This is a four year history lesson outline to be used by the whole family. For now I will be posting the first year of lessons. This can be used as a stand alone guide, but for the recommended supplemental material for this year you will need the first volume and the first activity book of The Story of the World, and you will need Part 1 of From Adam to Us, along with the Map Book and Student Activity Book that go with it.

Begin with lesson 1A.

Once you finish the four years of lessons, start over. Every student should completely finish the curriculum at least twice in their school years, with activities adapted to their age and understanding. The yearly lessons are labeled by lesson number and year letter (1A is lesson one in the first year outline). This outline focuses on concurrent historical events and on the order of events rather than memorizing a bunch of dates. You can use it as a stand alone guide, but I highly recommend using it to correlate the two curriculums mentioned above. I also add LDS-Christian commentary to the lessons.

And please feel free to add your own suggested books or other learning materials to the comments section of the pertinent date.

Friday, August 21, 2020

4A -- Post Flood to 2000 BC (Week One)

 Week one: Sargon(Nimrod),Gilgamesh, and the Jaredites

 

This lesson has been divided into three one week lessons.

1.   Lesson Pages from Supplemental Materials:

·         From Adam to Us: p. 49, 62-72 (additional activities for these pages are in the accompanying Map Book and Student Workbook)

·         The Story of the World, vol. 1: p. 9-12, 21-24, 32-34, 53-58 (additional activities for these pages are in the accompanying The Story of the World: Activity Book One)

2. Study material for family discussion (older students can read on their own, parents can read and summarize for younger students):

                Genesis 11: 1-9

                Ether 1-3, 6

After the flood, some of Noah’s descendants settled in Turkey, others moved on and lived together between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, others went to Egypt. They often built homes of mud, sometimes with mounded roofs and other times with flat roofs that they could sleep on or work or cook on. They didn’t have to have a front door, they could enter through an opening in the roof and let down ladders to let visitors in.

As the population grew, many people fell away from righteousness and began to worship false gods. They tried to build the tower of Babel, but their languages were changed and groups of people wandered off into other parts of the land. Between the Tigris and Euphrates, cities were built up, and each city had its own king. Gilgamesh is one of these kings. We have his story because it was recorded on clay.

Many records are destroyed over time by being burned or decaying. Records on clay can harden when burned, so many ancient clay records have survived.

In the story of Gilgamesh, the king visits Utnapishtim, or Noah. Noah lived 350 years after the flood, so he was a witness to the regrowth of civilization after its destruction by the Flood.

There would have been many small groups that lived as tribes in small villages or wandered around. But these small groups did not leave behind buildings or many things for archaeologists to study. It is easier for us to study ancient people from cities. There are ruins of their cities left behind. It is interesting to note that one of the main things that archaeologists study to find out about ancient people is …TRASH! That’s right. Any group of people living in one area for long leaves behind a lot of trash. Groups who move around a lot are more likely to use up everything that they can and any trash they do have is scattered over wide areas. We have discussed the fact that after-Flood Egypt was most likely built on the structures that survived the Flood, like the pyramids in Giza. It is possible structures in other places survived as well and became the basis for new civilizations. This probably included the area of Mesopotamia.

The Jaredite history matches well with the Copper Culture or Copper Complex of North America. The Jaredites recorded that “they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper. And they did work all manner of fine work” (Ether 10:23). Also, we can assume since the ancient record of the gold plates was found in the Great Lake area, the cultures it describes probably were from the same area. However, this is not conclusive. These sites have good pictures of artifacts from the Copper Culture: https://copperculture.homestead.com/, https://www.mpm.edu/research-collections/anthropology/online-collections-research/old-copper-culture/artifacts . There were other civilizations in the Americas in the times of the Jaredites and Nephites/Lamanites. Maybe someday we will get records of those peoples as well!

Note: Sargon became quite a mythical character over time. As his story was told and retold, it was embellished. The sources for the stories we have of his birth, when he was supposedly put in a basket and put into the river, were written far after his time, and even after the time of Moses. So there is a possibility that the writers hijacked the story of Moses and added it to the legend of Sargon.

 

3. Attention Getter: Look up how to say some commands in another language (like sit on the chair, or pick up the book). Repeat the commands to your children few times, getting more insistent. Tell them to think about how this relates to the lesson as you go along.

 

4. Videos:

            Children: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/children/videos/scripture-stories/old-testament/7-the-tower-of-babel?&lang=eng

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/children/videos/scripture-stories/book-of-mormon/50-the-jaredites-leave-babel?lang=eng

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/children/videos/scripture-stories/book-of-mormon/51-the-jaredites-travel-to-the-promised-land?&lang=eng 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrxh2H7JlP8&pp=QADQAwE%3D (Catal Huyuk, one of the oldest city sites, found in Turkey. The dating of the site is not accurate.)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh6k8c7VBrA (Sumeria)      

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki8S5I83Ccc (Note: people farmed and wrote and probably had wheels before the flood. Noah taught these things to his descendants)

 

5. Mapping:  The Story of the World: Activity Book One map activities in chapters 1, 3, 5, and 8. Find the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers on a modern map, and figure out which modern country occupies the ancient Sumerian lands.

 

6. Make your own cuneiform writing on flattened clay. You can try to find something wedge shaped like the Sumerians used, or just use a toothpick or plastic knife and do your best. The Story of the World, Activity Book One has a guide to cuneiform on Student Page 10.

 

7. Make a salt dough Sumerian city or a tower of Babel.

 Salt Dough: Mix together 4 cups of flour, 2 cups of salt, 2 cups of water, and 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar.

 Let your creation air dry overnight and then you can paint it.

 

8. World History Reading:

·         The story of Gilgamesh is retold in a picture book trilogy by Ludmila Zeman, beginning with Gilgamesh the King.

·         Time-Life Student Library Ancient Civilizations 3000 BC – AD 500 (This book covers many civilizations, pages 10-23 go with this lesson)

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