Discussion at a critical level
Questions:
Earliest Farmers
How would rituals associated with the burial of the dead and connections to ancestors be affected by the change in living patterns?
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNZRzKChn84&feature=youtu.be
https://www.smm.org/catal/top.php
https://www.thoughtco.com/abu-hureyra-syria-170017
Chiefs and Chiefdoms
What is different about the environment in the Pacific that made it so difficult to colonize and how was this overcome?
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF3AO_jTttg&feature=youtu.be
https://www.thoughtco.com/hopewell-culture-north-americas-mound-building-170013
https://www.nps.gov/history/seac/misslate.htm
https://cahokiamounds.org/
http://www.learner.org/interactives/collapse/chacocanyon.html
https://www.nps.gov/chcu/index.htm
State-Organized Societies
Was the Urban Revolution a ‘revolution,’ a ‘spark’ in the evolutionary process, or just the result of small, incidental changes in lifestyle? Do archaeologists agree on its causal factors?
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IESYMFtLIis&feature=youtu.be
http://www.learner.org/interactives/collapse/index.html
https://www.thoughtco.com/obsidian-volcanic-stone-tool-making-171999
https://www.thoughtco.com/obsidian-hydration-problematic-dating-technique-172000
http://www.obsidianlab.com/
Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean World
If you could travel through time and visit one of the cultures described in this chapter, which would you choose? Why? What do you find most intriguing about this culture? What questions would you like to ask it's members? What aspects of their lives make you pause, think, become nervous or uncomfortable? What role would you want to fill if you were a member of the culture? Why?
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4uuoHc6k9w&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq_5CLHuwZs&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJdpPMjXX3Q&feature=youtu.be
https://www.ancient-greece.org/art/minoan-art.html
https://www.thoughtco.com/eridu-iraq-earliest-city-in-mesopotamia-170802
Egypt and Africa
Which of the non-Egyptian ancient African cultures most intrigues you? Why? What do you find most interesting or surprising about this culture? What about this culture reminds you of your own or another culture? How are they similar or different?
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7cdmChqLdc&feature=youtu.be
https://discoveringegypt.com/pyramids-temples-of-egypt/step-pyramid-at-saqqara/
https://www.penn.museum/exhibitions/galleries-and-exhibitions/africa-gallery
https://www.penn.museum/sites/amarna/about2.shtml