Week 3: The Wheel, the Plow and the Llama 3000 BC
Ancient History Resources for Homeschool and Personal Study. This weeks topics: The Wheel, Ur, King Menes, Otzi the Iceman, The Llama, Pyramids of El Paraiso and the plow.
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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| Primitive Wooden Wheel |
Homeschool Topics for Week 3
The Wheel
Ur and Uruk
King Menes Unites Egypt
Europe: Otzi the Iceman
The Llama
The Pyramids of El Paraiso
China: The Plow
Discussion Questions
The Wheel
What things in nature roll? rocks, seeds, pine cones, hedgehogs, armadillos, apples
Why do round things make movement easier across a hard surface?
Evidence of early wheels is found in lots of ancient civilizations. Wheels are inferred from the existence of turned symmetrical pottery in archeological records. One of the earliest Egyptian deities, Khnum, created humans from clay on a potter's wheel.
Ur and Uruk
Uruk
Uruk was a Sumerian city led by a priest-king and a council of elders. There is little evidence of war or professional soldiers. The towns of this time period did not have fortified walls. Trade is evident as artifacts of Uruk have been found as far away as the Taurus mountains in Turkey.
Pu-Abi
This Queen of Ur is famous for the royal headdress found in her tomb. Nothing else is known about her at this time
Abi-Simti
The wife and Queen of King Sulgi/Shulgi was described as a divine midwife, ideal woman and perfect mother. Of course, the king also glorified himself. Link to more about this and other Queens
Children in Ancient Sumer
Sumerian temples and palaces supported and employed children from society. These might be the children of slaves or prisoners of war, children of debtors, orphans and foundlings. They started working between the ages of five and seven. In this context, children were housed, fed and trained for a job. We don't know when children became "adults" but it is likely that a large portion of the population was under the age of 20. Click here to learn more about Children In Ancient Sumer.
Kids played games in Ancient Sumer. The games were usually made out of clay. Usually, the board games had pieces to them that either were thrown or moved around the board. The Sumerians are credited with the invention of the game checkers.
Toys that Sumerian kids enjoyed included bows and arrows, sling shots, boomerangs, throw sticks, spinning tops, rattles, jump ropes, hoops, and balls for juggling and other games. Kids played house using miniature pieces of furniture, beds, tables, stools, dolls, and small animals. They also had little model vehicles of carts and chariots with wheels that could be pulled on a string. They had miniature boats that could float.
King Menes Unites Egypt
King Menes became the first Pharaoh of the First Dynasty when he dominated in battle the Cushites of modern-day Ethiopia. His capital is Memphis but much of what we know about him was written much later. Menes enjoyed hunting and was supposedly attacked by his own hunting dogs and was saved by a crocodile. He may have died from a hippopotamus attack.
Europe: Otzi the Iceman
Otzi is one of the most interesting archeological finds dating to 3000 BC. Because of where he was found, we know what he was wearing, what he ate and how he died. I liked the artist depiction of his shoe. Would you be willing to make your own shoe?
The Llama
The llama was domesticated in South America but it was not physically suited to pull a wheeled cart or chariot. Because no other large herbivorous animals were domesticated, that we know of, the wheeled vehicle was not used in the Americas.
The Pyramids of El Paraiso
The Pyramids of El Paraiso were built around 3000BC. The purpose of these Pyramids is unknown as no burial sites or evidence of domestic use have been found on site. What has been found are remnants of cotton thread and evidence of exotic birds being kept at the temple.
China: The Plow
The Plow is attributed to China because their technology had advanced to be more efficient before other civilizations. Egyptians need 6-8 animals to pull a plow so they needed fields to feed those animals. The Chinese had improved the plough to only require one animal by 200 BC.
China domesticated and farmed rice possibly 6,000 BC.
Books (all links go to Goodreads)
Videos
See Pu-Abi's Headdress Up Close
Museum Tour: Otzi the Iceman
The Wheel
Activities
1. Make a headdress out of cardboard and paint.
2. Do an engineering project such as the one in this lesson plan
3. Compare the status of women in Sumer to today. Would you describe the ideal woman the same way they did?
4. Write a story about hunting a hippopotamus.
5. Research exotic birds of South America. Using colorful feathers from a craft store, make a special fan or object that could be used to impress others.
6. Play the Sumerian Game of Button Buzz. We call this game buzz button or button buzz because first you need to make a round circle out of clay. Put a hole in it as if you were going to use it for a necklace, and let it dry. Then hang it with a bit of rope, and, holding the rope at the very end, swing it around, faster and faster, until your clay disk makes a buzzing sound. The trick is to make the buzz sound as loud as possible. The kids of Sumer are just like modern kids. They love toys that made sounds. Source
7. Add a llama or a hippopotamus to your blank book with black paper.
Image Credit: John O'Neill / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain