I have been teaching Anna about Ancient Mesopotamian civilisations and important people in History lately. The following gives a short list of what we have covered or will soon cover:
Sargon: Kish and Akkad - Akkadia
Nimrod: Nineveh, Calah (Nimrud), Akkad and Erech (Uruk)
(See Genesis 10:8-12.)
Terah & Abram: Ur (of the Chaldeans), Haran
(See Genesis 11:26-12:9; also Joshua 24:2-4; Acts 7:2-4 and Hebrews 11:8-10.)
Hammurabi: Babylon - Babylonia
Adadnirari I (Shamshi-Adad): Asshur (Assur/Ashur) - Assyria
In all this study, it has been hard to find maps which have enough detail and cover the important locations without being too cluttered. After wading through an awful lot of google searching, I have found that the following two sites offer the best maps for my homeschooling purposes, and perhaps yours as well:
The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago Ancient Near East Maps: Printable black, white and grayscale maps made to print at 300dpi to an A4 page.
Bible History Online Map Links: Links to maps showing locations of Biblical events (not all of these maps are black and white, but many are simply black, white and blue for water).
I've also added them to my Quick Links lower down on the left hand side of this blog.
This is the best map I could come up with:
Using Photoshop, I have adapted this map from one of the Ancient Near East on the Bible History Online site, which locates and labels all the sites I mentioned above, other than Akkad and Kish. FYI, Akkad was upriver on the Euphrates from Babylon, between the "A" and the "M" in the gray "MESOPOTAMIA" label on the original map. Kish was just a touch north-west of Babylon. Feel free to use the map above in your own homeschooling if you think it will be helpful (the original was freely distributed also). I have uploaded it from my file, so you should be able to click on the image, save the one that opens, then print neatly to an A4 page (similar to a US Letter size). Just don't expect it to be a perfect cartographer's dream!
Have a great day!
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Maps of the Ancient Near East
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3 comments:
Cool links!
Sharon, would you mind sharing what age your kids are when you start more structured education? I'm at home full time with P (whose only 17 months). She's a little young for that right now I think, but I want to be preparing and reading ahead for the next few years. Do you have any good books and resources you would suggest I read through?
Cheers
Sharon,
Thanks for sharing this. I may use the map in the third grade Sunday School class that I teach. Next school year (Sept) we go back to ancient history in our homeschool, so that will be helpful then as well. TOG has a great Map Aids CD that matches up with the weekly geography assignment, however, that is new since I last did ancients, so I think I'll have an easier time.
Aimee, I look forward to reading Sharon's tips for you, but if I share a few I hope neither of you mind...
Your little P is at the perfect time to begin audiobooks. I'm a huge believer in the value of audiobooks for preschoolers. For now you can pop in something like Curious George, which usually has fun sound effects, or other "read-along-with-picture-books" audio stories, but don't worry a bit about playing much longer stories with fewer sound effects and music. Naptime is a perfect time to do this. As P grows, she will slowly grow out of napping, but your afternoon habit of stopping to listen to a story for an hour will be its own reward!
This makes a tremendous impact on vocabulary and gives you an excellent foundation for reading skills later on. Audiobooks have unwittingly trained my kids to be great listeners. In fact, they listen better than I do! I pretty much have to see something to remember it, but all four of my kids have developed sharp listening habits.
I've posted about this here: http://sixedwards.blogspot.com/2008/12/academy-is-listening.html
Another idea is to pick up Ruth Beechick's preschool book. It is a slim book with good suggestions for incorporating learning into your everyday life and also gives you a handle on what preschoolers should be learning. Here it is: http://www.amazon.com/Language-Thinking-Young-Children-Beechick/dp/0880621524
I know Sharon has posted more about Beechick. Disclaimer: I haven't read anything from Beechick other than this preschool book, which I found helpful, especially for your first time through the preschool years with your firstborn.
~Amy
Thank you for sharing the map. Caleb is in the middle of Sumer and we may very well be able to use it along the way. :)
ps. Caleb has been helping the Chloe Dolly with her vocabulary - she's walking around going "association", "persuade", "awesome", and stuff like that. Doh~!! I just wish that I could remember them all. At any rate it's so lovley to hear little tongues saying bigger words. Even Phebes has got the "awesome" down.
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