Sixth grade students will study the first part of a two year course on the ancient and present world outside of the United States. Following our first unit of study, building geography skills, students will study prehistory, the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, the Middle East, Sub Saharan Africa, and South America. Taking this continent-by-continent approach, students will analyze the role geography played on the development of civilizations, examining the historical context of each continent. Students will partake in a variety of of informative, narrative and argumentative writing assignments throughout the school year.

MA Frameworks:

Geography

• 1. Use map and globe skills learned in prekindergarten to grade five to interpret different kinds of projections, as well as topographic, landform, political, population, and climate maps. (G)

• 2. Use geographic terms correctly, such as delta, glacier, location, settlement, region, natural resource, human resource, mountain, hill, plain, plateau, river, island, isthmus, peninsula, erosion, climate, drought, monsoon, hurricane, ocean and wind currents, tropics, rain forest, tundra, desert, continent, region, country, nation, and urbanization. (G)

• 3. Interpret geographic information from a graph or chart and construct a graph or chart that conveys geographic information (e.g., about rainfall, temperature, or population size data). (G)

• 4. Explain the difference between absolute and relative location and give examples of different ways to indicate relative location for countries or cities across the world. (G)

• 5. Identify how current world atlases are organized and the kind of information they provide for each continent and country. (G)

• 6. Identify what time zones are, when and how the precise measurement of longitude was scientifically and historically determined, the function and location of the international date line, and the function of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, and give examples of differences in time in countries in different parts of the world. (G)

• 7. Use the following demographic terms correctly: ethnic group, religious group, and linguistic group. (G)

MA Frameworks:

Physical and political geography and indigenous populations of Central America and the Caribbean Islands

44. On a physical map of the world, use cardinal directions, map scales, key/legend, and title to locate South America and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. On a map of South America, locate important physical features of the region (e.g. Isthmus of Panama, Andes Mountains, Cape Horn, Amazon River, and the southern, northern, eastern, and western regions of South America). Use other kinds of maps (e.g., landform, population, climate) to determine important characteristics of this region.

45. On a political map of the region, demonstrate map reading skills to distinguish countries, capitals, and other cities and to describe their absolute location (using latitude and longitude coordinates) and relative location (relationship to other countries, cities, or bodies of water); use knowledge of maps to complement information gained from text about a city, country or region.

46. Explain how absolute and relative locations, major physical characteristics, climate and natural resources in this region have influenced settlement patterns, population size, and economies of the countries.

47. Describe the culture and way of life of the indigenous populations of the region (e.g., Carib [Antilles and South America], Taino [Cuba, Trinidad, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico], Lenca [Honduras], Miskito [Nicaragua], Huatares and Chorotegas [Costa Rica], Lokono, also known as Arawak [Trinidad and Tobago]).

Physical and political geography of South America

48. On a physical map of the world, use cardinal directions, map scales, key/legend, and title to locate South America and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. On a map of South America, locate important physical features of the region (e.g. Isthmus of Panama, Andes Mountains, Cape Horn, Amazon River, and the southern, northern, eastern, and western regions of South America). Use other kinds of maps (e.g., landform, population, climate) to determine important characteristics of this region.

49. On a political map of the region, demonstrate map reading skills to distinguish countries, capitals, and other cities and to describe their absolute location (using latitude and longitude coordinates) and relative location (relationship to other countries, cities, or bodies of water); use knowledge of maps to complement information gained from text about a city, country or region.

50. Explain how absolute and relative locations, major physical characteristics, climate and natural resources in this region have influenced settlement patterns, population size, and economies of the countries.

Major ancient societies in Central America and South America, c. 1400 BCE-1600 CE

51. Research and report on one of the major ancient societies that existed in Central America (Maya, Teotihuacán, and other civilizations such as the Olmec, Toltec, and Zapotec), or one of the major pre-Columbian Andean civilizations (Chavín, Moche, Nazca), their locations, and their cultural characteristics.

MA Frameworks:

1. Explain how different academic fields in the social sciences concentrate on different means of studying societies in the past and present.

2. Give examples of ways in which a current historical interpretation might build on, extend, or reject an interpretation of the past.

3. Give examples of how archaeologists, historians, geographers, economists, and political scientists work as teams to analyze evidence, develop hypotheses, and construct interpretations of ancient and classical civilizations.

4. Describe the great climatic and environmental changes that shaped the earth and eventually permitted the growth of human life.

5. Identify sites where archaeologists have found evidence of the origins of modern human beings and explain current theories of how human groups moved from Africa over time into the continents now known as Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania. Give examples of how ongoing archaeological research adds new data that changes interpretations of how migrations and habitation sites are dated.

6. Explain that the term Paleolithic Era refers to the period of earliest human history, beginning c. 2.6 million years ago to c, 11,700 years ago, characterized by the first use of stone tools, fire, hunting and gathering weapons, and, about 50,000 years ago, by cave painting, sculpture, tools, and artifacts using diverse materials such as bone, shell, stone, mineral pigments, and wood).

7. Explain that the term Neolithic Era refers to the period beginning about 10,000 years ago to c. 4500 or c. 2000 BCE in different parts of the world, in which the technologies of agriculture (growing crops and the domestication of animals) and metallurgy (mining and working of metals) were invented and refined, and in which complex societies begin to appear.

8. Explain how complex societies that practice agriculture may differ, some developing into permanently settled communities, some being nomadic and moving livestock from place to place, some cultivating land temporarily and moving to another location when a plot of land is no longer productive.

9. Explain that scholars have attempted to define the characteristics of a complex society (sometimes called “civilization”) since the early 20th century, and although debates are ongoing, many cite these characteristics:

an economy that produces food surpluses

dense populations in distinct areas or cities

stratified social classes

specialized occupations

developed systems of government, religion, and learning

achievements in technology, art, and monumental architecture

systems of record keeping, either written or oral

10. Explain the ways in which complex societies interact and spread from one region to another (e.g., by trade, cultural or linguistic exchanges, migration, religious conversion, conquest, or colonization).

11. Construct and interpret a timeline that shows some of the key periods in the development of human societies in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Eras. Use correctly the words or abbreviations for identifying time periods or dates in historical narratives (decade, age, era, century, millennium, CE/AD, BCE/BC, c. and circa). Identify in BCE dates the higher number as indicating the older year (that is, 3000 BCE is earlier than 2000 BCE).

MA Frameworks:

Physical and political geography of Sub-Saharan Africa

37. On a map of the world, locate the continent of Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea. On a map of Africa, locate the northern, eastern, western, central, and southern regions of Africa, the Sahara Desert, Mount Kilimanjaro, the Cape of Good Hope, the Great Rift Valley, Lake Victoria). Use other kinds of maps (e.g., landform, population, climate) to determine important characteristics of this region.

38. On a political map of the region, demonstrate map reading skills to distinguish countries, capitals, and other cities and to describe their absolute location (using latitude and longitude coordinates) and relative location (relationship to other countries, cities, or bodies of water); use knowledge of maps to complement information gained from text about a city, country or region.

39. Explain how absolute and relative locations, major physical characteristics, climate (including drought and desertification), and natural resources in this region have influenced settlement patterns, population size, and economies of the countries.

• Selected Sub-Saharan African states and societies, c. 100-1000 CE

40. Identify the location, sources of wealth, and importance of the Kingdom of Axum (c. 100-940 CE); explain the role it played in the adoption of Christianity in Ethiopia and the role east African societies played in the spread of Islam to South Asia,

41. Explain the pivotal role Swahili coastal societies along the Indian Ocean played in linking trade networks between interior Africa and maritime routes along the coasts of Central and South Asia, and connecting to China; identify key goods in this trade (e.g., gold, ivory, iron, slaves from Africa, and cloth, glass beads, and porcelain from Asia).

42. Identify the locations, sources of wealth and importance of West African cities and empires, including the city of Timbuktu (beginning c.5^th century CE), and the empire of ancient Ghana (beginning c. 700 CE).

Clarification statement: Students will study the later empires of ancient Mali and Songhai in World History I.

43. Explain the pivotal role these societies played in the trans-Saharan trade, the spread of Islam, and trade with North Africa, Europe, West Asia in gold, ivory, and slaves and the contributions of these societies to the modern world.

MA Frameworks:

• Physical and political geography of modern Western Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa

12. On a physical map, use cardinal directions, map scales, key/legend, and title to locate important physical features of the region (e.g. the Indian Ocean, the Black Sea, Aegean Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Arabian Peninsula, the Persian Gulf, the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates Rivers, the Strait of Gibraltar, the Bosporus, and the Suez Canal). Use other kinds of maps (e.g., land-form, population, climate) to determine important characteristics of this region.

13. On a political map of the region, demonstrate map reading skills to distinguish countries, capitals, and other cities and to describe their absolute location (using latitude and longitude coordinates) and relative location (relationship to other countries, cities, or bodies of water); use knowledge of maps to complement information gained from text about a city, country or region.

14. Explain how absolute and relative locations, major physical characteristics, climate and natural resources in this region have influenced settlement patterns, population size, and economies of the countries.

Western Asia, the Middle East and North Africa:

Mesopotamia, c. 3500-1200 BCE

15. Explain how the presence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers contributed to the development of agriculture and ancient complex societies; explain why historians have called the region that surrounds these rivers “the Fertile Crescent.”

16. On a map of archaeological sites in the region, and identify the locations and time periods of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians as successive states and empires.

17. Describe how irrigation, mining and metalsmithing, agriculture, the domestication of animals, and inventions such as the wheel, the sail, and the plow contributed to settlement and the growth of Mesopotamian civilizations.

18. Analyze the important characteristics and achievements of early Mesopotamia.

a complex society with rulers, priests, soldiers, craftspeople, farmers, and slaves

a religion based on polytheism (the belief in many gods)

monumental architecture (the ziggurat) and developed art (including large relief sculptures, mosaics, carved cylinder seals)

cuneiform writing, used for record keeping tax collection, laws and literature

the first epic (the Epic of Gilgamesh) and the first set of written laws (the Code of Hammurabi, for example, “If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.” [An eye for an eye]).

MA Frameworks:

• Ancient Egypt, c. 3000-1200 BCE

19. Identify the locations of ancient Upper and Lower Egypt and ancient Nubia; and explain what the terms “Upper” and “Lower” mean in this context.

20. Describe the significance of the Nile River to ancient Egyptians.

21. Analyze the kinds of evidence that have been used by archaeologists and historians to draw conclusions about the social and economic characteristics of ancient Nubia (the Kingdom of Kush) and their relationship to the characteristics of ancient Egypt.

22. Analyze the role of the pharaoh as god/king, and describe how pharaohs were represented in painting and sculpture, the concept of dynasties, and significant acts of at least one pharaoh or queen (e.g., Khufu, Akhnaten, Ramses II, Nefertiti, Cleopatra).

23. Describe the relationships among social classes (e.g., the relationship of the pharaoh to priests, nobles, government officials, soldiers, scribes, artisans, farmers, and peasants, laborers, and slaves).

24. Describe the polytheistic religion of ancient Egypt with respect to beliefs about death, proper behavior, the afterlife, mummification, and the roles of deities.

25. Summarize important achievements of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms (e.g., the agricultural system; knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, the invention of a calendar; the invention of papyrus and hieroglyphic writing; the organization of monumental building projects such as the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza; the centralization of government and military power).

MA Frameworks:

• Ancient Phoenicia, c. 1000-300 BCE

26. On a map of the ancient Mediterranean world, locate Greece, Asia Minor, Crete, Phoenicia, the Aegean and the Red Sea.

27. Explain how the location of Phoenicia contributed to its domination of maritime trade in the Mediterranean from c. 1000-300 BCE.

28. Describe how the alphabetic Phoenician writing system differed from Mesopotamian cuneiform or Egyptian hieroglyphic writing; explain how Phoenician maritime traders contributed to the spread of the use of the alphabetic system, which eventually evolved into the Greek alphabet and then into letter symbols used in other languages.

Ancient Israel, Palestine, c. 2000 BCE -70 CE

29. On a historical map of the Mediterranean, locate Asia Minor, Greece and Mesopotamia, the kingdoms of the Hittites and ancient Israel and Palestine and ancient Egypt.

30. Trace the migrations of the ancient Israelite tribes from Mesopotamia to the land called Canaan, and explain the role of Abraham and Moses in Hebrew history.

31. Describe the history of ancient Israel and early Christianity:

monotheistic religion (e.g., the belief in one God, the Ten Commandments, the emphasis on individual worth and personal responsibility, the belief that rulers and the ruled must adhere to the same moral obligations)

the Hebrew Bible’s accounts of the history of early Israel: the unification of the tribes of Israel under Saul, David, and Solomon; the founding of Jerusalem as capital city by David (c. 1000 BCE), the building of the first temple by Solomon (c. 900-800 BCE), the destruction of the first temple (c. 400 BCE), the annexation of Judea by the Roman Empire and the Roman destruction of the second temple (c. 70 CE).

the emergence of Christianity as a distinct religion, with roots in Judaism, but increasingly diverse followers throughout the Roman Empire and the relationship of early Christians to the officials of the Roman Empire.

the central features of Christianity (e.g., the belief in a messiah who could redeem humans from sin, the concept of salvation, the belief in an Old and a new Testament in the Bible, the life and teachings of Jesus.)

The ancient Arabian Peninsula (7^th century CE)

32. On a map of the Arabian Peninsula, identify the Red Sea and the cities of Mecca and Medina as the sites of the beginning of the Muslim religion.

33. Explain Islam’s historical relationship to Judaism and Christianity as monotheistic religions.

34. Describe the life and teachings of Muhammad (570-c. 632 CE) and the significance of the Qur’an as the primary source of Islamic belief.

Interactions among ancient societies in Western Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East

35. Describe the impact of encounters through trade, cultural exchange, and conquest among the societies and empires in the region, in particular, exchanges on land routes of the Silk Roads linking Europe, the steppes of West Asia, East Asia, and Africa, and the goods, languages, and cultural motifs exchanged (e.g., gold, ivory from Africa, grain from Western Asia, produce, horses, livestock, wood, furs from the steppes, ceramics, silk, and other luxury goods from China).

36. Use information from primary and secondary sources to research contributions of one of the ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Phoenician, Israelite, Islamic, and Eurasian societies to the modern world.