Covers the rise of civilization to the decline of major world civilizations in the early Common Era (c. 200 CE to c. 500 CE). Studies the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, and the Greco-Roman world.
Goals, Topics, and Objectives
- Origins of civilization in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China.
- Survey of the history and culture of:
- Mesopotamia
- Egypt
- The Hittites
- The Levant (especially the Phoenicians and Hebrews)
- India
- China up to the fall of the Han Dynasty
- The Greco-Roman world
- Rise of the major world religions: Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
- Interactions between civilizations, including but not limited to trade and conquest.
- Chinese and Greek philosophy.
- Development of Greco-Roman participative government, especially Athenian.
Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
1. Outline time and chronology in Ancient world history.
2. Identify, summarize, and analyze major elements of Ancient world history.
3. Analyze cause and effect in Ancient world history.
4. Trace elements of change and continuity in Ancient world history.
5. Emphasize parallelism by describing the impact of major events, personalities, and places upon Ancient world history.
Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
1. Outline the political and cultural history of the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, and the Greco-Roman world.
2. Trace the development of civilization from hunting and gathering to cities and civilization, with emphasis on the origins of agriculture worldwide.
3. Trace the development of writing in Mesopotamia. Identify and give the significance of cuneiform, hieroglyphics, Chinese characters, and the alphabet.
4. Describe the various types of political organization in these early civilizations.
5. Identify and define a city-state, a kingdom, and an empire.
6. Tell how early states are different from the modern nation-state.
7. Describe Greek and Roman representative-participative government and one hypothesis of how it arose.
8. Compare and contrast the Greco-Roman systems to the U.S. government.
9. Describe the importance of written law. Identify and give the significance of the laws of Ur-Nammu (Sumerian), Hammurabi, and the Twelve Tables (Roman).
10. Identify the basic ideas of the ancient philosophies of China–Legalism, Daoism, and Confucianism.
11. Identify the basic ideas of the Mandate of Heaven and explain its significance in Chinese History.
12. Identify the basic ideas of the ancient philosophies of the Greeks – the Pre-Socratics, Sophists, Socrates, and his pupils.
13. Identify and give the significance of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
14. Identify the basic ideas of Hinduism and Buddhism. Identify and give the significance of or define caste, dharma, karma, reincarnation, and Siddhartha Gautama.
15. Identify the basic ideas of Zoroastrianism, Hebrew ethical monotheism, and Christianity.
16. Identify and give the significance of Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, and Zoroaster. Define monotheism, monolatry, and polytheism.
Assessment and Requirements
Assessment of academic achievement will be identified and implemented by the class instructor. Methods will include, but will not be limited to, individual projects, vocabulary, class participation (discussion and critiques), and tests.
A good, world history text which is truly global and devotes significant material to non-Western history (including Mesopotamia and Egypt); or Monographs that contain significant non-Western, non-Judeo-Christian materials.
Supplemental materials should be non-Western whenever possible.
Outcomes
- Social Sciences
- Humanities and Fine Arts
- Category 4: Social Sciences
- Category 5: Humanities and Fine Arts