Ancient Middle East Teaching Unit

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One unit, two resources

This Premium Unit provides a panoramic overview of the history of the Ancient Middle East.

It contains two kinds of resources:

a slide show and
two sequences 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 attractive, high resolution maps for projection onto a large screen. This makes it ideal for use as a whole-class presentation.

It covers the history of the Middle East from 3500 BCE to 500 BCE. It is accompanied by an informative teacher’s commentary, to aid in covering the different points of interest on each map.

The slide show can also be used in student project work, and a student commentary is included.

2. Map Pages

The map pages contain a sequence of map for use by students in their own project work.

There are three map sequences to choose from:

The Ancient Middle East (Short) + Teachers Notes

This gives a panoramic overview of the history of the Ancient Middle East, covering three thousand years of history. It is aimed primarily at middle school students.

Ancient Middle East I: The Bronze Age + Teachers Notes

The Bronze Age Middle East from 3500 to 1275 BCE, covering the Sumerian, Babylonian, Ancient Egyptian and Hittite civilizations.

Ancient Middle East II: Age of Empires + Teachers Notes

The Middle East from 1275 BCE to 500 BCE, covering the Assyrian, Babylonian and beginning of Persian empire. It also references the history of the Israelites during this period.

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

The teachers notes 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 the Ancient Middle East, including:

The Sumerians developed the earliest civilization in world history, where cities, writing and organized states first appeared.

A little later Ancient Egypt also emerged as a great civilization.

These civilizations had strong similarities (e.g. irrigation-based agriculture), but also important differences (e.g. one was a unified kingdom from the outset, the other remained a collection of city-states for a long time).

The Ancient Egyptians constructed some of the most famous monuments in the world, most notably the Great Pyramids of Giza.

Sargon of Akkad founded the first recorded empire in world history.

The Law Code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon, is one of the most ancient legal documents in history.

The end of the Bronze Age was a major turning point – a time of great upheaval but also of great advance.

The Assyrian Empire was a great empire which re-shaped the political and social landscape of the entire region.

The Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar saw the high point of ancient Mesopotamian civilization.

The Persian Empire rose to become the largest empire in the Ancient World.

The Israelites were minor players in the geopolitical landscape of the Ancient Middle East, but were probably the most significant people of all so far as later world history was concerned.

A guarantee to teachers

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

info@timemaps.com

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