Early cities were complex! We can find evidence of art, writing, law codes, and new and complex ways of organizing society. Today, Alphonse the camel will help us unpack what life was like in early cities from some of the artifacts they left behind.
Driving Question: How did societies change as they became more complex?
- Have you picked up any new hobbies during this pandemic? Found any new interests? With more time than ever on their hands thanks to farming, people living in early agrarian societies were freed to focus on other work and interests. They began to make art, music, clothing and tools. They also had time to think about what kinds of laws should govern societies. How else do you think their societies changed?
Word of the Day: Culture
- Definition: All the attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs that are characteristic of a particular social group at a specific time and place.
- With all this extra time, societies became more complex. They began to develop monumental architecture, social structures, and new ways of preserving and passing knowledge down over time through systems of writing.
Lesson
- Go to Khan Academy and read Anita Ravi’s historian’s journal, “We’re Not in Kansas Anymore: The Emergence of Early Cities.”
- This is an opportunity to take a peek inside of a historian’s brain and look at the way she analyzes historical artifacts. For each of the artifacts that Ravi presents, think about what it reveals about that society’s level of complexity. How were they changing? What new innovations were emerging?
Historian’s Journal Prompt
- If you had to choose just three artifacts to symbolize the complexity of our society today, what would you choose and why?
- Our world and our societies today are incredibly complex! We’re organized into cities, and within those cities even into wards or districts. We vote on machines, our cars can self-park at the click of a button, and we can even learn languages on our phone. Yet, I can only imagine what people 50 or 100 years into the future might think of our technology! I think of my own grandparents, who grew up without electricity or running water...and now, they’re using their iPad to hop on a Zoom call with family members across the country! What do you think will make it into the museums of the future to document the complexity of our era?
