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Teacher's Guide for CALLIOPE: BabyloniansTeacher guide prepared by: Karen E. Hong, who writes frequently for COBBLESTONE®, FACES®, and CALLIOPE®.Vocabulary Babylon * Mesopotamia * stele * ziggurat * cuneiform * frieze * chronicle * sorcery * stylus * vernal equinox * inflation Important People People, both real and mythical, shape history. Ask students to find out more about one of the following people and how they shaped Babylonian life: Hammurabi * Nebuchadnezzar II * Nabopolassar * Gilgamesh * Sargon * Enhuanna * Ishtar * Marduk * Nabonidus * Cyrus * Alexander the Great * SeleucusBeginnings and Endings Different groups of people rose to power and controlled Babylon throughout its long history. Use the information on page 3 and the articles "The Rise of Babylon" (pages 6 - 10) and "The Twilight of a City" (pages 38 - 39) to help students create a timeline of Babylonia. Run a length of cash register tape, ribbon, or string along a wall. Decide how many inches will represent a specific length of time. You may want to organize the timeline by centuries from 1900 to 300 B.C. Have students write major events on index cards and add them at the appropriate place on the timeline. Hammurabi's Code A code is a system of laws and rules. Every group, no matter how small or exclusive, operates under a set of guidelines although these rules may be understood rather than written. Have students select a small group to which they belong (i.e, family, class, team, club) and formulate the guidelines that apply within the group. Does identifying and writing down the group's code change the behavior or expectations of the group? Do the rules or guidelines differ depending on a person's status in the group? Wonders of the World The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The others are: the Great Pyramid of Egypt, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The Greeks compiled the list of the Seven Wonders around the second century B.C. At that time, the structures listed were felt to be the greatest on earth, feats of architecture and engineering. Only one of the Wonders survives today. If we could travel through time, we could visit them all. Ask students to prepare a travel brochure for one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Why was it included in the list when it was compiled? Would it still merit inclusion if the list were compiled today? For more information about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, try this web site: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World More Wonders Throughout the ages, people have urged that various structures, both manmade and natural, be included as Wonders of the World. These structures, scattered throughout the world, exist in places unknown to the ancient Greeks or were constructed after their time. Manmade structures include: the Aztec Temple in Tenochtitlan, the Great Wall of China, the Inca city of Machu Picchu, Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal, and the Panama Canal. The Bay of Fundy, the Grand Canyon, Mount Everest, and Niagara Falls are among the natural structures. Ask students to prepare a travel brochure for one of these sites. Why does it merit inclusion as a Wonder? Have they or would they visit one of these sites today? What does the site tell us about the people who created it? How have the natural structures shaped the lives of the people in the area? For more information about the other Wonders of the World, try this web site: The Seven Wonders: Other Sites. Traveling through Babylonia Complete the transportation experiment on pages 22 - 23 as a class. Which mode of transportation is easier? Does the weather make a difference in the results? Do you agree that the wheel is the greatest mechanical invention of all time? Cuneiform Students can create their monograms in cuneiform, the writing of the ancient Babylonians, at the following web site: Write Like a Babylonian. Examples of cuneiform numbers can be found at the following web site: Cuneiform Numbers. Clay Tablets Have your students try writing in cuneiform. To make stone tablets, roll out polymer clay (i.e. Sculpey) onto an index card. Have students use popsicle sticks to create cuneiform designs (wedge-shaped game pieces from Trivial Pursuit also work well). Bake clay pieces in oven to darken, harden, and preserve (instructions on package). Epic Creations Gilgamesh, the best-known Babylonian story, is an epic, a long literary work that portrays heroic deeds. Have students write a brief epic about a hero of great stature or world reknown who is of historical or legendary significance. The story's action should occur throughout the world or universe and involve supernatural forces. Both a summary and a translation of the Gilgamesh epic are available online at Gilgamesh.
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