Environment and First Complex Societies

Slides: 

#6-Environment

Lecture:

  • September 25th at 10:30 am
  • Optional Lecture Reading, World History, Chapter 2, pages 42-61.

Age of Empires: India

Slides:

#7-Age of Empires India

Lecture:

  • September 27th at 10:30 am
  • Optional Lecture Reading, World History, Chapter 3, pages 62-84; 86-92; 98-100.

Assignments

Step #2 of the Research Assignment is due September 27th.

For more information, see: Step Two: Using Encyclopedias

Tutorials this week

Tutorials this week will focus on “The Agricultural Revolution”, “First Civilizations”, and “Environment and First Complex Societies.

Readings:

  • Virgina Hughes, “Were the First Artists Mostly Women?” (Chapter 1, Reading 1)
  • “Paleolithic and Neolithic Art from Europe, Africa, and Asia, c 15000-1000 B.C.E.” (Chapter 1, Reading 3)
  • “The Epic of Gilgamesh, c. 2700 B.C.E.)” (Chapter 2, Reading 2)
  • Enheduanna, “The Exaltation of Inana” (Chapter 2, Reading 4)
  • “Images from Hunefer’s Book of the Dead” (Chapter 2, Reading 7)

Questions to think about:

  • What do articles such as that about the First Artists tell us about the nature of history? How do such revisions fit with your own definition of History?
  • Is the “Epic of Gilgamesh” a primary or a secondary source? Can it be both? How is its categorization as a historical source different from “The Exaltation of Inana”?
  • How are visual sources such as those from The Book of the Dead different as primary sources from written ones? What do visuals add to our understanding of History?