Ancient Civilizations and Geography
Here are some skills and understandings for this study:
- Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyze ideas; and communicate findings and decisions
- explain how geographic conditions shaped the emergence of civilizations
- describe human responses to particular geographic challenges and opportunities, including climates, landforms and natural resources (past and present)
Here are a few Links to get you started:
10 Oldest Ancient Civilizations
Geography of Ancient Egypt
Ducksters Education Site
Mr. Donn’s Ancient History
Mr. Donn’s Ancient Geography
History of Civilization for Kids (Video)
Traits of Civilization (Video)
Ancient Civilizations and Geography – Five Themes of Geography
1. Location
Where was it?
- Absolute: A location can be absolute (specific) as in coordinates of a map using longitude and latitude
- Relative: A location can be relative – examples: where was it in relation to other places or… tell what is in that place today
2. Place
A place is an area that is defined by everything in it. All places have features that give them personality and distinguish them from other places.
For a civilization, what landforms or features are in that place that make it unique or different?
3. Region
A region is an area that is defined by certain similar characteristics. Those unifying or similar characteristics can be physical, natural, human, or cultural.
4. Movement
Movement refers to the way people, products, information and ideas moved from one place to another. This can be local such as how did people get to the market, the next town, over a mountain or across a river? It can be global such as how did people get to another continent?
5. Human-Environment Interaction
Human-environment interaction looks at the relationships between people and their environment. How did people adapt to the environment and how did they change it.
- How did people depend on the environment? (Example: In ancient times, the annual flooding of some rivers produced good soil for growing crops.)
- How did people adapt to the environment? (Example: Some ancient peoples rebuilt their homes each year because of annual flooding. What homes did they build? How did they eventually solve their problem?)
- How did people modify (change) the environment? (Example: Some people changed their environment to suit their needs for food, shelter, space and other.)
The final Project – Poster
For your project, make a poster:
MAP
Show natural features (water features, major land forms, land cover)
Show man-made features (towns, cities, waterways, travel routes)
Label your poster with names of places.
DRAWINGS AND CAPTIONS
Make handmade drawings of important places and activities. Include a caption that gives a simple description.
Include decorations that are symbolic of that civilization (symbols, letters or numbers, patterns used in art or clothing, etc)
Ancient China – Charis and Seanna, Ryan and Lucas
Mesopotamia – Yuxuan and Cindy
Ancient Egypt – River and Vivian, Lucky and Rachel
Roman Empire – Simon and Larry
Aztecs – Camille and Olivia
Mayans – Alan and Tristan
Ancient Greece – Tom and Anthony
Vikings – Alex and Oscar
Indus Valley – Avery and Andrew
Persia – Amanda and Madeline
Israel??? – Marianna and Rony
Japan – Mikage and Teresa
Korea – Mark