Week 1: The Stone Age Cradle 5000 BC
Ancient History Resources for Homeschool and Personal Study. This weeks topics: Nubia, The Vinca Culture, Horses, China, Meso-American Paleo Indians and the Aborigines of Australia
Ancient History is studied through the collection of archeological evidence, written records and oral stories or myths. Just because evidence shows a particular belief or custom was common at a particular time does not mean that everyone in that civilization shared that belief. When you study the topics for this week, you can either go deep on one topic for the week and skip the others or you can do a new topic each day. This outline is just a suggested pace, you can go slower or faster as needed. This outline is intended to provide you with a place to start. You will still need to do your own research.
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| Mount Meru |
Homeschool Topics for Week 1
Nubia
The Vinca Culture
The Domestication of Horses
China
Meso-American Paleo Indians
Aborigines of Australia
Discussion Questions
Nubia
Who are the Cushites? These are inhabitants of the land of Cush in the Southern ares of ancient Nubia
What is the Sahel corridor? The Southern edge of the Sahara through which early populations moved West across Africa
Who is Baatsi? The God that created humans
How did the stories of our humanity come to be? Anansi the Spider saved the day.
The Vinca Culture
What part of Europe contains evidence of the Vinca culture?
This civilization is matrifocal meaning women have the moral authority, social privilege and leadership roles.
There is a mix of hunting, gathering and animal husbandry. What animals were raised by people of the Vinca culture?
The Domestication of Horses
Are there similarities between a Tarpan (which is a wild horse) and a North American Mustang (which is a feral horse)? The link shows the coloring of a North American Mustang with the Dun Allele
China
Why was Jiahu's ancient settlement surrounded by a moat? To prevent flooding
Ancient writing from Jiahu, China or the Vinca culture has not been deciphered. Check it out here.
The Meso-American Paleo Indians
The Cochise Nomadic Tribes were settled down to farm maize in Mexico. What is maize?
The Chumash Tribe settle the California coast
Aborigines of Australia
Who are the Aborigines?
What is the dingo and why does it lead anthropologists to assume there was contact between civilizations?
Books (all links go to Goodreads)
Videos
Baatsi, the creator, made the first human being out of clay, skin, and blood.
He told man that he could eat the fruit of any but the tahu tree. After Baatsi became old and went to heaven, his children continued to obey his rule. Then, when they grew old, they followed the pattern of Baatsi and went to heaven. But there was a pregnant woman who very much wanted to eat the fruit of the tahu tree. When she asked her husband to get some of the fruit for her, he refused. But she insisted, and in the end her husband went to the forest at night and picked the forbidden fruit. He hid the peelings of the fruit in the forest, but the moon, seeing all, informed Baatsi. This made God so angry that, as a punishment, he sent death to mankind.
2. Discuss Chumash creation myths and compare them with African ones.
3. Free EdSitement Lesson Plan
3. Discuss ancient Aboriginal wisdom for fire management of the landscape. See worksheet below.
4. Draw your own cave art on colored card stock with white or colored gel pens. If you buy a blank notebook from a craft store with black pages, you can use it when I refer to future drawings in the Ancient History lessons.
