AncientWorld - SOCIAL STUDIES RISING

Ancient and Medieval World History: Beginnings to 1600

The collection below features high-quality lessons and resources from open-source platforms. A free account is required to access some of the resources.

1. Thinking like a Historian and Geographer

Title	Source	Description
World Book Timelines	World Book Online	Students can use the site to create historical timelines of important events.
Engaging Students with Primary Sources	Smithsonian	A guide for teachers, includes brief introductions to using documents, photographs, oral histories, and objects for classroom learning.
Crop It	TeachingHistory.org	Crop It is a four-step hands-on learning routine where teachers pose questions and students use paper cropping tools to deeply explore a visual primary source.
Document Analysis	National Archives	Students think through primary source documents for contextual understanding and to extract information using four steps: meet the document, observe its parts, try to make sense of it, and use it as historical evidence.
Primary Source Analysis	Library of Congress	Students analyze a variety of primary source types using a three step process: observe, reflect, and question.
How do historians interpret historical artifacts?	Read.Inquire.Write	Students are introduced to the bookmark tool for analyzing sources and the components of a written argument, including claim, evidence, and reasoning. Students analyze three sources about an unknown ancient artifact—a dodecahedra—and argue about how historians use clues, context, and evidence in their work.
Mapping Perceptions	Asia Society	This lesson plan discusses what maps can tell us about how their makers perceive the world.
MapMaker Interactive	National Geographic	Customize one-page maps to download, email, print, or share
Beyond Borders	National Geographic	This series of lessons will have students use maps to think about how borders intersect physical and human geographical features, and how those intersections can lead to cooperation and/or conflict.
Which Map Should We Use?	Read.Inquire.Write	How do maps show perspectives and bias? Students are re-introduced to the bookmark tool for analyzing sources and are introduced to the components of a critique argument.

2. Early River Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China

Title	Source	Description
Was the Development of Agriculture Good for Humans?	C3 Teachers	This inquiry provides students with an opportunity to investigate the role of agriculture in the growth of complex societies.
Agriculture and Civilization	Big History Project	Lessons, readings, and handouts on the development of agriculture and early city states.
Hammurabi's Code	Stanford History Education Group	In this lesson, students use Hammurabi’s Code to consider religious, economic, and social facets of life in the ancient world.
What was important to King Hammurabi?	Read.Inquire.Write	In this investigation, students consider what they can learn from artifacts about Mesopotamian society and the Laws of Hammurabi. Students write an argument to the curators of the Louvre Museum about what Hammurabi’s Laws tell us about what was important to King Hammurabi during this time.
The Empire Builder	Of Codes and Crowns	This lesson introduces students to Hammurabi, his Mesopotamian empire, and the concept of lex talionis.
The Cuneiform Writing System in Ancient Mesopotamia	EDSITEment	This lesson plan is designed to help students appreciate the parallel development and increasing complexity of writing and civilization in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys in ancient Mesopotamia.
Life in Old Babylonia: The Importance of Trade	EDSITEment	In this lesson, students explore the trade industry in Old Babylonia and its far-flung influence.
Ancient Mesopotamia	University of Chicago	Interdisciplinary lessons on ancient Mesopotamia using artifacts from the Mesopotamian collection of the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago.
Egyptian Pyramids	Stanford History Education Group	In this lesson students read five documents to answer the question: Did slaves build the Great Pyramid at Giza?
Egypt's Pyramids: Monuments with a Message	EDSITEment	This lesson plan consists of three learning activities that help students investigate what pyramids tell us about the ancient Egyptians.
Why the Nile River was Important	Share My Lesson	PowerPoint presentation on the importance of the Nile River in Ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt Text Set	CommonLit	Six readings on ancient Egypt with text-dependent questions
Ancient Hebrews	C3 Teachers	This inquiry leads students through an investigation of ancient Hebrew history and Judaism by using various sources that consider the historical and theological foundations, as well as issues related to geography and place.
Indus Valley Mysteries	CommonLit	A secondary source reading with text-dependent questions aligned with literacy standards.
Tracking Early Hinduism	PBS	Lesson on Foundations and development of early Hinduism (Vedic Period, 15th – 5th Centuries BCE)
Buddhist Art and Trade Routes	Asia Society	This resource provides detailed information on Buddhist art as well as maritime and overland trade routes.
Chinese Inventions	Asia Society	This lesson plan introduces students to technological innovations that originated in China.
On Reverence for Parents	CommonLit	Source reading text-dependent questions on the cultural concept of filial piety in ancient China.

3. Ancient Greece and Rome

Title	Source	Description
Ancient Greece and Rome	Core Knowledge	Unit plan with 17 lessons includes teacher and student guides and timeline cards
Ancient Greece Text Set	CommonLit	Explore Ancient Greece and discover how the historic Greek city-states formed, governed themselves, and influence us. Articles with text-dependent questions
Athenian Democracy SAC	Stanford History Education Group	In this Structured Academic Controversy (SAC), students debate whether or not ancient Athens was truly democratic.
How Democratic was Athens?	Constitutional Rights Foundation	Article with writing and discussion questions and application activity
What can we learn about democracy from ancient Athens?	Read.Inquire.Write	In this investigation, students will learn about the ways democracy functioned in ancient Athens as they consider the central question: What can we learn about democracy from ancient Athens?
Teaching the Ancient Greeks	UK Historical Association	Short narrative history of Ancient Greece with accompanying lessons and student resources
Battle of Thermopylae	Stanford History Education Group	In this lesson, students examine four historians' estimates of the number of participants in this battle and consider how the historians used evidence to support their historical claims.
Citizenship and Government in Athens	Achieve the Core	Secondary source reading with text dependent questions
Historical Explorations: Ancient Greece	Nearpod	Students learn about the forms of democracy in Ancient Greece, and compare them to the forms of government in modern western society. Students enter a virtual field trip to examine Ancient Greek culture.
Ancient Rome Text Set	CommonLit	Learn more about how the republic and empire emerged and about the exciting lives of Romans, from brave gladiators to mighty emperors. Articles with text-dependent questions
Roman Art and Architecture	World History for Us All	Roman art tells us a story of how societies borrow and build off the ideas of other societies.
Roman Republic	Stanford History Education Group	In this lesson, students investigate the question: How democratic was the Roman Republic?
Augustus	Stanford History Education Group	In this lesson, students corroborate evidence and arguments from a set of primary and secondary sources as they investigate the question: What kind of leader was Augustus?
Attila and Pope Leo	Stanford History Education Group	In this lesson, students develop the skill of sourcing as they consider the question: What happened at the meeting between Pope Leo and Attila the Hun?
Legacies of Ancient Rome	Share My Lesson	In this lesson, students will develop an understanding of Rome’s legal, artistic, and technological contributions through an analysis of primary source images and four secondary sources.
Legacies of Ancient Rome: Legal System	Share My Lesson	In this lesson, students will look specifically at Roman contributions to the legal system. By analyzing short primary source texts of the Roman Twelve Tables, they will connect how our legal system built on the Roman system.
The Influence of Greek and Roman Democratic Principles on American Political Process	Literacy Design Collaborative	Students explore the influence of Greek and Roman concepts of government on the American political tradition. The public political tradition of the United States is based overwhelmingly on the political philosophy of Classical Greco-Roman culture.

4. Feudalism and Medieval Empires

Title	Source	Description
Ancient Rome: What Led to the Ultimate Disintegration of the Roman Empire?	Literacy Design Collaborative	Students read and analyze a wide variety of primary and secondary sources to investigate a series of interactions between events and individuals that led to the disintegration of the Roman Empire.
The Rise and Fall of the Byzantine Empire	TedEd	Customizable video lesson on the Byzantine Empire, includes guided questions and discussion prompt.
Black Death: Can Disease Change the World	C3 Teachers	This inquiry is framed by the compelling question “Can disease change the world?” Among the many catastrophic global pandemics in history, perhaps none achieved the notoriety of the Black Death.
Mongol Empire Builders: Fiends from Hell or Culture Brokers? 1200 - 1400 CE	World History for Us All	In this lesson students examine the Mongols' rise to power and its consequences.
The Mongols: How Barbaric Were the “Barbarians”?	The DBQ Project	Document-Based Questions on the Mongols from the DBQ Project
The Rise and Fall of the Mongol Empire	TedEd	Customizable video lesson on the rise and fall of the Mongols; includes guided questions and discussion prompts
Afroeurasia and the Rise of Islam 600 - 1000 CE	World History for Us All	This unit traces the rise of Islam, its spread, and the development of Muslim civilization. It also addresses its impact on Afroeurasia as a whole.
Expansion of the Early Islamic Empire	Stanford History Education Group	In this lesson, students examine a series of documents and consider the question: How did the early Islamic empire expand?
Contributions of the Islamic Civilization	Center for Middle Eastern Studies	In this lesson, students explore scientific contributions of Islamic Civilization.
First Crusade	Stanford History Education Group	In this lesson, students compare Christian and Muslim perspectives of the First Crusade by analyzing different accounts of the siege of Jerusalem.
Was the Caliphate of Córdoba a Success?	C3 Teachers	This inquiry provides students with an introduction to a historical example of religious tolerance and cooperation as it evolved in Islamic Spain, also known as Al-Andalus.
The Spread of Islam	Khan Academy	Video lesson with readings and practice questions on the spread of Islam.
Trekking to Timbutktu: Timbuktu: A Center of Trade	EDSITEment	This lesson explores the importance of trade in the economy of West Africa between the 14th and 18th centuries.
Salt Worth Its Weight in Gold	CommonLit	This informational text provides specifics regarding the trading practices and politics of the Kingdom of Ghana, a medieval African civilization located in what is now Mauritania and western Mali.
West African Society at the Point of European Contact	CommonLit	Informational text on West African society, one of the centers of civilization in the centuries leading up to the Atlantic slave trade.
Mansa Musa, One of the Wealthiest People Who Ever Lived	TedEd	Customizable video lesson on Mansa Musa, the 14th century African king of the Mali Empire; includes guided questions and discussion prompt.