Crossing the Empty Quarter Education Pack - Lesson: Early settlements
Lesson Summary:
Students will consider favourable settlement requirements and apply them to the
past.
Students will develop an appreciation of how archaeological finds enhance historical
knowledge.
Students will be expected to study evidence objectively to form considered
hypotheses.
RESOURCES
Flipchart paper
Markers
Artifacts/fossils (teacher’s, school’s, students’ own?)
Worksheet 1
Worksheet 2
Computer
Internet
Name
Grade
Period
Lesson Plan: Social Studies,
Language
Date
Class
Teaching Topic: Early settlements
1. To be able to consider favourable site factors that were Learning
conducive for early settlements. objectives
2. To be able to develop an appreciation of how archaeological (Maximum of
finds can enhance historical knowledge. three)
1. Can transfer knowledge of an ideal settlement site to past Success criteria
situations.
(Maximum of
2. Can look at evidence objectively to conclude what may have three)
occurred in the past.
Thinking Skills
1. Imagine you are early humans wandering the Starter
earth looking for the best place to settle and build a Activity
small camp.
2. Groups brainstorm all the basic things needed
for survival and taking care of a family group or
tribe.
3. List what an ideal landscape would need to
offer, for an ideal settlement. What natural
features would need to be present? What weather
would be ideal? Etc.
4. A spokesperson presents the group’s
conclusions on the ideal landscape for settlement
success. This could be illustrated with a labelled
diagram, picture, mind map, etc.
5. Vote on which landscape would be best.
Understanding –
sharing ideas
Target vocabulary, definitions and examples Main
Activities
1. The Outward Bound Oman (OBO), Crossing
the Rub’ Al Khali Expedition, will be scanning the
desert for any sign of previous human existence.
Part of their brief is to log any evidence of early
human life along their path, to add to the growing
wealth of scientific evidence in this area of study.
Ask: What data will the team be looking for? Elicit:
Bones, tools, ceramics, etc.
2. Elicit or teach, that these items are called:
artifacts.
3. Worksheet 1: Pairs devise definitions and think
of examples for the three categories of items the
OBO team are likely to come across on their
journey.
Applying – using
ideas in a new
way
Less able pairs can be given support in the form of
suggested answers that are in the wrong order
(Worksheet 1a). Pairs read, understand, and order
the definitions to match the category, and then
choose the examples to match.
Reading comprehension
1. Brainstorm: ‘Evidence of Early Humans in the
Arabian Peninsular’. What do you already know?
What do you want to find out? Record on
whiteboard.
2. Worksheet 2 - Reading Comprehension.
Read the first question only, and read the text,
answering this question.
3. Read questions 2-6, then re-read the text to
answer the questions.
1. Groups design, practise, and produce a 1-2 Plenary
minute news bulletin based on the learning from
this lesson.
2. Film it on a webcam, or a mobile phone.
3. Upload and play back to the class/another
class/school assembly. It could be shown at a
Parent Teacher meeting.
Analyzing –
finding evidence
to support a
theory
Creating –
designing
presentations
Worksheet 1
Items found in the Rub’ Al Khali
Examples
Definition
Noun
Artifact
Fossil
Others
Worksheet 1a
Tools, pottery, leather
products, statues…
Plant, animal and human remains from the
past, preserved in petrified form, a stone-like
material, over time.
Bones, teeth, excrement
from an animal or
human…
Things that were made by people from the
past.
Shells, bones, teeth,
excrement, insects, plant
bodies…
Plant, animal and human remains that have
survived by not changed into a new state.
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Worksheet 2
Evidence of Early Humans in the Arabian Peninsular
As you read the text, find the answer to:
1. Why did the early humans want to settle in Oman?
In 2011, amongst the Dhofar mountains in southern Oman, inland from the ocean,
archaeologists and geologists discovered ancient tools made by humans dating back
to the Middle Stone Age. This evidence suggests that early humans may have
migrated across the then shallow Red Sea and surrounding region, eastwards to the
Arabian Peninsular. They have dated these finds up to 106,000 years ago.
At first glance you may initially wonder why humans should want to migrate to the dry
deserts of the Middle East. However, at the time, Africa was in fact becoming
increasingly arid and these harsh desert conditions were forcing people to leave in
search of a more favourable environment in which to settle and live.
Climatic history says that 100,000 years ago, the lands of Oman and Yemen were
huge expanses of lush grasslands, with the necessary annual rainfall to keep them
flourishing and sustaining life. At this time in history, there was an impressive
network of rivers traversing the area. For an as yet undefined period, Southern
Arabia was in fact verdant with plentiful plant life to sustain animals both large and
small.
There was an important resource for early humans to utilise within the Dhofar
mountains; it was a high quality flint-like stone called chert, which these early
migrants used to make stone tools. These people were not fishing communities who
settled near the sea, they would have been hunters and gatherers, living near the
rivers in Southern Arabia.
The tools that were discovered in the Dhofar mountains were pieces with blades,
which have deliberate strikes to shape the chert into tools for hunting. Scientist have
only been able to find these chert tool artifacts, as any other remains from this time
would have been easily eroded by the sands and strong winds. Only artifacts such
as stone tools and petrified fossils can withstand harsh environmental conditions
over time.
Questions
1. What do historians call the period that dates back 100,000 years?
2. Why did early humans leave Africa?
3. Describe what the Arabian Peninsular would have looked like 100,000 years
ago.
4. How was it possible for people to cross the Red Sea at this time?
5. Explain how the chert tool finds show us how early humans lived.
6. Until the 2011 finds, it was thought that early humans migrated to Oman by
sea. How have these finds changed archaeologists’ and historians’ thinking?
7. The Outward Bound Oman team that are crossing the Rub’ Al Khali are
intending to add to the body of scientific data. In what ways do you think they
can do this on their journey?
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Internet links
Picture 1: Middle Stone Age Arabian Peninsular - rivers
From the Green Arabia Project
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2015/5/new-sites-on-the-trail-of-earlyhumans
Picture 2: Chert hunting tools of the Middle Stone Age
The British Explorers Research 2013 Empty Quarter: Lithic Artefacts from the
Empty Quarter
Jeffrey Rose, Director, Dhofar Archaeological Project, Ministry of Heritage
and Culture, Oman
Mark: can’t find the link anymore. Are we able to use this picture?