from Otzi? media type="custom" key="23678354"

1. Visit the following site and complete the Otzi's Artifacts sheet: Otzi the Iceman Click on the following topics in the website: The mummy as a World Sensation The Iceman's Clothing and Equipment

2. Answer the following questions in your history notebook: 3. Read //Secrets of the Ice Man// by Dorothy Patent
 * Where did early humans seek shelter?
 * What is a hunter-gatherer?
 * Why is the era of early humans called the Stone Age?
 * Why was the use of fire an important discovery?
 * What happened during the last ice age that allowed people to migrate, or move, to new places in search of food? Why wouldn't you be able to follow their routes today?

Lesson 3: Cave Paintings: What Do We Know About Lascaux?
Hidden away in a cave in southwestern France is a series of 17,000-year-old paintings and engravings on the cave walls. The intriguing Lascaux Cave art provides us insight into the lives of Stone Age Humans.

Lesson Objectives

 * Explain the significance of cave art
 * Analyze prehistoric art for information on the lives or beliefs of Stone age humans

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1. Visit the following websites and explore some cave paintings from all over the world. 2. Read //Mystery of the Lascaux Cave// by Dorothy Patent 3. Read Discovery Lascaux to find out how the cave was discovered 4. Review //The cave of Lascaux : the final photographs// by Mario Ruspoli and Lascaux to complete the Observing Lascaux worksheet 5. Read Chapter 1, the beginning to "The Move to Mesopotamia," pages 21-27 in // The Human Odyssey: Prehistory Through the Middle Ages //
 * The Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc
 * Cave Paintings of India
 * Cave Paintings of the California Baja Peninsula
 * Prehistoric Art: Virtual Museum (Cave Paintings of Russia and Brasilia)

Lesson 4: From Nomad to Farmer
Climate changes that took place over thousands of years gradually pushed people to change their ways. Women and men learned to control some aspects of their environment. This control led to a dramatic change in the way people acquired food. Where did the revolution begin? What favorable conditions existed?

Lesson Objectives

 * Describe the climatic changes that encouraged migration to Mesopotamia
 * Explain how and when farming and herding developed in Mesopotamia
 * Define //agricultural revolution, slash-and-burn agriculture, and domestication//
 * Identify on a map the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the Persian Gulf, and the major physical features of Mesopotamia
 * 1) View the map of Mesopotamia on page 22 of your textbook and use it to complete [[file:MS_WDHISTA_02_04_map.pdf]]
 * 2) Explore modern, ancient, physical, and resource maps of Mesopotamia at The British Museum

=Lesson 5: Leaping Forward= The Sumerians created the first civilization by using the natural resources around them. To be considered a civilization, the people who live together must 1) create surplus food, 2) divide up the work in the community, and 3) build cities. The Sumerians were able to grow surplus food by building levees to channel water to irrigate the crops they planted. once they had plenty of food, some people started doing other jobs. They created other goods and service,s which they exchanged for food. As more and more people developed specialized skills, the Sumerians got involved in big projects and eventually began to build cities.

Lesson Objectives

 * Identify the criteria used to define a civilization
 * Recognize how the channeling of flood waters affected the development of civilization
 * Explain the difference between civilization and other forms of social organization, such as hunting-gathering, agricultural, and herding societies
 * Identify the earliest known civilization


 * 1) Read Chapter 1, the beginning to "The Move to Mesopotamia," pages 32-33 in //The Human Odyssey: Prehistory Through the Middle Ages//
 * 2) What are the three elements necessary to develop a civilization? Write a short paragraph that answers the questions: How did Sumer meet the criteria to be considered a civilization? You may use the Paragraph Outline Sheet [[file:MS_WDHISTA_02_05_outline.pdf]] if desired. Make sure your paper includes a topic sentence and the three criteria a civilization requires.

=Lesson 6: Review and Reflect=
 * 1) Unit 2 Assessment