High School Block:

Ancient and Medieval History 111/2/3

Ancient and medieval histories have an influence on popular culture, public discourse, and academic curricula. The roots of the present lie deep in the past. An understanding of ancient and medieval societies will not only give learners the ability to think critically about that influence and about many other issues but also foster the development of historical thinking. Thinking about how we are different from past societies and how we continue to ponder many of the same questions helps us to understand the human condition more broadly. What has changed, and what has stayed the same? Does change always mean progress? Learners should have opportunities to examine ancient societies to understand what happened in the past and what characteristics have endured. Ancient and medieval societies have rich primary source traditions, which allows learners to grapple with a variety of types of evidence. From Egyptian hieroglyphics to the Roman Colosseum and from the archaeological evidence for everyday life around the world to oral traditions that have been passed down over thousands of years, ancient and medieval histories provide learners opportunities to consider how we know what we think we know and why certain interpretations carry more weight than others. These interpretive skills are readily transferrable to a variety of activities and careers. The Ancient and Medieval History course addresses big ideas in civics and Indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing through the study of the distant past. It fosters thoughtful and engaged citizenship through the examination of enduring human issues and questions. Ancient and Medieval History engages learners by presenting them with exciting content and issues that help to explain the world around them today.

For Educators: Ancient and Medieval History Companion Document

CONTEXTS AND CONCEPTS

Environment and Adaptation

  • Origin stories across cultures
  • Human migration theories
  • Carbon dating and genetics
  • The development of archaeology
  • Indigenous archaeology
  • Impact of the environment on human settlement and daily life
  • Paleolithic and Neolithic societies
  • River valley systems and early human settlement
Political Organization

  • Social structure, law and governance in ancient societies
  • City-states and empire-building
  • Major political traditions and concepts (e.g. democracy, tyranny, oligarchy, monarchy, matriarchy, unification, confederacy)
  • Governance in different periods and regions (e.g. Indigenous chiefs, ancient Mesopotamian rulers, pharaohs and dynasties of Ancient Egypt, ancient Greek tyrants, Spartan society, Holy Roman Emperors/ Byzantine leaders, the Avignon papacy, medieval kings, monarchs, and warlords, caliphs of the Arab Empire, the Mongolian Khans)
  • The role of confederacies (eg. unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, the Delian League, the Peloponnesian League, the Wabanaki Confederacy, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy)
  • The influence of past political traditions on modern and contemporary politics, governance, and institutions
Cohesion and Division

  • The concept of Empire and examples (eg. Babylonian, Assyrian, Achaemenid Persian, ancient Greek, Macedonian, Roman, Sassanid Persian, Byzantine, Arab, Spanish, and the many societies that resisted or were on the periphery of empires.
  • Forms of religion and spiritual practices (eg. polytheism, monotheism, materialism)
  • Wabanaki philosophy of technology development in harmony with nature.
  • Tools and technologies (eg. the birch bark canoe, mastery of fire, the wheel, the plough, irrigation, and farming techniques, Egyptian mummification, surgical equipment in the Ancient World, biremes, triremes, and ship building, Roman construction projects and aqueducts, Roman roads and concrete, Roman city-planning, the Colosseum, civil engineering)
  • Resources and resource extraction (eg. bronze, copper, tin, iron, timber, luxury and status items)
  • Periodization (eg. the Bronze Age, the Iron Age)
  • Cultural expressions (eg. cave paintings, petroglyphs and pictographs, ceramics, tattooing, glassmaking, beading and jewelry making, sculpture, painting, and coinage)
  • West Africa and the Sehal
  • Golden Age of Philosophy in Mali
  • The Timbuktu manuscripts
  • Wabanaki arts and cultural expression
  • Indigenous storytelling (eg. origin stories, Turtle Island, Glooscap, Eniqs, Piskajat)
  • Writing systems (eg. cuneiform and hieroglyphics, Linear A and Linear B, Mi’kmaq writing system)
  • Astronomy, astrology, and ancient calendars
Change and Progress

  • Cross-cultural interactions due to trade routes, exploration, crusading.
  • Economic drivers of change and progress
  • The Age of Sail
  • The Renaissance and Reformation
  • The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
  • Exploration and colonization

 

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GRADE 11

Strand: History

Big Idea: Environment and Adaptation

Skill Descriptor: Examine how humans populated the major regions of the world and adapted to local environments.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Research the major periods and regions in the history of the planet and humanity.
  • Discuss the controversial nature of human migration theories and origin stories.
  • Identify types of evidence for early human activities.
  • Discuss how storytelling and Elder knowledge has contributed to understandings of human origins and survival.
  • Explain how some ancient societies existed in the past while some still exist today.

Skill Descriptor: Assess the changes resulting from domestication of animals and intentional planting of crops.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Explain the nature of systemic agriculture and how it differs from hunting and gathering and other pre- and non-agrarian ways of living.
  • Explain the trade-offs inherent in the adoption of agriculture, including both the benefits and pitfalls.
  • Analyze the types of social and political organization that arise in agrarian and non-agrarian societies, including examples from Mesopotamia and Egypt in western Eurasia, and Wabanaki societies on Turtle Island.
  • Identify the Three Sisters and other farming methods of North American indigenous societies.
  • Discuss the usefulness and drawbacks of using periodizing terminology such as “Neolithic/Agrarian Revolution” for understanding history.

Skill Descriptor: Examine the importance of river valley systems in the development of localized communities.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Identify the major geographic factors which encouraged settlement in river valley systems.
  • Research the development of Wabanaki societies in the Wolastoq river valley.
  • Analyze the development of societies across major river valley systems on the planet.
  • Identify the methods used by archeologists to reconstruct life in these societies.
  • Investigate Wabanaki methods of knowledge retention and dissemination, including storytelling and Elder teachings.

Big Idea: Political Organization

Skill Descriptor: Analyze defining characteristics of ancient societies.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM

Achievement Indicators:

  • Examine traces and accounts of ancient societies available in the present day.
  • Discuss which ancient societies may be considered significant, why, and by whom.
  • Explain how the availability of evidence affects the study and celebration of ancient societies.
  • Illustrate the social order of a variety of societies from the past.
  • Research the development of law in ancient societies.

Skill Descriptor: Explore political traditions of the ancient and medieval world.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Discuss how people organize for collective security, cultural protection, safety, and war.
  • Demonstrate how unification can allow culture to flourish.
  • Describe how the creation of confederacies of peoples can also cause dissent and discord.
  • Analyze the concepts of patriarchal and matriarchal leadership.
  • Explain who did and did not count as a citizen in ancient societies.

Skill Descriptor: Evaluate the extent to which past societies have influenced contemporary politics, governance systems and institutions.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Research the democratic nature of indigenous leadership and governance.
  • Examine the differences between ancient and modern concepts of democracy.
  • Examine the origins of law codes which play a key role in many modern democratic nations.
  • Examine the origins of the democratic values that define many modern nations.
  • Compare various forms of governance in the ancient world and analyze their benefits and challenges.

Big Idea: Cohesion and Division

Skill Descriptor: Explore cultural expressions, academic achievements, architecture and arts of ancient societies.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Examine the needs which drove innovations in ancient societies.
  • Describe how the availability of resources may impact the development of technologies, architecture, and arts.
  • Investigate examples of ancient monuments, structures, and sites of interest from ancient and medieval periods.
  • Illustrate examples of arts and craftsmanship from ancient and medieval societies.
  • Explain the role of oral language and of writing in the development of societies.

Skill Descriptor: Assess the causes and consequences of empire building.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM

Achievement Indicators:

  • Define empire and imperialism.
  • Discuss geographic factors that can foster or hinder a unified society.
  • Explain how internal conflict can lead to the weakening of an empire’s power.
  • Explain how cultural and religious differences can lead to conflict within and between societies.
  • Explain how political power and authority have been used to foster both social cohesion and conflict.

Skill Descriptor: Examine the role of religion and spirituality in past societies.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Explain what makes something religious or spiritual.
  • Discuss the elements of a theocracy.
  • Discuss what a society’s religious beliefs tells us about that society.
  • Illustrate how spirituality or religion influences daily routines.
  • Assess the role of religion in groups obtaining and maintaining political and cultural power.

Big Idea: Change and Progress

Skill Descriptor: Analyze evidence of cultural interactions in ancient and medieval societies.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Examine the evidence for cross-cultural interactions.
  • Identify how and why certain societies (i.e., Greece and Rome) have been studied more than their neighbours, and what problems this entails for understanding history.
  • Compare the world-systems and globalizing forces of the ancient and medieval periods to those of today.
  • Identify the geographical features that facilitate cross-cultural interaction, such as the Mediterranean Sea and major rivers.
  • Analyze the importance of cross-cultural interaction for art, architecture, literature, etc.

Skill Descriptor: Examine economic decision-making and trade between ancient societies.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Examine the evidence for the nature of trade in ancient and medieval times.
  • Explain why and how some societies formed empires and others resisted empire.
  • Describe examples of competition and cooperation between societies.
  • Analyze the social and cultural factors behind trade and other interactions
  • Explain the relationship between technology and trade.

Skill Descriptor: Discuss diffusion of knowledge and the concept of progress in past societies.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Examine the values and perspectives which characterized the Renaissance mindset.
  • Identify the causes and consequences of the Reformation.
  • Discuss ideas of revolutionary change in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.
  • Map the major movements, discoveries, and ideas of the Enlightenment.
  • Assess whether change always means progress.
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