History 7-10 / Year 7 / Knowledge and understanding / The ancient world

Curriculum content descriptions

causes and effects of contacts and conflicts within ancient societies and/or with other societies, resulting in developments such as the conquest of other lands, the expansion of trade and peace treaties (AC9HH7K12)

Elaborations
  • Topic: Greece
  • explaining the nature of contact and conflict with other societies, such as the commodities that formed the trade with Egypt, Greek colonisation of the Mediterranean, the Persian Wars, the Battle of Salamis, the empire of Alexander the Great and the reach of Greek culture
  • identifying the short-term triggers of a conflict, such as the Peloponnesian war,456,Topic: Rome
  • explaining the causes of the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire
  • describing the furthest extent of the Roman Empire and the influence of foreign cults on Roman religious beliefs and practices; for example, the Pantheon of Gods (Greece), Isis (Egypt), Mithras (Persia) and Judaism and early Christianity (Palestine)
  • comparing accounts of contact between Rome and Asian societies in the ancient period; for example, the visit of Chinese and Indian envoys to Rome in the time of Augustus, as described by the Roman historian Florus,456,Topic: Egypt
  • analysing the causes and effects of the rise and expansion of the Egyptian Empire
  • explaining the nature of contact and conflict with other societies, such as trade with Cyprus, Crete and Greece, and the Battle of Kadesh in the New Kingdom that concluded with Ramses II’s peace treaty with the Hittites,456,Topic: India
  • analysing the long-term causes of the rise of the Mauryan Empire and the spread of Mauryan philosophies and beliefs
  • examining the extent of Indian contact with other societies such as the Persians under Cyrus, the Macedonians under Alexander; the extensive trade with the Romans and Chinese; the material remains of the Mauryan Empire such as the Pillars of Ashoka and the Barabar Caves; and the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism,456,Topic: China
  • explaining the rise of imperial China; for example, through chariot warfare and the adoption of mass infantry armies, the building of the first phase of the Great Wall of China, military strategies as codified in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War

  • describing indirect contact and interactions between the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty
General capabilities
  • Ethical understanding Ethical understanding
  • Intercultural understanding Intercultural Understanding
ScOT terms

Classical antiquity,  Religion,  Conflict (Human relations),  Chinese history,  Egyptian history,  Indian history,  Lifestyles,  Beliefs,  Funerals

Video

Roman Times: Keeping ancient Romans clean and healthy

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Roman Times: Looking for a place to live in ancient Rome?

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Video

Roman Times: Growing up Roman

Imagine living in ancient Rome, when your father could decide whether you lived or died, sell you into slavery and decide who you would marry. Explore the dynamics of ancient Roman families, along with fascinating facts about housework, family pets, schooling and names.

Interactive

SMART Notebook: The technological legacy of Ancient China

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Video

Roman Times: Were ancient Romans slaves to fashion?

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Video

Roman Times: Eating and entertaining in ancient Rome

Discover a world of ancient Roman entertainment that was, in some respects, remarkably similar to modern times and gruesomely different in others. In this clip, find out about such things as the games children played and the meals they ate. Also explore the types of entertainment they enjoyed at the theatre, Circus Maximus ...

Interactive

Syllabus Bites: Ancient India

This resource is a webpage with information, study guide and resources on the depth study, The Asian world: India, to support the Australian Curriculum in History.

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Ramayana: an introduction to the great Indian epic

This is a resource that provides detailed information about the epic story Ramayana, with an enlargeable image and hyperlinks to further resources. Below the information there is space for readers to comment and contribute to a discussion about the story. Ramayana is a most important Hindu story from southern and south-eastern ...

Online

Treasures along the Silk Roads

This is a teaching resource about the cultural, economic and artistic exchanges promoted by the Silk Roads in China. It gives step-by-step advice to teachers about how their students could be encouraged to make personal literary responses to images of artefacts from a hyperlinked online exhibition, 'Monks and merchants: ...

Text

Journey to the west - part 1

This is the first part of a Chinese folk story called Journey to the west: the adventures of Monkey, which dates back 1,300 years. The story is about a monkey that gets magical powers. In the second part of the story the monkey becomes a companion of a monk on a dangerous journey. The resource is 15 web pages in length ...

Interactive

Discovering democracy: Federation timeline

Use a timeline to find information about significant events and ideas in the establishment of a federated Australia. Nominate specific years or scroll from 1788 to 1901 to see what steps were key in determining the nature of government in Australia.

Image

A boxing match in Bendigo, 1853

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Image

'Panorama of Challicum, No. II', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 16 cm x 24.5 cm showing the Victorian squatting runs Challicum and Yalla-y-poora from a south-south-westerly viewpoint. In the midground is the yellow grassland of the Fiery Creek plains, gum trees dot the countryside and the distant bluish mountain is Mount Weejort. Two emus are shown in ...

Image

'The claim disputed', c1852

This is a watercolour, measuring 19.4 cm x 25.4 cm, by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80), a famous colonial artist. It shows a well-dressed man - presumably the Gold Commissioner - arbitrating a dispute over a claim involving three diggers, probably on the Victorian gold fields. Two of the diggers are in animated discussion ...

Image

City railway terminus, Melbourne, 1854

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Image

Twofold Bay whaling, early 20th century

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Image

Diphtheria ward of the Melbourne Hospital, Christmas 1900

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Image

Ophir gold diggings in 1851 - asset 3

This is a hand-coloured lithograph made by Thomas Balcombe (1810-61), measuring 27 cm x 47.5 cm, and based on a sketch made on the spot by J Korff. It depicts gold diggings at the confluence of Summer Hill Creek and Lewis Ponds Creek at Ophir in New South Wales. A horseman is shown approaching miners standing near the creek, ...

Image

Women stapling ration books, 1943

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Image

Aviator William Ewart Hart's biplane, 1911

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