|
|
CLASSROOM READY
INTERDISCIPLINARY MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT OF CLASSROOM MATERIAL
Tall al-`Umayri excavation, part of the Madaba Plains Project, maintains a field school where students of archaeology, including many schoolteachers,
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 Rhonda Root, assisted by Master Teachers Stefanie Elkins and Ellen Bedell, will assist you in developing a hands-on approach to history.
Developing quality curriculum is a process unto itself.
To avoid a PowerPoint/lecture
approach to disseminating the information gained from our institute, we work with you individually and in groups to develop critical thinking activities for your students.
State and national standards serve as our guide. Our
goal is to work within the current curricula rather than add to it.
With the support of our educational consultants, you will gain confidence knowing you have
developed quality materials for your 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.
|
|
return to the home page of Gloria London
return to the NEH/TUTI home page
|
|
