History: sources, eras, and turning points, Eastern Hemisphere (grade 7) · lesson

Clues from early civilizations

💡 What people built tells us what they needed, what they feared, and how they were organized.

Around 1750 BCE, King Hammurabi of Babylon had laws carved on a stone pillar for people to see. Written laws let people know the rules, and the same laws applied in many cases.

Chinese rulers built long walls along the open northern border. The sea and high mountains already guarded other sides. The walls were built where raiders could most easily ride in.

In the Indus Valley, the city of Mohenjo-daro had streets laid out in a grid and covered drains. That kind of order across a whole city suggests careful planning by leaders.

🧠 Let's work it out

Treat a building like a clue.
Where was the wall built? Along the open north.
Where were there no walls? Where seas and mountains already blocked the way.

What do you think comes next?

civilization: a large, organized society with cities, leaders, and often writing
infer: to figure out something from clues

🔗 Khan Academy: Early agrarian societies (6000 BCE to 100 CE) · Khan Academy ↗

Reading timelines and BCE dates

💡 BCE years count down toward year 1, so bigger BCE numbers are farther back in time.

Dates marked BCE are before the year 1. They count down, so 500 BCE came before 200 BCE. To find the years between two BCE dates, subtract the smaller number from the larger one. Dates marked CE count up.

Some key dates in ancient times: Sumerians made cuneiform writing about 3200 BCE. The Great Pyramid was built about 2560 BCE. Hammurabi's Code came about 1750 BCE. Athens began its democracy about 508 BCE. Augustus became Rome's first emperor in 27 BCE.

Some key dates after that: the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 CE. Muhammad began teaching Islam around 610. Charlemagne was crowned in 800. Genghis Khan united the Mongols in 1206. The Black Death reached Europe in 1347.

🧠 Let's work it out

How many years from 500 BCE to 200 BCE?

Both are BCE, so time runs from 500 down to 200.
That is 500 − 200 = 300 years.
If one date were BCE and one CE, you would add instead.

What do you think comes next?

BCE: before the Common Era, the years before year 1
CE: the Common Era, year 1 and after

Sources and evidence

💡 Good evidence comes from the time, connects directly to the claim, and is checked against other sources.

A primary source comes from the time and place being studied, like words scratched on a wall in Pompeii before the volcano. A movie or website made today is a secondary source.

Archaeologists dig up and study objects people left behind, such as tools, bones, and buildings. These help us learn about people who left few writings.

Even a primary source can be wrong. Marco Polo's book about China was written down by someone else, and some parts may be stretched. Historians check it against Chinese records from the same years.

🧠 Let's work it out

Claim: the Nile was key to Egypt's success.

Which fact supports it?
One about gold in tombs says nothing about the river.
One about floods leaving rich soil for crops ties the river straight to Egypt's food.

What do you think comes next?

archaeologist: a scientist who studies objects people left long ago
evidence: facts that support a claim
corroboration: checking one source against other sources

Turning points: the plague and the press

💡 A big event can change how many workers there are or how fast ideas travel, and those changes ripple outward.

The Black Death was a plague that reached Europe in 1347. In a few years it killed at least a third of Europe's people.

With so many people gone, there were too few workers for the work. Survivors could ask for higher pay, and some fields went unplanted.

Around 1450, Gutenberg's printing press let books be copied fast and cheap. More people could own books, so new ideas spread faster than ever.

🧠 Let's work it out

Follow the chain.
Many workers die.
Is there more work than workers, or fewer? More work than workers.
So each worker is worth more, and lords must pay more to keep them.
Ask the same kind of question about books: cheaper books lead to more readers.

What do you think comes next?

plague: a disease that spreads quickly and kills many people
printing press: a machine that prints many copies of a page