NEH Teachers' Institute CLASSROOM READY INTERDISCIPLINARY MATERIALS

DEVELOPMENT OF CLASSROOM MATERIAL

Tall al-`Umayri excavation, part of the MPP administered by La Sierra University, maintains a field school where students of archaeology, including many teachers, from around the world have learned to reassess their perceptions of the past.

It has proven difficult for professional archaeological societies to reach the public. Educational research reveals that knowledge and understanding come from learning concepts in context, not pieces of unrelated information in isolation.

Co-director Donald Sharpes, will assist teachers in developing a hands-on approach to history. In addition, he has a wealth of experience teaching and advising education professionals and carrying out research on education in the Middle East.

Developing quality curriculum is a process unto itself.
To avoid a slide show/lecture approach to disseminating the information gained from this institute, Donald Sharpes will work with teachers individually and in groups to develop critical thinking activities for their students. State and national standards serve as our guide. Our goal is to work within the current curricula rather than add to it. When teachers have the support of an educational consultant, they gain confidence knowing they have developed quality materials to offer their students.

Given the interdisciplinary approach to learning about the past, our site is an ideal location to inform teachers of the rich history spanning 5000 years. In antiquity, the natural spring was the sole fresh water source between Amman and the town of Madaba. Although the spring allowed permanent settlement of the site for millennia, unlike many sites in Jordan which were short-lived, water remains a persistent problem to this day in Israel and Jordan.

The long period of habitation at our site allows one to monitor change through time at a single site in terms of its adaptations to a difficult environment, population growth and political changes. Rather than view `Umayri in isolation, it is examined in the context of the broad regional events in the ancient Near East. On the left is a photograph of rooms belonging to a building at Tall al-`Umayri.

Excavations have uncovered well preserved artifacts spanning the Bronze, Iron, Persian, and Hellenistic periods. Artifacts from previous seasons include an array of unique finds. We have the largest collection of Iron II Age inscriptions from a single site. Seals of an Ammonite king, known from the Bible, attest to the importance of `Umayri as an administrative complex. Although small in size, the seals alone speaks volumes about those who lived in the region 3000 years ago, in terms of the social, political, and economic organization.

Teachers will discover the geographic diversity of the landscape and historical settlement patterns in this part of the Fertile Crescent region. Differential land use throughout the ages is discernible in the rise of cities alongside the omnipresent semi-pastoral and nomadic populations. Students will better understand the value of diversity (environmental and social) and the differential impact humans make of the landscape.