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.

Sunday, August 23, 2020

6A -- c. 1700 BC Tang of Shang dynasty, Minos, Hittites

 


1.  Lesson Pages from Supplemental Materials:

·         From Adam to Us: p. 81-87, 93-116  (additional activities for these pages are in the accompanying Map Book and Student Workbook)

·         Story of the World, vol. 1: p. 128-135, (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):

The history of the Minoans was lost to us for a long time, but a memory of them was kept alive in the story of King Minos and the Labyrinth. For centuries it was believed this was nothing more than a myth, but when the Minoan ruins were uncovered, we found out that it was based on some facts. The labyrinth is based on a confusion of rooms under the palace at Knossos. King Minos was most likely a real king, or it was a title that meant King. Other kingdoms may have had to send a tribute of young people to Minos. The minotaur, half bull and half human, would be founded on the importance of bulls in the religion and sport of the Minoans. The young tributes may have been involved in the dangerous sport or ritual of bull jumping. A monster living beneath castle may have been based on the groaning of the earth with the common occurrence of earthquakes in the area. The Minoans traded with the Phoenicians and the Mesopotamians, and they had to deal with pirates just like the Phoenicians did.

 We don’t have a lot of interesting stories for this beginning era of the Hittites, but there are some facts that set them apart from other people of the time period.

 

·      They were fighters who made the chariot lighter and faster, making it a more useful war vehicle. This helped them expand their kingdom.

·         They built with stone foundations and wood frames covered in mud brick. Stone walls surrounded their cities. Large stone lion statues can still be seen flanking one of the stone gates leading into their capital city.

·         They worshipped several gods but the main one was the storm god Tarhun (probably a precursor to the Greek Zeus).

 

China had been under the rule of the Xia dynasty up until this point. It began with Yu, a man who successfully stopped the devastating flooding of the river. This had such a huge impact on the lives of the people that he became a trusted official and then emperor. Eventually the Xie Dynasty that Yu had started was ruled by a man named Jie, who was only interested in cruelty and his own pleasure. Tang was a leader of a tribe or state in the dynasty, and he was able to persuade enough of his subjects and neighbors to join him in a revolt against Jie, after which he began the Shang dynasty.



 

 3. Attention Getter: Tell or show the story of Theseus and the Minotaur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzG3-vA_DCA (this is a clean version, this story can have disturbing parts so be careful if you do a Youtube search)

      Put googly eyes on a container of Tang and set it out and tell your students it will relate to the lesson.

 

4. Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bJmbhafz8M (Hittites)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kILvEa3cJdI (Focuses on the kingdom after 1600 BC, watch up to 27:49—for teens, note: might want to preview/mute around 14:30)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4hRA2IgtB4 (Minoans)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAm3dsk67RE (Beautiful 3D rendering of Knossos palace set to music)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epsx_k_OUHk (Tang and the Shang Dynasty)


5. Mapping: Map 5 and Map 6 in From Adam to US Map Book. Find these sites on a modern day map of the world. Also locate Turkey, which is where the Hittites lived.

 

6. Poster: Draw a poster entitled “Three Ancient Fighters” that pictures Theseus, a Hittite chariot warrior, and Tang.

 

7. You should have noticed when looking at artifacts from the Shang Dynasty, many of the metal objects are green. These are made of bronze, a mixture of copper and tin. At one time they were shiny and more copper colored. But over time, copper turns green. What color is the Statue of Liberty? She is made of copper, and time has changed her color. Try this experiment and turn some copper pennies green: https://www.steamsational.com/turning-a-penny-green/

 

8. World History Reading:

·         Theseus Battling the Minotaur, a graphic myth by Jeff Limke and John McCrea. Preview this one, it has a couple of things you might want to take out, but my boys love the graphic novel type books, and this is their favorite.

·         OR Theseus and the Minotaur told by Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden. This one is easy chapter book style and keeps the tale pretty PG.

·         In Search of Knossos by Giovanni Caselli, very informative illustrations, focused on the archaeological past of this city on Crete and what we have learned from the discoveries there.

·         Time-Life Student Library Ancient Civilizations 3000 BC – AD 500, p. 76-77


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