Why should you teach an overview of ancient civilisations?

• the achievements of the earliest civilizations – an overview of where and when the first civilizations appeared and a depth study of one of the following: Ancient Sumer; The Indus Valley; Ancient Egypt; The Shang Dynasty of Ancient China

An element of the KS2 History National Curriculum that is often forgotten is the overview of ancient civilisations. This is because the above bullet point is misleading, in that it consists of two separate parts: the overview and the depth study. It’s easy to just choose an option for the depth study and forget about the overview (I did this myself when the 2014 NC was first introduced), but there’s some really rich learning that makes it worthwhile to devote some time to this topic, rather than just tacking a lesson or two onto the depth study.

As with most topics, there’s no one “correct” way to teach this. I’m going to describe my first attempt in the hope that it will be helpful, but if you think I’ve missed something or have a different approach in your school, please let me know. How it’s approached will also depend on the year group it’s allocated to, and where it fits in the sequence of your history curriculum. My class are Year 5, and have already covered all of the British history, plus ancient Greece. They already knew where Mesopotamia was after reading Varjak Paw in Year 4, and we had prepared for the topic by reading and discussing the relevant maps from Prisoners of Geography.

I think there are a variety of different ways that the overview study could be slotted into the sequence, all of which could work well, but my preference would be that it was taught after at least one of the other ancient history topics, so that children have some depth of knowledge to provide context for the new learning. It’s also extremely useful if the children have already learnt about rivers in geography, so that they have an understanding of the uses of rivers, particularly in farming and transport.

I chose to teach an overview of the four civilisations named in the National Curriculum – Ancient Sumer, The Indus Valley, Ancient Egypt and the Shang Dynasty, as well as the Ancient Maya. I chose to start with Ancient Egypt, as I knew that my class already had some knowledge and interest in it, whereas they hadn’t heard of the other three civilisations. Others might advocate for introducing the civilisations in chronological order of when they first appeared, but I chose to use the more familiar stories of ancient Egypt as a hook.

Content

First I told the story of Howard Carter discovering Tutankhamen’s tomb. This led naturally into a discussion of the monarchy (and we digressed from ancient Egypt as I gave examples of other child monarchs, regencies and civil wars in response to the children’s questions). I then gave a brief overview of all four civilisations, anchoring them in a story, with a photo of a monument and/or significant artefact, where and when they appeared. We returned to this powerpoint throughout the unit and it was a good way of making sure the children could identify each different civilisation without too much confusion.

I then taught three lessons on ancient Egypt, followed by two on each of the other civilisations. I found that each new civilisation was easier for children to understand, and we moved through the content more quickly with children being able to access the reading and discuss sources more independently. The very obvious similarities and themes running through the whole study were really powerful. I focused on the following key features and concepts: ruler & government; towns/cities/states; agriculture & irrigation; religion & monuments; writing; major achievements; use of natural resources & trade; war & peace. and reasons for decline (climate change, conquest, overthrowing the monarch). I also emphasised any mysteries (mainly in the Indus Valley – their written code has never been cracked, why they had no monuments, and why the civilisation declined – as well as the reason that the cities of the Maya were abandoned).

This study obviously lends itself to identifying similarity and difference between civilisations in different parts of the world – comparing those included in the topic, but also making links to the children’s prior knowledge of ancient Greece and Rome. It’s also really useful for developing an understanding of chronology, focusing on what was happening at the same time in different places, as well as the chronology within each of the different periods. It was interesting watching the children gradually coming to the conclusion that Britain was not anywhere near as advanced as these other parts of the world, and building a really strong understanding of how advances in agriculture enabled populations to grow and new discoveries to be made.

Resources

As mentioned above, Prisoners of Geography was useful for providing an overview of the different parts of the world in which these civilisations arose: their physical features, natural resources and trade links. We also used atlases to identify the specific location of each civilisation.

If teaching the unit in Upper KS2, the introduction to The Silk Roads is an excellent text to use alongside the children’s learning in history. It helps the children to understand the links between the different civilisations, rather than falling into the trap of seeing each as an isolated bubble. It’s also excellent for world-building, as the rich vocabulary really helps children to visualize the ancient world. I selected particular words and sentences which we discussed in depth – we had a half hour discussion just about the sentence ‘Merchandise was carried by caravans of hardy camels’. We also had some discussion of the differences between trade in the ancient world and now based on this text, making links to learning in geography.

Stories can provide lots of enrichment in this topic – we read Marcia Williams’ Ancient Egypt and the Gilgamesh Trilogy by Ludmila Zeman (ancient Sumer).

The British Museum has some excellent resources – as well as photos and descriptions of artefacts, there are websites on ancient Egypt and Sumer:

Introduction (ancientegypt.co.uk)

Mesopotamia – The British Museum

Finally, I used the following books from www.getepic.com:

Tools and Treasures series (Ancient Egypt, China, Mesopotamia & Maya – be careful because in many of these only the first chapter is really useful, as they then start mixing facts and artefacts from different periods of time which is a bit confusing)

Ancient Worlds Inside Out (Egypt & Mesopotamia)

I hope this has given you some ideas as to how you might implement this topic. Please contact me on Twitter (@MrsSTeaches) or through the comments with any suggestions, or if you have questions about how this could be adapted for different year groups.