ERA 2:

EARLY CIVILIZATIONS AND THE EMERGENCE OF PASTORAL PEOPLES, 4000-1000 BCE

Giving Shape to World History

When farmers began to grow crops on the irrigated floodplain of Mesopotamia in Southwest Asia, they had no consciousness that they were embarking on a radically new experiment in human organization. The nearly rainless but abundantly watered valley of the lower Tigris and Euphrates rivers was an environment capable of supporting far larger concentrations of population and much greater cultural complexity than could the hill country where agriculture first emerged. Shortly after 4000 BCE, a rich culture and economy based on walled cities was appearing along the banks of the two rivers. The rise of civilization in Mesopotamia marked the beginning of 3,000 years of far-reaching transformations that affected peoples across wide areas of Eurasia and Africa.

The three standards in this era present a general chronological progression of developments in world history from 4000 to 1000 BCE Two major patterns of change may be discerned that unite the developments of this period.

• Early Civilizations and the Spread of Agricultural Societies:

Societies exhibiting the major characteristics of civilization spread widely during these millennia. Four great floodplain civilizations appeared, first in Mesopotamia, shortly after in the Nile valley, and from about 2500 BCE in the Indus valley. These three civilizations mutually influenced one another and came to constitute a single region of intercommunication and trade. The fourth civilization arose in the Yellow River valley of northwestern China in the second millennium BCE. As agriculture continued to spread, urban centers also emerged on rain-watered lands, notably in Syria and on the island of Crete. Finally, expanding agriculture and long-distance trade were the foundations of increasingly complex societies in the Aegean Sea basin and western Europe. During this same era, it must be remembered, much of the world's population lived in small farming communities and hunted or foraged. These peoples were no less challenged than city-dwellers to adapt continually and creatively to changing environmental and social conditions.

• Pastoral Peoples and Population Movements:

In this era pastoralism -- the practice of herding animals as a society's primary source of food -- made it possible for larger communities than ever before to inhabit the semi-arid steppes and deserts of Eurasia and Africa. Consequently, pastoral peoples began to play an important role in world history. In the second millennium BCE migrations of pastoral folk emanating from the steppes of Central Asia contributed to a quickening pace of change across the entire region from Europe and the Mediterranean basin to India. Some societies become more highly militarized, new kingdoms appeared, and languages of the Indo-European family became much more widely spoken.

Why Study This Era?

• This is the period when civilizations appeared, shaping all subsequent eras of history. Students must consider the nature of civilization as both a particular way of organizing society and a historical phenomenon subject to transformation and collapse.
• In this era many of the world's most fundamental inventions, discoveries, institutions, and techniques appeared. All subsequent civilizations would be built on these achievements.
• Early civilizations were not self-contained but developed their distinctive characteristics partly as a result of interactions with other peoples. In this era students will learn about the deep roots of encounter and exchange among societies.
• The era introduces students to one of the most enduring themes in history, the dynamic interplay, for good or ill, between the agrarian civilizations and pastoral peoples of the great grasslands.

What Students Should Understand

Standard 1: The major characteristics of civilization and how civilizations emerged in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus valley.

A. How Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley became centers of dense population, urbanization, and cultural innovation [CORE]

B. How commercial and cultural interactions contributed to change in the Tigris-Euphrates, Indus, and Nile regions [RELATED]

Standard 2: How agrarian societies spread and new states emerged in the third and second millennia BCE

A. The emergence of civilization in northern China [CORE]

B. How new centers of agrarian society arose in the third and second millennia BCE [RELATED]

Standard 3: The political, social, and cultural consequences of population movements and militarization in Eurasia in the second millennium BCE

A. How population movements from western and central Asia affected peoples of India, Southwest Asia, and the Mediterranean region [CORE]

B. The social and cultural effects that militarization and the emergence of new kingdoms had on peoples of Southwest Asia and Egypt [CORE]

C. The expansion of urban society in the Aegean region in the era of Mycenaean dominance [RELATED]

1. The development of new cultural patterns in northern India [RELATED]

STANDARD 1

Students Should Understand: The major characteristics of civilization and how civilizations emerged in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus valley.

Students Should Be Able to:

1A Demonstrate understanding of how Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus valley became centers of dense population, urbanization, and cultural innovation in the fourth and third millennia BCE by:

5-12 Analyzing the various criteria that have been used to define "civilization" and explaining fundamental differences between civilizations and other forms of social organization such as hunter-gatherer bands and Neolithic agricultural societies. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

5-12 Analyzing how the natural environments of the Tigris-Euphrates, Nile, and Indus valleys shaped the early development of civilization. [Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas]

5-12 Comparing the character of urban development in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus valley, including social hierarchy, occupational specialization, and differentiation of the roles of men and women. [Compare and contrast differing values and institutions]

5-12 Comparing the forms of writing that developed in the three civilizations and how written records shaped political, legal, religious, and cultural life. [Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas, values, and institutions]

7-12 Comparing the development of religious and ethical belief systems in the three civilizations and how they legitimized

the political and social order. [Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas]

9-12 Analyzing the character of government and military institutions in Egypt and Mesopotamia and ways in which central

authorities commanded the labor services and tax payments of peasant farmers. [Consider multiple perspectives]

9-12 Describing architectural, artistic, literary, technological, and scientific achievements of these civilizations and relating

these achievements to economic and social life. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 1A include:

• Create a list of the defining characteristics of a "civilization." At what point in their development could Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Indus valley societies be called "civilizations" according to these criteria?
• Analyze some of the Indus valley seals. What can you infer about life in the Indus valley from these seals?
• Locate the Tigris-Euphrates, Indus, and Nile river valleys on a map. Compare the geographic features of these valleys using maps, photographs, and other appropriate pictorial sources. Identify common features that affect agriculture and food supplies. Why did agriculture develop near rivers that flooded?

Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 1A include:

• Research the technology for flood control and irrigation in the Nile and Tigris-Euphrates valleys. How did irrigation ensure a reliable food supply? Why did large-scale irrigation projects require more complex political and administrative organization?
• Create a skit entitled "A Day in the Life of Ur," and role-play characters such as ruler, priest, warrior, scribe, artisan, farmer, merchant, slave, mother, and father. Characters must explain why they are important to the overall economic and social welfare of the city.
• Read selections from the Epic of Gilgamesh and show how this story of a hero-king reflects ancient Mesopotamian religious and cultural values.
• Analyze a description of Mohenjo-Daro. What evidence is there that Mohenjo-Daro was a planned community? Why did the people develop such extensive plumbing? What do you think were the purposes of the buildings of the citadel?
• On a map plot the places where the Indus valley cities have been discovered. Compare the size of the Indus valley civilization with the sizes of Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations. How do you think the Indus leaders influenced such a large area?

Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 1A include:

• Draw upon selections from the Code of Hammurabi to analyze what it suggests about ethical values, social hierarchy, and attitudes toward and roles of women in Mesopotamia. How does the Mesopotamian value system compare with modern American ethical and legal standards?
• Using stories such as the Biblical account of creation in Genesis and the Enuma Elish from Babylon, compare and contrast the different beliefs these stories reflect.
• Draw on historical evidence to role-play a lesson given to a teenager by a Sumerian or Egyptian scribe, explaining the principles of their script and why learning it is important.
• Construct a theory to account for why early Egypt united into a kingdom under one ruler, whereas early Mesopotamia was a battleground of competing city-states; and find evidence to support the theory.
• Compare and contrast Mesopotamian ziggurats and Egyptian pyramids. What economic and social preconditions had to exist to make their building possible? What motives impelled their building? What difference did they make to the lives of those who ordered them built and those who actually labored in the building process?
• Examine the way the Indus people laid out and constructed their cities. What does this evidence suggest about their government and values? What kind of centralized control would be required to build and maintain these cities?

Students Should Be Able to:

1B Demonstrate understanding of how commercial and cultural interactions contributed to change in the Tigris-Euphrates, Indus, and Nile regions by:

5-12 Analyzing the importance of trade in Mesopotamian civilization of the fourth and third millennia and describing the networks of commercial exchange that connected various regions of Southwest Asia. [Interrogate historical data]

5-12 Assessing the importance of commercial, cultural, and political connections between Egypt and peoples of Nubia along the upper Nile. [Identify issues and problems in the past]

7-12 Tracing the network of trade routes connecting Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus valley in the third millennium and assessing the economic and cultural significance of those commercial connections. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 1B include:

• Analyze why Mesopotamian civilization was heavily dependent on trade. What products did Mesopotamians import, from where, and how were they imported? Compare Mesopotamian trade with Egyptian trade.
• Locate on a map of northeastern Africa the cataracts on the Nile River, the regions of Nubia and Kush, and the wind patterns in this part of Africa. From this information show how the geography and climate of the region affected trade in the Nile valley. What items were traded? What evidence is there for cultural as well as commercial exchanges?

Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 1B include:

• Trace on a map long-distance trade routes by land and sea connecting India, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. List goods traded along these routes and methods of record keeping and ownership. Why were these goods important to the different societies?
• Role-play a meeting of the king of Kush with an Egyptian official detailing plans for trade. What goods and tools will they trade? What will the methods of transport be?

Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 1B include:

• Gather evidence for fundamental inventions in Egypt, India, and Mesopotamia and hypothesize: In what ways might groups borrow aspects of culture from one another? What evidence is there that these three societies borrowed from each other? What effects might cultural innovations have on a receiving society? Why are foreign innovations sometimes rejected? What are some modern examples of both cultural borrowing and rejection?
• Prepare advice from an experienced Mesopotamian trader to his son in the third millennium BCE, including a map of trade routes and information about merchandise known to have been carried by others, transport, dangers, and possible religious or bureaucratic problems in the areas traders visited.
• Construct a chart showing the geographical features in Mesopotamia that encouraged trade with others (e.g., their lack of raw materials and their access to the sea) and those features that inhibited atrade (e.g., mountain barriers). Find evidence to decide whether the favorable features outweighed the unfavorable.
• Construct historical explanations for the shifting political relationship between Egypt and Nubia. How would you account for Egyptian conquests in Nubia?
• Using Indus seals and other archaeological and geographic evidence, develop an explanation of the type of boats the Indus people used, their navigational techniques, and trade routes.
• Gather evidence that people in the Indus valley were in contact with other areas of the world. What kinds of evidence are available? How wide was the Indus trading network?

STANDARD 2

Students Should Understand: How agrarian societies spread and new states emerged in the third and second millennia BCE.

Students Should Be Able to:

2A Demonstrate understanding of how civilization emerged in northern China in the second millennium BCE by:

5-12 Explaining the fundamentals of bronze-making technology and assessing the uses and significance of bronze tools, weapons, and luxury goods in the third and second millennia BCE. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

5-12 Comparing the climate and geography of the Huang He (Yellow River) valley with the natural environments of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus valley. [Clarify information on the geographic setting]

9-12 Describing royal government under the Shang Dynasty and the development of social hierarchy, religious institutions, and writing. [Evidence historical perspectives]

5-12 Inferring from archaeological or written evidence the character of early Chinese urban societies and comparing these centers with cities of Mesopotamia or the Indus valley. [Formulate historical questions]

9-12 Assessing the part that Chinese peasants played in sustaining the wealth and power of the Shang political centers. [Consider multiple perspectives]

Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2A include:

• Hypothesize how people might have first discovered copper and later created bronze. Write a short story or series of journal entries on your hypothesis. Why was the making and use of metal work important for humanity?
• Research the writing tools and writing surfaces, and the nature and uses of writing in early Chinese society. Compare with how writing was done and used in early Mesopotamia.
• Create a relief map of the Huang He (Yellow River) civilization. Discuss the natural environment of the civilization including its natural resources, and analyze how the environment influenced the civilization that arose there.
• Describe Shang ancestor worship. What attitudes toward the living and dead would ancestor worship encourage? How do Shang practices compare with the Egyptian concept of the afterlife?
• Having looked at pictures of Shang dynasty objects, make a list of all you can tell about people living in that place and time based on this evidence. What kinds of information about the lives of people who made and used the objects cannot be gained from the evidence of physical objects alone?

Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2A include:

• Examine illustrations of early Chinese inscriptions on oracle bones. Why did people write on these animal bones and undershells of tortoises? How has the deciphering of these inscriptions enriched our knowledge of Chinese history during the Shang period? How reliable are these inscriptions as a source of information about Shang China?
• Compare the climate and geography of the Huang He with that of the Tigris-Euphrates valley. How did environmental factors affect the way early civilization developed differently in these two areas?
• Examine maps illustrating the changes in the course of the Huang He. What challenges would these changes present to the Chinese people and their government?
• Examine Chinese bronze vessels to determine both their practical and ritual uses.

Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2A include:

• Look at a physical map of Eurasia and consider both geographical barriers and potential routes of communication between China and India or Southwest Asia. What evidence is there for cultural contacts between China and these other centers of civilization in antiquity?
• Compare the part that prevailing wind, current, and flooding patterns in the Nile, Tigris, and Huang He valleys played in influencing features of the civilizations
• Chart the similarities and differences between the military-religious leadership of the Shang kings and the divine kingship of the Egyptian pharaohs.
• Taking on the role of a Shang ruler, one of the king's noble vassals, a woman of the upper classes, a bonded peasant, and a slave, describe your rights and responsibilities and your relationship to those above and below you on the social scale.
• Gather evidence that the Chinese had developed settlements, sophisticated social cooperation to maintain flood and irrigation systems, and a written language before 1700 BCE. Write an essay presenting your findings.

Students Should Be Able to:

2B Demonstrate understanding of how new centers of agrarian society arose in the third and second millennia BCE by:

5-12 Describing the relationship between the development of plow technology and the emergence of new agrarian societies in Southwest Asia, the Mediterranean basin, and temperate Europe. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

7-12 Analyzing how an urban civilization emerged on Crete, and evaluating its cultural achievements. [Marshal evidence of antecedent circumstances]

9-12 Explaining the development of commercial communities in such Mediterranean cities as Byblos and Ugarit, and analyzing the cultural significance of expanding commercial exchange among peoples of Southwest Asia, Egypt, and the Aegean Sea. [Reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration]

5-12 Inferring from the evidence of megalithic stone building at Stonehenge and other centers the emergence of complex agrarian societies in temperate Europe. [Draw upon visual sources]

9-12 Analyzing evidence for the growth of agricultural societies in tropical West Africa and Southeast Asia in the second millennium BCE. [Interrogate historical data]

Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2B include:

• Using pictorial evidence and historical resources hypothesize how the invention and use of the plow, the bow and arrow, and pottery may have changed the life of humankind.
• Create an illustrated Venn diagram comparing the use of bronze in early civilizations with its use today. What metals serve as substitutes for bronze today?
• Assume the role of an archaeologist exploring King Tutankhamen's tomb. Compare the findings to those of other archaeological sites. What do the treasures from the tomb indicate about Egypt? What conclusions can be drawn about the life of the pharaoh?

Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2B include:

• Research the archaeological work of Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos and study a reconstruction of the palace and city. What do we learn of Minoan culture from Evans' endeavors?
• Play the role of a craftsman of Syria who is expert in making bronze swords. Explain to a group of apprentices the technological procedures of making these weapons. In what ways were bronze weapons superior to those made from stone?
• Defend or refute this statement: "The plow is the most important invention of early man." Compare its development and importance to that of pottery, the bow and arrow, and the wheel. In what ways may the plow and other inventions have led to the creation of different gender roles?
• Prepare a plan for the building of Stonehenge. How are the stones to be obtained, transported, and erected? How are the laborers to be recruited, provisioned for, and supervised? How will the enterprise be financed? How will the structure be used?

Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2B include:

• Drawing upon illustrations of Egyptian and Minoan murals and pottery, develop hypotheses on the nature and extent of cultural contact between these two civilizations.
• List objects found on Minoan sites that are known to have come from elsewhere, and Minoan wares found outside of Crete. On the basis of this list indicate on a map the places that were in contact with Minoan civilization, and hypothesize the influence of trade on the development of Minoan civilization.
• Create a map indicating the most important urban centers of Southwest Asia, Egypt, and the Aegean basin as of about 2000 BCE. What has archaeology revealed about the development of cities along the eastern Mediterranean coast, notably Byblos and Ugarit? In what ways did these cities form a commercial bridge between the networks of Southwest Asia, Egypt, and the eastern Mediterranean?
• From historical sources create a chart of important technological advances such as the bow and arrow, pottery, the wheel, weaving, the sail, bronze casting, the plow, etc., showing their possible sources, approximate time of introduction, and uses. What impact did these technologies have on the lives of the people who used them? On the social organization and on the political or economic power of the groups who used them?
• Research pictorial and written evidence on agriculture and agricultural societies in tropical West Africa. In what ways did agricultural developments stimulate the growth of societies in this part of Africa? Compare this development with that occurring in Southeast Asia at the same time.
• Gather evidence that rice was first domesticated in Southeast Asia, and trace the spread of rice cultivation throughout Asia.

STANDARD 3

Students Should Understand: The political, social, and cultural consequences of population movements and militarization in Eurasia in the second millennium BCE.

Students Should Be Able to:

3A Demonstrate understanding of how population movements from western and central Asia affected peoples of India, Southwest Asia, and the Mediterranean region by:

5-12 Defining pastoralism as a specialized way of life and explaining how the climate and geography of Central Asia were linked to the rise of pastoral societies on the steppes. [Analyze multiple causation]

7-12 Identifying the probable geographic homeland of speakers of early Indo-European languages and tracing the spread of Indo-European languages from north of the Black and Caspian seas to other parts of Eurasia. [Reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration]

5-12 Explaining the concept of kinship as the basis of social organization among pastoral peoples and comparing the structure of kinship-based societies with that of agrarian states. [Compare and contrast differing behaviors and institutions]

9-12 Describing major characteristics of economy, social relations, and political authority among pastoral peoples and analyzing why women tended to enjoy greater social equality with men in pastoral communities than in agrarian societies of Eurasia. [Identify issues and problems in the past]

9-12 Analyzing why relations between pastoral peoples and agrarian societies have tended to involve both conflict and mutual dependence. [Consider multiple perspectives]

Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 3A include:

• Define the term "kinship." Why was maintaining peace and harmony so important among pastoral people?
• Research the climate and geography of Central Asia. How would this kind of climate and geography lead to the formation of pastoral societies? What are the characteristics of this kind of society?
• Role-play either a representative of a pastoral or an agrarian society and create a mural showing several kinds of social relationships, marriage ties, and the role of women.

Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 3A include:

• Describe the climate and geography of the land mass of Central Asia and hypothesize why animal breeding enabled successful human adaptation to the steppe.
• Make charts of some of the major languages of the world today, including languages from Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic families. How can linguists tell that languages are related to one another? If two languages are related, does that mean that the speakers of those languages will necessarily share other aspects of culture?
• Research, as part of a group, Indo-European languages, and create a language tree with Indo-European as the "trunk" of the tree. Where are English and Spanish placed on this tree in relation to other languages? Name some languages spoken in the United States today that would not be on this tree.

Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 3A include:

• Construct a map showing the migrations of Indo-European language speakers from their homeland, showing approximate dates for arrivals in new locations, and adding an overlay map showing the distribution of Indo-European language speakers today.
• Drawing on historical information, create a conversation between a pastoral nomad woman and a man from a village of agriculturalists about what is expected of women and men in each of their societies.
• Draw on scholarly evidence to describe the characteristics of the relations between early herders and farmers. In what ways could relations between pastoral peoples and agrarian societies involve both conflict and mutual dependence?

Students Should Be Able to:

3B Demonstrate understanding of the social and cultural effects that militarization and the emergence of new kingdoms had on peoples of Southwest Asia and Egypt in the second millennium BCE by:

5-12 Analyzing ways in which chariot transport and warfare affected Southwest Asian societies. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

7-12 Analyzing the origins of the Hittite people and their empire in Anatolia and assessing Hittite political and cultural achievements. [Marshal evidence of antecedent circumstances]

7-12 Describing the spread of Egyptian power into Nubia and Southwest Asia under the New Kingdom and assessing the factors that made Egyptian expansion possible. [Analyze multiple causation]

9-12 Explaining the religious ideas of Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV) and assessing the viewpoint that Atonism was an early form of monotheism. [Interrogate historical data]

Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 3B include:

• Draw on visual data to explain how the invention of chariots affected transportation in Southwest Asian societies.
• Investigate the development of chariot warfare. In what ways were chariots both effective and ineffective weapons of war?
• Use a case study of the Hittites to describe how chariot transport contributed to the spread of new ideas and technology in Southwest Asia.

Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 3B include:

• Write entries in the "Who's Who" of Egyptian history describing the political and cultural achievements of Thutmose III, Ramses II, and Queen Hatshepsut. Based on their achievements, debate the question: Who should get "top billing"?
• As a military commander of the Hittite army, write an argument in favor of spending more of the revenues on chariots. Justify the argument with reasons historically known to be valid.
• Write epitaphs for Hatshepsut, outlining her achievements during the New Kingdom. Display epitaphs on a homemade obelisk.
• As a member of a group, develop a chart that graphically shows Egyptian expansion during the Old, Middle, and New kingdoms. These graphic representations can take the form of an illustrated time line, transparency overlay, or relief map and should include the factors that made expansion possible.

Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 3B include:

• Draw a map of the major states existing in Southwest Asia, Egypt, and the eastern Mediterranean in the later second millennium, and consider why the wars and diplomatic relations among these states probably represent the first era of "internationalism" in world history.
• Survey visual and written sources (e.g., The Iliad, Egyptian wall paintings, and Assyrian bas reliefs) and describe the effects of introducing chariot warfare onto the battlefield.
• Compare the accomplishments of Sargon and Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV), and evaluate which of them had a greater historical impact, giving reasons to justify the assessment.
• Create a chart showing the main features of Egyptian religious beliefs during the Old Kingdom; Akhenaton's beliefs; and Hebrew monotheistic beliefs. Then determine to what extent it would be accurate to describe Akhenaton as a "monotheist."

Students Should Be Able to:

3C Demonstrate understanding of how urban society expanded in the Aegean region in the era of Mycenaean dominance by:

5-12 Describing the political and social organization of the Mycenaean Greeks as revealed in the archaeological and written record. [Interrogate historical data]

7-12 Assessing the cultural influences of Egypt, Minoan Crete, and Southwest Asian civilizations on the Mycenaeans. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

9-12 Analyzing the impact of Mycenaean expansion and city-building on commerce and political life in the eastern Mediterranean. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 3C include:

• Assume the role of a Minoan visiting Mycenae. Write an account describing what you find different about Mycenaean society and lifestyle.
• Investigate how geography influenced the development of Mycenaean society.
• Draw upon selections from the Iliad, the Aeneid, and pictures of jars and red-clay portraits to retell the story of the siege of Troy.

Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 3C include:

• Read passages from the Iliad about the Mycenaeans and the Trojan War. Locate Mycenaean and Trojan areas on a map. Having investigated archaeological evidence for trade and warfare in these areas, and the successive levels of occupation at the site of Troy , write a critique of Homer's account.
• Show the cultural influences of Egypt, Minoan Crete, and Southwest Asian civilizations on the Mycenaeans by using pictures. Explain your reasons for assuming that the direction of the influence was toward Mycenae. How was the influence accomplished?

Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 3C include:

• Drawing on the physical evidence in Mycenaean shaft tombs, write a description of society, government, and trade in the second millennium BCE.
• Compare Mycenaean with Egyptian royal tombs. Hypothesize what these tombs suggest about class roles and the nature and role of government.
• Using descriptions by archaeologists, ground plans based on excavations, and pictures of remains and of reconstructions, compare Mycenaean fortresses with Minoan palaces. What conclusions about their respective societies may be drawn from this evidence? How does investigation of other available evidence support, modify, or negate your conclusions?

Students Should Be Able to:

3C Demonstrate understanding of the development of new cultural patterns in northern India in the second millennium BCE by:

7-12 Inferring from geographical and archaeological information why Indo-Aryan-speaking groups moved from Central Asia into India beginning in the second millennium. [Draw upon visual sources]

9-12 Analyzing possible causes of the decline and collapse of Indus valley civilization. [Hypothesizing the influence of the past]

9-12 Assessing the early political, social, and cultural impact of Indo-Aryan movements on peoples of North India. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 3D include:

• Look at slides or photos of the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro and research reasons why this city disappeared. What are some of the possible causes of the decline or disappearance of cities in history? How could changes in the environment have contributed to the fall of Mohenjo-Daro and other Indus cities?

Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 3D include:

• Hypothesize on the causes of Indo-Aryan and Mycenaean-speaking peoples' movements into India and the eastern Mediterranean. In what ways may these migrations be seen as a part of the patterns of movement of all Indo-European peoples?
• Drawing upon books such as A.K. Ramanijan's Folktales from India, examine the values that governed Indian society. How is the rigid varna system introduced by the Aryans reflected in these folktales?
• Develop a presentation of possible factors such as climatic, population, technological, or social changes that might have caused Aryan pastoral peoples to leave Central Asia. What might have pushed them from the steppes? What might have attracted them to the Iranian plateau and into the Indus valley?
• Hypothesize on what caused Aryans and Mycenaean-speaking peoples to move into India and the eastern Mediterranean. In what ways may these migrations be seen as a part of the pattern of movement of all Indo-European peoples? Should these movements be called a "chariot revolution"?
• Examine photographs and descriptions of excavations of Indus cities such as Mohenjo-Daro to determine what happened to these cities. What might have caused a decline in trade and overcrowding? Why were people left unburied in the streets?
• Analyze Rig Veda 10.90 to determine what the Aryans believed were the ideal divisions of society. What is the significance of the term "varna"? What privileges and restrictions were placed on the various varna?
• Select odes from the Vedas that praise the major Vedic gods -- Indra, Varuna, Soma, and Agni -- to determine important Aryan values.
• Retell the story of the conflict between the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Mahabharata. What does it suggest about tensions among Aryan tribes as they began to settle down in the Indo-Gangetic plain? Why did the cousins fight? Who ruled and what was the basis of a ruler's legitimacy?

Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 3D include:

• Analyze various Vedic hymns. What do they say about people's beliefs?
• Research the origins of the word "Aryan" and the peoples who came to be called Indo-Aryan. Based on works such as the Vedasn and Mahabharata, what was Aryan culture in India like? How was the term "Aryan" used by Nazis in the 20th century? Where were the implications of the Nazi definition? How did it differ from the way historians of early India used the term?
• Compare linguistic (shared vocabulary), literary (Vedas), and archaeological evidence for the way of life and beliefs of India's Aryan immigrants in the second millennium BCE, and assess what information is most reliably known.
• Hypothesize from historical information what factors (disease, famine, environment, invasion, etc.) led to the collapse of the Indus valley civilization. How does this decline compare with that of other peoples such as the Sumerians?
• Assess how reliable the Iliad and Odyssey and the Mahabharata and Ramayana are as sources of historical information about this period. How do historians determine to what extent these epics reveal information about the time period when they were first written down or the earlier time period during which the stories were set.