7.2 Describe how the development of agriculture related to village settlement, population growth, and the emergence of civilization (e.g., prehistoric art of the cave of Lascaux, the megalithic ruin of Stonehenge, and the Stone City of Great Zimbabwe).
Early River Civilizations to 1000 B.C./B.C.E.
7.3 Students analyze the geographic, political, religious, social, and economic structures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Kush.
1 Locate and describe the major river systems and the physical settings that supported permanent settlement and early civilizations.
2 Trace the development of agricultural techniques (e.g., plant cultivation, domestication of animals) that permitted the production of economic surplus and the emergence of cities as centers of culture and power.
3 Identify the location of the Kush civilization and its political, commercial, and cultural relations with Egypt.
6 Understand the significance of Egyptian rulers Amenemhat, Queen Hatshepsut, and Ramses the Great.
7 Understand the contribution of Egyptian intellectual thought, including the moral teachings of Ptahotep (the Wisdom Texts), contributions in mathematics (Rhind Mathematical Papyrus), and religion (Pyramid texts).
8 Explain the relationship of pharaohs to peasants as a primary form of labor in Egypt.
9 Describe the main features of Egyptian art and monumental architecture, particularly sculptures, such as the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza.
3 Identify the sources of the ethical teachings and central beliefs of Judaism (the Hebrew Bible, the Commentaries): belief in God; emphasis on individual worth; personal responsibility; the rule of law; observance of law; and practice of the concepts of righteousness and justice; and importance of study.
4 Describe how the ideas of the Hebrew traditions are reflected in the moral and ethical traditions of Western civilization.
5 Describe the origins and significance of Judaism as the first monotheistic religion based on the concept of one God who sets down moral laws for humanity.
6 Explain how Judaism survived and developed despite the continuing dispersion of much of the Jewish population from Jerusalem and the rest of Israel after the destruction of the second temple in A.D. 70.
7.8 Students analyze the geographic, political, religious, social, and economic structures of the early civilization of Ancient Greece.
2 Describe the connections between geography and the development of city-states in the region of the Aegean Sea, including patterns of trade and commerce among Greek city-states and within the wider Mediterranean region.
3 Trace the transition from tyranny and oligarchy to early democratic forms of government and back to dictatorship in ancient Greece, including the significance of the invention of the idea of citizenship (e.g., from Pericles' Funeral Oration).
4 Explain the democratic political concepts developed in ancient Greece (i.e., the polis, or city-state; civic participation and voting rights; legislative bodies; constitution writing; and rule of law).
5 State the key differences between Athenian, or direct democracy, and representative democracy.
6 Outline the founding, expansion, and political organization of the Persian Empire.
7 Explain the significance of Greek mythology to the everyday life of people in the region and how Greek literature continues to permeate our literature and language today, drawing from Greek mythology and epics, such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and from Aesop's Fables.
8 Compare and contrast life in Athens to Sparta, with emphasis on the daily life of women and children, the games and sports of the Olympiad, the education of youths, the trial of Socrates, and their roles in the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars.
7.9 Students analyze the geographic, political, religious, social, and economic structures during the development of Rome.
1 Locate and describe the major river system and the physical setting that supported the rise of this civilization and the expansion of its political power in the Mediterranean region and beyond through the use of currency and trade routes.
3 Explain the government of the Roman Republic and its significance (e.g., written constitution, separation of powers, rule of law, representative government, the notion of civic duty, and checks and balances) and why it was inadequate to administer Roman affairs by the end of the second century B.C. (B.C.E.).
5 Trace the migration of Jews around the Mediterranean region and the effects of their conflict with the Romans, including the Romans' restrictions on their right to live in Jerusalem.
6 Explain the origins of Christianity in the Jewish Messianic prophecies, the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament, and the contribution of St. Paul the Apostle to the definition and spread of Christian beliefs (e.g., belief in the Trinity, Resurrection, and Salvation).
8 Describe the legacies of Roman art and architecture, technology and science (e.g., roads, bridges, arenas, baths, aqueducts, central heating, plumbing, and sanitation), literature and poetry, language, and law.
9 Explain the spread and influence of the Roman alphabet and the Latin language, the use of Latin as the language of education for more than 1,000 years, and the role of Latin and Greek in scientific and academic vocabulary.
10 Describe how inner forces (including the rise of autonomous military powers, political corruption, unemployment, and economic and political instability) and external forces (shrinking trade, external attacks, and barbarian invasions) led to the disintegration of the Roman Empire.