Early Civilizations Teachers Unit

This teaching unit is available exclusively to teacher members of the Timermaps Premium service.

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One unit, two resources

This Premium unit covers the emergence of the earliest civilizations in world history. It focusses on those in the Eastern Hemisphere. The earliest Pre-Columbian civilizations of the Western Hemisphere came some time later, and will have their own Premium unit.

This unit provides a broad overview of the centuries between 4000 BCE and 500 BCE – perhaps the most formative period in World history.

The unit contains two main resources:

a slide show and
a sequence of map pages.

These enable two different approaches to using the unit with your students – for a whole-class presentation or for student project work.

1. Slide Show

The slide show is designed to engage students with its attractive, high resolution maps for projection onto a large screen. This makes it ideal for use as a whole-class presentation.

It is accompanied by an informative teacher’s commentary, to aid in covering the different points of interest on each map.

It can also be used in student project work, and a student commentary is also included.

2. Map sequence

The sequence of map pages are for use in students’ enquiry work.

No commentary is required as each map is accompanied by information covering the period with which it deals.

Teachers notes are provided. These include suggested classroom strategies and student activities, for teachers to use or adapt as they see fit.

Flexible use

These resources – the slide show and the map sequences – can be slotted in wherever the teacher wishes. For example, they can be used as an introduction to this era of world history, or in a “wrap up” session; or on their own as the primary “textbook” for studying this topic.

Learning outcomes

On completing this unit, students should have a broad understanding of the history of Early Civilizations, including:

The civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia – Sumerian, Babylonian, Hittite, Assyrian, the Babylonian Empire, and the start of the Persian Empire;

The civilization of Ancient Egypt;

The emergence of the kingdom of Kush, to Egypt’s south;

The Indus Valley civilization on the Indian subcontinent, followed by the Vedic period and then the rise of classical Indian civilization in the Ganges Plain, down to the time the Buddha;

The emergence and spread of Chinese civilization under the Shang and early Zhou dynasties, down to the time of Confucius.

A guarantee to teachers

If, after using this unit with your students, you don’t feel that this unit is a valid way of giving your students a broad understanding of this topic, please let us know by emailing us at the following address:

feedback@timemaps.com

We will – no quibble – refund your fee and cancel your subscription.