Indus Valley Civilization

For the last unit of the semester, Eighth Grade Ancient History Scholars are exploring the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro on the Indus River.  Perhaps one of them will decode the unreadable Harappan script and unlock this fascinating culture.

  

Take a journey to an Indus Valley city by watching this short video.

Hammurabi's Law Code

Eighth Grade Ancient History Scholars Take a Field Trip to the Law Court of Babylon!
After studying Hammurabi, the great King of Babylon (1792-1750 B.C.E.), and his society, the scholars read his law code and created skits re-enacting some of the crimes committed.  They then received punishments as dictated by the Law Code.

Some of the "big ideas" which they encountered were:
    - these laws had to be harsh and include retaliation to stop the cycles of vengeance in the society (an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth)
    - many laws were designed to protect women and children in a patriarchal society
    - the society required respect for authority (Don't hit your father!) and held citizens accountable for their actions
    - sometimes the court had to recognize that some things were uncontrollable 
    - so many laws about farming and water rights show what was essential in order to survive in a harsh environment

The students have written summary paragraphs analyzing what we can learn about the Babylonian society from these laws.

     

Writing in Cuneiform

Using the earliest known complete alphabet system, called the Ugaritic alphabet, the 8th grade ancient history scholars used these fourteenth century BCE symbols to write a message about Mesopotamia on clay, or created a cylinder seal. They are not ready to give up their laptops.

The Standard of Ur

THE STANDARD OF UR: What was the role of women?  What did fashionable men wear?  What type of technology was used? Musical instruments? Did they take live captives after war? What was the social structure? After examining the artifact carefully and analyzing all images, the 8th Grade Ancient History scholars are writing a summary paper explaining their inferences about Sumerian society based upon the evidence found on this primary source. (Click on image to enlarge.)