History of the Ancient and
Medieval World
Prehistory: Culture and Civilization
Walsingham Academy
Mrs. McArthur
Room 111
Having Difficulty Finding
Our Stuff on SPA?
Black Ships Before Troy
Must have
by: Sept. 19
Barnes and Noble is stocking it
(while supplies last!)
Project*: Personalized Notebook
Create a personalized cover using DTP*: (front, back, spine) for your
history notebook. The components include:
•Personal information: your name, course title, school, year
•Visual Representation of each of the key themes presented in lecture
(notes) and summarized on your handout. Each visual must have a
clearly identifiable number.
•Key: identifying (explaining) the visual representations by theme.
•Your choices should reflect our subject and if possible your interests.
(Suggestion: look through the text for some ideas.)
*(Rubric and Extra Credit details on handout.)
Project Due Date: Friday, Sept. 9 (adjusted)
*DTP = Desktop Publishing (Use Word or PowerPoint)
Making Connections-Sample 1
From the 2 activities: M&M theory of time
management and History of the World in 7
Minutes, what conclusions do you draw
about the period of time we will be studying
in this course?
Hint: Think in terms of amount of and pace
of time.
Making Connections-Sample 2
Of the 7-minute History of the World, how
many seconds/minutes represent time that
will be covered in this course?
Hint: Be sure to refer to the course
description in the syllabus.
Making Connections-Sample 3
Why does the viewer of the 7-minute History
of the World have to wait a couple of
minutes before beginning a historical count
down?
Hint: Be sure to refer to the course
description in the syllabus. The video offers
its own explanation.
Student Sample Solution
Summary: 2 Ways to think about
Historical Time
• Relative Time -The video helped us understand that the
pace of change and information sped up with civilization.
However, this view of time is not proportional-each division
of “time” on the timeline is not of the same duration. In other
words, man’s presence in the video is not proportional to
his time on earth.
• Proportional Time - The M&Ms represent divisions of
time each of which is of the same duration as the next. This
allowed us to see that man’s role in earth’s existence is
both recent and a very small span of time compared with
earth’s age - a matter of “chocolate dust.” With this view it is
hard to see man’s accomplishments.
What is Culture*?
1. An integrated pattern of knowledge, behaviors,
beliefs that is transmitted from one generation
to the next - key part of defining what it means
to be a human being.
2. The specific aspects of culture are shared by
members of a human group-race, ethnicity,
religious or political group.
3. Behaviors include: language, religion, beliefs
and customs (traditions), lifestyle, art,
technologies, etc.
*Classroom Activity: 5 objects to identify and definitions of Social Scientists
Assignment 1
(1) Practice answering the questions (slides
5-7) about time.
(2) Read Understanding Our Past (handout)
(3) Read pp. 6-7 of text answering 3
questions posed on pp 7.
(4) Define the Social Sciences – See list on
following slide of PP show. (Use a
dictionary or go on-line)
Social Sciences: Interdependent
For each social science below, define by answering:
• What is it?
• Who does it?
• What do they do?
• Why do they do it?
Archaeology, Anthropology, History, Geography (See text’s definitions.)
(1) Psychology
(4)Sociology
(2)Economics
(3)Statistics
(5)Political Science
In-Class Activity: Read text, pp. 8-10
Assignment 2
1. Read text, pp. 11-15. Define blue-bold terms.
2. Read Photocopy: The Dawn of History
3. Take a Virtual Field Trip to Lascaux, France
Check it out!
Project Due Date: Friday, September 2
Lascaux
1. When and by whom were the caves
discovered
2. What period of culture do they reveal?
3. What were the caves thought to be used
for?
4. When and why were the caves closed?
Fact File
Approximately:
– 2,500,000 BCE - Old Stone Age (Paleolithic)
– 10,000 BCE - New Stone Age (Neolithic)
– 5,000 BCE - First Civilizations
What conclusions can one draw from these dates?
Anthropologists to have heard of:
– Louis, Mary and Richard Leakey (Olduvai Gorge,
Tanzania)
– Donald Johanson (“Lucy”)
For transcript, see text, pp. 4
Analyzing Success
Meet an Anthropologist
Donald Johanson
1. How did Johanson’s mother affect his life:
2. How did Johanson become interested in anthropology?
3. What words and details in the reading emphasize what an
anthropologist studies?
4. What aspects of Johanson’s personality do you think contributed to
his success?
5. Johanson and his colleagues thought that Ethiopia’s Afar triangle
showed promise as an anthropological site. What do you think
makes a site promising?
“Staging”: A Useful Tool
It is really hard to summarize man’s long
evolution.
We surmise that:
• it was gradual but…
• it spread across the globe at different rates and in
different ways at different times.
Social Scientists learn about this long period using
many indirect as well as direct methods.
The Neolithic Revolution
Some historians have argued that this step was
the most significant stage in man’s evolution
not rivaled until the Industrial Revolution.
1. How did the transition from nomadic life to
one of permanent settlement take place?
2. Why was this role crucial to the emergence
of civilization?
For transcripts, see text, pp. 11 and 17
Assignment 3
• Read text, pp. 17-23. Identify the blue-bold
terms.
• Auto-Test: Complete the chart on next
slide.
Project Due Date: Friday, September 2
Beginnings of Civilization
3
2
1
4
Civilization’s basic features
8
5
7
6
Civilization
• From Latin root civ- (city, civic, citizen, civil)
• Cities emerged as result of the Neolithic
Revolution in the Middle East about 5,000
years ago.
• The basic features of civilization are
interlocking and mark all civilizations.
• How are “culture” and “civilization” related?
Assignment 4
Complete project (4 pages: cover, spine,
back, key)
Remember our discussion about
technology and meeting deadlines!
No Homework over Labor Day Weekend!
First “Quest,” Wednesday, Sept 7!
Quest 1: Overview
Note: Bring colored Pencils
• Historical Time: In what 2 ways might a
historian express time? For what
purpose(s.)
• What is culture? How is it spread-across
time and place?
• Prehistoric Early Peoples: Paleolithic vs.
Neolithic
Quest 1: Overview, cont.
• Inter-dependence of social sciences:
(geography, history, anthropology,
archaeology, political science, economics,
statistics, psychology, sociology)
• What is civilization and how is it different
from culture?
10 themes of history (project) Not on Quest