Make sure you have the EP Notebook worksheets that you partially filled out earlier in the era.

This is a continuation of the EP Notebook activity that you started in this era. As part of WHP, you are asked to revisit the Era Problems in order to maintain a connection to the core themes of the course. Because this is the second time you’re working with this era’s problems, you are asked to explain how your understanding of the era’s core concepts has changed over the unit. Make sure you use evidence from this era and sound reasoning in your answers.

Answer the first three questions of the After Learning table on your partially completed Era 3 worksheet. You’ll revisit this worksheet again at the end of the era, so make sure you hold onto it. Be prepared to talk about your ideas with your class.

During the Classic Period of Mesoamerican history (c. 100–900 CE), the city of Teotihuacan was the dominant power in the region. They traded and warred with the Maya city-states to the south. During this period, cities and populations expanded and trade flourished in this region. How can we explain the rise of these societies, so far from river valleys like those found near early Afro-Eurasian cities? This article explores some possible explanations for the rise and fall of Teotihuacan.

This article will introduce you to some complex societies that arose in Mesoamerica and provide a point of comparison to the early societies of Afro-Eurasia. Using the three frames, the article introduces you to some of the unique aspects of Mesoamerican societies during the Classic Period. It provides several possible explanations for the rise and fall of the city of Teotihuacan. This evidence will help you evaluate narratives about the development of complex societies.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. According to the author, what are some ways that Mesoamerica differed from Afro-Eurasian regions where many of the first complex societies developed?
2. How did the Maya overcome the environmental challenges they faced?
3. How did a drought destabilize the authority of the Maya rulers?
4. What are the three pyramids the author mentions in Teotihuacan? What does he suggest people used them for?
5. What explanations does the author provide for why Teotihuacan grew so large and important?
6. Why do we know so little about life in Teotihuacan?
7. What are some possible explanations for Teotihuacan’s collapse?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. This article begins by making the point that not all complex societies need navigable rivers and fertile river valleys in order to develop. But the two examples the author uses (Classic Maya and Teotihuacan) both collapsed, possibly due to drought. How can you use this information to challenge the narratives in this article?
2. Think about the area you live in. Is it an environment that could have encouraged the development of ancient complex societies? What environmental or other factors in your home town would have helped or prevented the development of cities like Teotihuacan?

States are a complex kind of human institution. People built states at various times in different places, but not every historian agrees about the details or the reasons why. In this video, two historians talk about what states are, where they emerged, and the reasons for their development.

This video is meant to support the “First States” article. Together, they will guide you to think more deeply about the state as a major historical transformation in this era. This should help you respond to both halves of the Era 3 Problem: How did new complex societies develop and what was their impact on humans both inside and outside these communities?

Preview—Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas—Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. According to Merry Wiesner-Hanks, where and when did states first emerge?
2. According to Urmi Willoughby and Merry Wiesner-Hanks, what are some features of a state?
3. According to Wiesner-Hanks, what kind of states were the first states in Sumer?
4. What evidence does Willoughby use to justify the argument that Cahokia and Moundville were states?
5. Does Willoughby think states were forced on people, or does she think people worked together to build states?
6. What do the two scholars think of the idea that states need collective imagination?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. States are a focus of this unit, and the emergence of states was one of the most important changes that made human communities more complex. In one sentence, what is a state? And (also in one sentence), how does your definition compare with the contributors in the video?
2. You’ve read a lot about the first farming societies. Do you think farming created the state?

You’ve already encountered the state, and you may think you have a pretty good idea of what a state is and how and why states formed. But it turns out that historians actually don’t agree on the what, how, or why. Were states formed to force people to do things, or to free and help them? Are states just lots of people living together, or do they have more complicated requirements? What do you think?

The principal purpose of this article is to guide you to think more closely and deeply about the state as a major historical transformation in this era. This should help you respond to both parts of the Era 3 Problem: How did new complex societies develop and what was their impact on humans both inside and outside these communities? These debates also can help you evaluate the role states play in the communities frame narrative.

Preview—Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads Worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas—Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What is a state, according to this author?
2. How do some anthropologists define a state?
3. What is Yuval Harari’s argument about the state, according to this article?
4. What are some characteristics of most urban states, according to this article?
5. What are two theories put forth in this article about why people form states?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. Based on all the evidence you have so far, do you agree more with the “coercion” or “voluntary” theory of state formation?
2. There are lots of different definitions of what makes a state. This article has at least four different definitions. Which do you find most convincing?

This activity focuses on questioning the traditional narrative of how cities and states were organized. By examining the different ways that people organized societies, we get at the heart of what we’re asking you to do in this course: question or challenge the narrative and explore historical events and processes that lie outside those that fit into neat boxes or definitions. There are societies that exist today that do not follow the standard model of organization we typically see around the world. This illustrates that although the world has become more alike in many ways, there are still differences.

In Era 3, you encounter some of the biggest transformations in human history—the birth and growth of the city (urbanization), the first states and empires, and long-distance trade. We usually think of cities and states as being hierarchically structured with rulers, armies, and large buildings, such as temples. But there are a number of places where complex societies emerged that were different from this. One of these exceptions to the rule is Jenne-Jeno, which was a complex society (perhaps a state) of many people living together (in what we might call a city), but without the normal things we expect to see in either.

Part 1:

Begin by imagining a scenario where you wake up, along with all the expected people around you (those in your home, extended families, and your whole community), but when you go out to the nearest city, there are no government buildings, no churches, mosques, or temples, or any other big monuments. There’s no written language, no borders, no government. In fact, there are only people and their houses and workplaces. How would you run things? What would you do? How would you begin to organize your community?

Your teacher will break the class into groups of 3 or 4 to come up with a strategy for organizing your community. Write your group’s organizational model on a piece of paper. You’ll have about 10 minutes to formulate your answers and organize your society.

Part 2:

Now, your teacher will present the story of Jenne-Jeno, a collection of urban areas that existed from c. 250 BCE to 900 CE, located along the Niger River valley in present-day Mali (south of the Sahara Desert):

• Archaeologists found 69 tells (artificial mounds)
• Population estimated between 15,000 and 27,000 for the main habitation site (c. 900 CE) with approximately 42,000 for the entire urban area
• Sites were found for the production of ceramics, iron smelting, grain (sorghum, rice, and millet) as was evidence of animal husbandry and fishing, and ritual sites
• Researchers did not find evidence of temples, city walls, or palaces. No signs of a bureaucracy or monarch (ruler such as a king or chief), and no writing

Part 3:

Next, you’ll have a whole class discussion about the traditional definition of a city as outlined by archaeologist V. Gordon Childe:

• Specialization of labor and social hierarchy including a ruling class
• Single, centralized authority
• Payment of taxes either to a religious leader or ruler such as a king
• Monumental architecture such as temples or palaces

What elements of Jenne-Jeno fit with Childe’s more traditional explanation? Share your thoughts with the class.

Part 4:

Now, your teacher will present two archaeologists’ explanation for how they’ve interpreted the evidence found at Jenne-Jeno. After learning about these interpretations, work with your group members to think about the similarities and differences between how your group envisioned your imagined community and how these archaeologists envisioned the structure of Jenne-Jeno. Share the similarities and differences your group finds with the class.

Part 5:

Finally, your teacher will write the words support, extend, and challenge on the board and ask you to jot down some ideas in response to the following question:

How does the information you learned about Jenne-Jeno support, extend, and challenge what you’ve been presented about cities, complex societies, and the communities frame in this era?

Share your ideas with the class by going up to the board to write your thoughts under the appropriate category. Your teacher will then lead a brief discussion to wrap up this activity.

The body of a thirteenth-century nobleman of Rao was found buried with his valuables. These archeological records reveal the characteristics of this society and its connections with other parts of the world. The weapons and valuables found with this man tell us that warfare and a social hierarchy had developed in this once peaceful, egalitarian community.

This biography provides a look into how hierarchies change the way a community functions, providing insight into the Era 3 problem: How did complex societies develop and how did they impact humans inside and outside these communities?  It provides you with evidence to evaluate the communities frame: what effects did hierarchies have on people and communities, and were those hierarchies initially “good” or “bad” for the people in those communities?

Read 1: Observe

As you read this graphic biography for the first time, review the Read 1: Observe section of your Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios Tool. Be sure to record one question in the thought bubble on the top-right. You don’t need to write anything else down. However, if you’d like to record your observations, feel free to do so on scrap paper.

Read 2: Understand

On the tool, summarize the main idea of the comic and provide two pieces of evidence that helped you understand the creator’s main idea. You can do this only in writing or you can get creative with some art. Some of the evidence you find may come in the form of text (words). But other evidence will come in the form of art (images). You should read the text looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the main idea, and key supporting details. You should also spend some time looking at the images and the way in which the page is designed. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What was the Nobleman of Rao buried with? Which of these items led archaeologists to believe that he was a nobleman?
2. According to the biography, what do the items found with the nobleman’s body tell us about the trade in this region during his lifetime?
3. How does the text of the biography suggest that there were both positive and negative sides to the development of hierarchy?
4. How does the artwork depict a “bad” side of the development of hierarchy? How does the artwork depict a “good” side of the development of hierarchy?

Read 3: Connect

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in this unit of the course. On the bottom of the tool, record what you learned about this person’s life and how it relates to what you’re learning.

1. What evidence does this biography provide for how the development of complex societies changed communities during Era 3?
2. How does this evidence support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about the development of complex societies?

To Be Continued…

On the second page of the tool, your teacher might ask you to extend the graphic biography to a second page. This is where you can draw and write what you think might come next. Here, you can become a co-creator of this graphic biography!

On the vast Colorado Plateau of the American Southwest, the Ancestral Pueblo built large agricultural communities, big cities, and monumental architecture. Yet the Ancestral Pueblo relied on movement—on repeated migrations—to sustain their communities and thrive in a challenging landscape. In this video, Jerad Koepp speaks with Theresa Pasqual (Acoma), Natalie Martinez (Laguna), and archaeologist Kurt Anschuetz about how the Pueblo people have managed their patterns of life in this region for thousands of years. We can learn about this history from archaeologists and by listening to the oral history traditions of Pueblo communities today.

You’re learning some big, world-historical narratives about the development of agriculture and states. These narratives claim that the development of complex, agricultural societies involved the rise of sedentism, surplus, and the growth of social hierarchies. But when we start looking more closely at patterns in different parts of the world, we often find evidence to challenge or complicate those big narratives. This video will provide you with evidence to extend and challenge what you’re learning about the rise of complex societies.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Remember to open and skim the transcript, and then read the questions below before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Factual

Think about the following questions as you watch this video.

1. How does the story of the Ancestral Pueblo challenge world-historical narratives about agriculture and complex societies?
2. How does Theresa Pasqual characterize Pueblo origin stories?
3. According to Dr. Natalie Martinez, why are these origin stories important today?
4. According to Dr. Kurt Anschuetz, what are some strategies that Pueblo people used to thrive on the Colorado Plateau?
5. How does Theresa Pasqual describe the movement of the Ancestral Pueblo people?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. The people in this video suggest that oral histories should be taken seriously as historical evidence, on par with archaeological evidence. What do you think are the differences in what we can learn from archaeology and oral traditions? What do you think historians should do when the two types of evidence disagree?