Name:
Mr. Yellin’s Backwards History Investigation Project
You have spent the last month looking at what makes a civilization, how our geography influences the way we live, and most importantly, how we can learn about the past by investigating historical artifacts. During that time, you have also become expert Egyptologists. Now, you have the chance to get creative, show off your understandings about history, and learn about another ancient civilization that emerged after the Neolithic Revolution. You will be asked to design, write, or actually create an artifact from an ancient civilization. You will do much of the preparation and early steps of the project in groups, but each of you will be designing your own individual artifact and writing your own explanations of the artifact. In total, you will be:
1)
2)
Learning about a civilization that developed after the Neolithic
Revolution, other than Egypt
Learning about a specific aspect of that civilization and
3) comparing that to the way things worked in Egypt
Drawing, sculpting, writing, or otherwise creating an artifact that could teach a historian about this aspect of the civilization you are studying
Writing a short description of your artifact to explain its meaning 4)
The Civilizations and comparing it to Egypt
The Three Civilizations are: Yellow River (China), Indus River (India), and
Mesopotamia
The Roles are the 8 Features of Civilization:
Religion
Art
Architecture
Writing System

Government
Social Structure
Cities
Jobs
The Artifact
The artifact anything made or used by mankind. This means it can be a tool, a painting, a building, a diary, a poem, a story, a law, clothing, etc. Use your imagination and think of what kind of thing you would enjoy creating. Also make sure that you think about what type of artifact would best show off what you are trying to teach us about your civilization.
Your Description
Once you have your civilization and your feature, your job is to do your research to figure out what kind of artifact would help to teach modern day historians (and your classmates) about how that part of your river civilization works. Your artifact can be ANYTHING. Your description needs to contain three paragraphs:
1) A description of your artifact
2) An explanation of how your artifact represents the feature of civilization that you are researching
3) A comparison of how this feature compares to the same feature in
Egyptian civilization (e.g. Egypt has Pharaohs, but my civilization was ruled by a council of elders who made all legal decisions)
4) For bonus points, you can include a fourth paragraph explaining why or how this feature developed the way it did. You can explain it based on the geography, culture or other factors in the region.

Checklist: What you need to hand in on Wednesday, October 20 o Your artifact (a sculpture, model, drawing, painting, or writing) o Your description (type-written, with all the parts listed above) o Your planning chart (filled in with notes from your research) o Your museum walk sheet (you will get this on the last day of the project)
Artifact Project Calendar
Day 1, Tuesday October 12
In Class: Introduce project, answer any questions, split up into our three civilizations, begin our research and dividing up of roles
Homework: Read at least one source and take notes on your specific role in your civilization
Day 2: Wednesday October 13 th
In Class: Continue researching and start completing your “Planning Chart”
Due: Notes from at least one source in your planning chart
Homework: Finish your planning chart page 1, start thinking about your artifact
Day 3: Thursday October 14 th
In Class: Work on the comparison with Egypt and begin planning your artifact
Due: Completed planning chart page 1
Homework: Finalize what type of artifact you will create
Day 4: Friday October 15
In Class: Create our artifacts
Homework: Finish paragraph one of description, Plan paragraph 2 and 3
Day 5: Monday October 18
In Class: Creating your three-paragraph written description

Do Now: How does your artifact teach us?
Reminder on P2 and P3: P2- explain how it teaches us- name each detail and what it means
P3- Compare- similar? Different? Details.
Due: First paragraph of description
Homework: Finish and edit paragraphs
Day 6: Tuesday October 19
Do Now: What rules would you want if someone else was trying to read your work and help you edit?
Set norms and rules
Pair off and peer edit- Read first, Fill out sheet, Conference 1, Conference 2
In Class: Peer Editing
Debrief- The process; Superlatives
The next steps- preparing for Wednesday
Due: Entire Project
Day 7: Wednesday October 20
Do Now: What was your favorite part of this project? Hardest part? Evaluate your effort
In Class: Museum Walk
Due: Completed artifact, planning sheet, and description paragraphs (Typed)
Name:_______________________
Planning Chart
Civilization: _________________________________
Your Feature: ________________________________

How did your “Feature” work in your civilization? (For example, what were the different jobs people had or what type of religion did they have?)
Information/Research Sources (Where did you find your information?)
How do we know about this? What artifacts help us to learn about it?
What type of artifact could you create to teach us about this feature?

How did this same aspect work in Egypt?
Information Sources
Bonus: What factors do you think helped influence this Aspect?
Geographical Factors Cultural Factors Other Factors