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Fertile Crescent Empire Stele Project

Example of a Stele - The Victory Stele of Naram Sim

Assignment (Due Friday, November 20)

Students will be creating an Akkadian style stele to highlight one of the accomplishments of one of the great Fertile Crescent empires. A stele is a slab of stone on which artists would carve relief sculptures of military battles or other major achievements.

The stele should show an important person, place, or thing related to the history of the Fertile Crescent. Along with a picture, students will also write a caption explaining the picture.

Files

Research Links

These links will take you to the Eck208 Delicious page with more links about each empire.

Was Ancient Sumer a Civilization?

Note: because Mr. Miller was ill for an entire week, this did not get posted in advance of the assignment. The assignment was collected on Friday, November 13.

Last week we learned about the seven characteristics of a civilization.  Historians consider a society to be civilized when it has these characteristics:

  1. A stable supply of food
  2. A complex social structure
  3. Government
  4. Religion
  5. Makes contributions to the arts
  6. Makes advancements in technology
  7. Develops a system of writing

To apply their knowledge, students looked at artifacts from ancient Sumer, (in Mesopotamia) and wrote about their relationship to the characteristics of civilization.  Next, students wrote about whether or not these artifacts prove that Sumer was truly a civilization.

Assignment Due November 13, 2009

Online Mesopotamia Resources

Here are some great web sites featuring artifacts from Mesopotamia:

Here are some interactive web sites where you can learn more about life in Mesopotamia:

Assyria: Nimrud