Ancient History Teacher Guide for High School

Human history began when people gathered around rivers, began sowing seeds, settled into permanent shelters and chose collaboration over competition to create pockets of stability in an often harsh and threatening world. These tiny gatherings slowly grew and civilizations took root around the Yellow River in China, the Indus Valley, the storied Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and the Nile. This guide and the literature in this study tells the stories of those peoples–the ones who planted crops and built cities, developed technology, the arts, literature, and pushed human achievement to levels never seen before.

This story is told through myth, literature, religious texts, archaeological evidence, and much more. Adaptations of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Ramayana, and Egyptian and Greek mythology pair with first hand accounts from people who witnessed historically significant events. Accurate fictional accounts bring to life figures like the Old Testament prophet Elijah, provide colorful depictions of life in Egypt and Greece and ancient Roman Brittania.

This teacher guide will take you and your high school level student from the beginnings of civilization in Mesopotamia and Sumer, on to ancient Egypt, through the wanderings of the Jews and the splitting of the Israelites into the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, to the Yellow River and the first Emperor of China, through the Indus Valley and its incredible flourishing, to the cradle of democracy, ancient Greece, and into the Roman Empire and the birth of Christianity. This guide delves deep into the beliefs and ideas that motivated our ancestors to create, to worship, to conquer and to love. Comparative studies between the religious systems of Egypt, India, China, Greece, Rome, Israel, and the development of Christianity provide essential perspective in understanding how each culture is directly shaped by what it takes to be true. Compare how creation narratives contribute to the understanding of human value, how myth both reflects and shapes history, how story ties all of humanity together.

Hands-on activities add depth to the history while vocabulary lists, comprehension questions, research topics, and website links make this both an academically strong study and one that will engage your entire family in stimulating discussions. Our teacher guide provides the structure you want and the flexibility you need to successfully teach this complex time period.

• This study contains 108 lessons.
• Complete 3 lessons per week for a one-year study.