Ancient Civilization Inventions

Lesson #1 Handout: Your Job (student's job): Review the gifts the world has received from each civilization below. Choose one civilization. Brainstorm within your group what the world would be like today if this civilization had never invented these things, and no one else had either! Be prepared to share three examples of world change, and how that change might affect you. • •

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Ancient Mesopotamia: the wheel, the sailboat, the first written laws, Hammurabi's Code Ancient Egypt: a number system based on 10, a 365 day calendar, use of textiles to make clothing (linen, wool, cotton) Ancient Greece: trial by jury, democracy, the Olympics Ancient Rome concrete, paved roads, the milestone (road signs) Ancient China: the compass, paper, gunpowder