Ancient/Pre-history studies

[mommymilkies]

My almost 14 yo is unhappy about doing Modern history this year-something she has yet to fully study.  She has been deeply interested in ancient history since Kindergarten and that's her future college goals (history/archaeology). So I think I will have to hurry through Modern history so she can start back on Ancients. 

 

She loves Ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman history.  However, she really wants to reach back to lesser "popular" ancient histories and get more into prehistoric times-things like the Kennewick man, Native American migrations, Early European migrations and settlements, Picts, and things like that.  She also wants to study Prehistoric Asia more.  So further back than most resources I have found.  A lot give a rather brief overview on Prehistoric human populations and archaeology.  

 

I plan on trying to find the new book about Kennewick man when it comes out, and I have a few books on my wishlist for her.  

 

Does anyone have any favorites for early ancients or prehistory?  Has anyone centered a semester or year of work around this time period? 

[elegantlion]

You could use the Big History Project as a supplement too. I haven't looked through all the later units, but it would be good for a budding archaeologist. https://www.bighistoryproject.com/home

[mommymilkies]

Thanks!

[Kfamily]

Here are a few possible suggestions:

 

 

In the Land of Ur: The Discovery of Ancient Mesopotamia by Hans Baumann

A Short History of the Near East by William S. Davis

The Code of Hammurabi (Internet History Sourcebook)

Readings in Ancient History by William S. Davis (Greece and the East)

Belshazzar: A Tale of the Fall of Babylon by William S. Davis

Roman Britain by R. G. Collingwood

Germania and Agricola by Tacitus

The Flowering of Ireland: Saints, Scholars and Kings by Katharine Scherman

 

I just copied and pasted these from my blog, so some of these can be found online, some are historical fiction and some may be further along in time than you might have wanted. But, maybe one of these might work... :)

[kiana]

If her overall load isn't too heavy, what about doing a rather light modern history course this year (as you planned), and another course in archaeology (a college textbook should be easily accessible for a motivated 9th grader)? Having two social sciences in one year is very reasonable for an interested student (after all, many students double-up in science or math).

 

Also, for your reading pleasure, here are some amazon lists -- not mine:

The first two are about ancient America -- North and South

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/R2MQCGL6C7PLXV/ref=cm_syt_fvlm_f_1_rlrssl0

http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Americas-Conquest-Incas-Aztecs/lm/R1A417CYP0NK21/ref=cm_lmt_fvsy_f_1_rysdsd0

Here's a list about ancient pre-history:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Revolution-in-Ancient-Pre-History-Pre-Ice-Age-Civilization/lm/R2JDO0AOPO6WS8/ref=cm_srch_res_rpli_alt_1

[chiguirre]

Svante Paabo just published a book on the Neanderthal genome. Here's a link:

 

http://smile.amazon.com/Neanderthal-Man-Search-Lost-Genomes/dp/0465020836/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409343234&sr=8-1&keywords=svante+paabo

 

I did an excellent MOOC on ancient hominids:

 

https://class.coursera.org/humanevolution-001

 

Hopefully, they'll offer it again.

[mommymilkies]

Thanks, everyone! I'll have her look through these.

[Luckymama]

Dd is studying ancient history this year (though not as early as prehistory--we're saving that for a later course) plus an intro to archaeology course I put together.

 

She's using Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practices by Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn (6th edition, ISBN 9780500289761). There is a free website for this edition through the publisher with quizzes, links to additional resources, and activities for each chapter.

 

Book: http://www.amazon.com/Archaeology-Theories-Methods-Practice-Edition/dp/050028976X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409354957&sr=8-1&keywords=9780500289761

 

Website: http://college.thamesandhudsonusa.com/college/archaeology/archaeology6/

[elegantlion]

Brian Fagan also has some books on pre-history. We used his "In the Beginning" text for my archaeology college class. It's not as detailed as the book Luckymama linked, however. 

[EndOfOrdinary]

One of my majors in college (there was a procession of a few over the years) was bio-cultural anthropology. The PreHuman stuff is normally listed as biological anthropology. If you Google those terms you can find a lot.

 

Austeropithicus and homo heidelbergensis are the two major PreHumanoid species if she is really wanting to get into the ideas of early human-like beings. Googling those two will give her quite a bit of focused info.

 

I do not know if that helps or just makes things more complicated. Unfortunately, we are still really learning a lot about these creatures and what we think they might have been up to. Most of the info out there is postulating quite a bit. Fascinating, but still a whole lot of "so we kinda might think this is what could have been going on..."

[Corraleno]

Brian Fagan also has a Teaching Company course: Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations. It's an older course, so you might be able to find it in the library, or if you have Audible you could get the audio download for 1 credit.