Search
Search Results
Definition
Chocolate in Mesoamerica
Chocolate was one of the most desired foods of Mesoamerica and was consumed by the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec civilizations, amongst others. Its consumption even spread via trade routes to other parts of the Americas including the Chaco Canyon...
Article
Dynamics of the Neolithic Revolution
The Neolithic Revolution began between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago at several widely dispersed locations across the world, when our ancestors first began planting and raising crops. Agricultural communities sprang up almost simultaneously...
Article
The Iberian Conquest of the Americas
European explorers began to probe the Western Hemisphere in the early 1500s, and they found to their utter amazement not only a huge landmass but also a world filled with several diverse and populous indigenous cultures. Among their most...
Article
The Debate Between Sheep and Grain
The Debate Between Sheep and Grain (c. 2000 BCE) is one of the best-known Sumerian literary debates in a genre that was popular entertainment by the late 3rd millennium BCE. In this piece, personifications of grain and sheep argue which is...
Article
Jobs in Ancient Egypt
In ancient Egypt, the people sustained the government and the government reciprocated. Egypt had no cash economy until the coming of the Persians in 525 BCE. The people worked the land, the government collected the bounty and then distributed...
Article
The Song of the Hoe
The Song of the Hoe is a Sumerian praise poem celebrating the hoe for its many uses and linking it to the creation of the world by the great god Enlil. As the economy of Mesopotamia was almost entirely based on agriculture, it is not surprising...
Article
Sioux Story of The Gift of Corn
Corn (maize) was central to the lives of Native Americans across North, Central, and South America. Maize was introduced to North America from Mesoamerica c. 700/900 CE and transformed the lives of the indigenous peoples. Every tribal nation...
Article
Food in the Roman World
The ancient Mediterranean diet revolved around four staples, which, even today, continue to dominate restaurant menus and kitchen tables: cereals, vegetables, olive oil and wine. Seafood, cheese, eggs, meat and many types of fruit were also...
Lesson Pack
Mesopotamia: Government & Religion
This lesson pack on government and religion in ancient Mesopotamia includes the following content: Three Lesson Plans Rise of City States Temples & Divine Kingship Code of Hammurabi Additional Materials Open Questions...
Collection
Fertile Crescent - Cradle of Civilization
The Fertile Crescent is a region stretching from northern Egypt across to the Persian Gulf and was the home to the oldest civilizations in history such as the Sumerians, earning it the common name of the 'Cradle of Civilization'. First populated...