Mesopotamia Unit, 2009

This was a challenging unit to put together. All of the books at the library had pretty much the same information, and none of it was very inspiring (or very high-level). Besides the Epic of Gilgamesh, the only literature I could find to read aloud was a short story about the Tower of Babel that I had cut out of Omni magazine ages ago! (It wasn’t totally relevant, but provoked lots of good discussion!)

Finally there was the question of the “whole to parts” approach. What does that look like for ancient history? I decided to begin this unit from an archeologist’s point of view—considering clues to the culture then adding each subsequent discovery to see the big picture. We didn’t study the religion, daily life, education, government, and other aspects of the culture separately, but considered them as we moved along the chronological history of the area. I specifically didn’t include much about Biblical history—except when it intersected that of Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria—because we are already familiar with those stories.

Following are my weekly plans. Throughout the unit each of the kids worked on a flapbook to record what he had studied. And one final note: the Spirit told me I needed to talk about Babylon in the scriptural sense (worldliness), not just in the historical sense. So we spent several days just on that.

Week 1
*Archeologists found one civilization on top of another in the Fertile Crescent.
Trace the clues to the existence of Sumer (ancient stories, clay tablets…).
Learn about discoveries and prominent archeologists (Wolley, Koldeway, Windler, Laird).
Standard of Ur—what are the pictures showing?

Other artifacts: clothing / tools / jewelry / sundials…
Try writing with a stylus in wet clay!

Vocabulary: ziggurat, cuneiform, tel

Tower of Babel
Read aloud “Tower of Babylon” by Ted Chiang (fun!)
Ziggurats related to astronomy and time-keeping

*Mesopotamia is called the “Cradle of Civilization.”
What makes a civilization?
Look at geography of the region

--Make a map of physical places and early cities.
Vocabulary: alluvial, delta, meso-potam-ia (related to the word hippopotamus!)
Babylonia = Shinar (Gen 10:10)—lower end of Tigris & Euphrates valley / city: Babylon
Assyria = Asshur—Tigris valley north of Babylonia / city: Ninevah
Sumer, Akkad, Ur

Week 2
*The Epic of Gilgamesh is Sumerian literature.
Read aloud. (It took about three days.)

*The Sumerians have many gods.
Identify diety—relationships, what they stood for, Sumerian vs.Babylonian names
Vocabulary: polytheism

Week 3
*City-states become empires
Mesopotamian government

Organization of society
Sargon of Akkad—first “empire”
Ur-Nammu—Third Dynasty of Ur
Hammurabi of Babylonia —written laws (Hammurabi’s Code)
Vocabulary: city-state

*Many nations, in turn, control the Fertile Crescent
Assyria (Senacherib), Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar), Persia (Darius)
Add to timeline.
Memorize poem “The Destruction of Sennacherib” by Lord Byron

Week 4
*Babylon has everything the World can offer.
city walls / Euphrates River / Ishtar Gate ….
Seven Wonders of the World—Hanging Gardens
Make watercolor paintings of the hanging gardens

*”Babylon” is the Lord’s symbol for worldliness.
actual city
Rome (Revelation / I Peter 5:13)
The World (D&C 1:16, 35:11, 64:24, 86:3, 133:14)
Sing “Ye Elders of Israel"

Timelines for Ancient History

How do you have your students make timelines when even the experts can’t decide on dates?

Over the years I have compiled my own list of people and events. I started with the Bible (beginning 4000 B.C.) and all the ages of the patriarchs. (That covers an amazing number of years!) From that, I got an approximate date for the Flood (2340 B.C.).

Here’s where things get tricky. The experts think that Mesopotamian culture got going around 3500 B.C. But mud bricks would never have made it through the Flood, so Sumer had to have started after 2340. Remember, though, that Noah’s family didn’t have to start their civilization from nothing. They were already accomplished artisans (they built an ark!), so they had a better head start than the experts suppose.

The Book of Mormon tells us that the Tower of Babel was in 2243 B.C.—a mere 100 years after the Flood. Many archeologists think it was part of Nebuchadnezzar’s great city, but I think that he probably just restored what was left of the original tower.

Egypt is another puzzle. Experts’ dates for the Old Kingdom are all before the Flood. (One book I read, however, indicated that Dynasties One through Three may have been mythological.) Could the pyramids have made it through the Flood? I’m pretty sure there would have been some evidence of water damage to them—so I’m betting that the whole thing started with Ham’s descendents. The Sphinx, however, does have water erosion! It must be much older, and has had the head re-carved several times (which is why it looks out of proportion).

Another Egypt question is the date that Moses led the Israelites out of bondage. I grew up watching The Ten Commandments and thinking it was Ramses that wouldn’t let them go. But the New Testament (Galatians 3:17) indicates that the Exodus was 430 years from the time of the Lord’s covenant with Abraham. That puts it about 1490--the 18th dynasty. (Ramses is the 19th.) I should add that the writers of the LDS Bible Dictionary don't agree with me, and put the Exodus during the reign of Pharoah Manephtah, almost 200 years later and 430 years after Joseph went to Egypt. I'm sticking with my dates though, because I think they make more sense!

My timeline is still being modified slightly, as I read and learn more. I'm sure it's not totally correct, but generally it has worked out well and given us a good idea of how things fit together.

Astronomy Unit, 2009

I’ve been asked to get more specific about my unit studies :o) While I do feel that you need to individualize your lessons for your family, I’m happy to share the details about our units.

Our astronomy unit this fall was really just an introduction—a prelude to this year’s study of ancient cultures, including their knowledge of the skies. I wanted to take some time, however, before the winter rains set in so we could see the night skies.

I tried to figure out how to approach astronomy in a “whole to parts” format and finally decided that I should start with what we can see, beginning with the sun and moon and their cycles. From there, we went to the stars. (We didn’t discuss the planets in this block; we’ll be doing that as part of our study of ancient cultures.) In my studying, I found numerous examples of connections between astronomy and religion. As stated in Genesis, there are lights in the heavens “to divide the day from the night, and … for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years”. I felt inspired that this was the approach I should take for my children, and it has been fascinating to learn what God has put into the skies!

There are many good resources available, but the most comprehensive (and free!) were numerous articles by astronomist John Pratt. He has a whole astronomy course on his website. We also found some wonderful lesson books (from a Little Garden Flower) which had alternating white and dark blue pages—just perfect for making pictures of the heavens!

As usual, I tried to identify about two key points each week, and plan activities around them.
Week 1

*The Sun’s path through our sky changes with the seasons.
--We pounded a post into the lawn next to our driveway, and marked the shadow of the post every hour.
--We drew pictures of the sun’s paths across the sky—low in the winter, high in the summer.
--We learned what the ecliptic is.

*The points of the earth’s orbit are the solstices and equinoxes.
--We looked at Earth's orbit around the sun, with the seasonal "cusps." Click here for some excellent graphics.
--We celebrated the fall equinox.

Week 2

*The Moon goes through phases in a 29.5-day cycle.
--We drew the phases of the moon and learned their names.
--We learned how the moon’s appearance and path changes with the sun.
--We observed the wonderful Harvest Moon!
--We discussed solar calendars and lunar calendars. The sun and moon are heavenly timepieces: 12 months like the hours, and 60 half days like 60 minutes on a clock.

*The first men landed on the moon on July 20, 1969 (40 years ago).
--We read a book about the early days of the space program and preparations for the moon landing.
--We listened to an actual recording of Walter Cronkite’s broadcast of that day.
--We watched the movie Apollo 13 (about a subsequent voyage to the moon).

Week 3
*Michaelmas was this week! (See more about it here.)
--We learned about the constellation Draco, the dragon.

*The constellations of the Zodiac tell of Jesus Christ.

--We learned that the Zodiac was shown to the prophet Enoch and this knowledge passed down through th

e ages. Every culture “saw” the same pictures on the ecliptic.
--We drew pictures of each constellation and its brightest stars.
--We read the stories of how each sign of the Zodiac is a symbol of Christ.

One last note: it’s helpful to have an astronomy reference book to show the arrangements of the constellations and identify the brightest stars. We used the book Astronomy by Ian Ridpath (a DK “Companion” book). I also like Find the Constellations by H.A. Rey, but I discovered that some of his drawings of the constellations are not the traditional pictures (which was important to our study!). For instance, Sagittarius is traditionally a centaur, but Rey makes him a Native American with a feather in his hair. So I couldn’t use Rey’s book as much as I would have liked.

Three weeks isn’t really enough time to get familiar with the night sky and how it changes, so we’ll continue to revisit astronomy topics as we study ancient cultures. I'm hooked!