Lesson 59

Students handed in their Compare and Contrast pieces for the creation stories.

They did Practice Quiz #3 - any part not finished is homework.

We had a discussion about where story and history collide:

• We discussed the historical timeline - situated the story we are looking at between the present, and t he building of the pyramids at Giza.
• We talked about The code of Hammurabi - specifically, that there was codified law in the region where our story takes place - a code of law that predates this story by hundreds of years, but reflects similar values.
• We also noted that the Great Pyramids are many thousands of years YOUNGER than the earliest record of Indigenous peoples here. 
• We talked about the global population - the largest estimates have it at under 50 million at the time of our story (some put it at under 30 million)
  
• Most importantly, we talked about the reality that there are only small pieces of this story that we can really know - and many, many theories about the time. The key here is that these stories are foundational for current societies and religions, so they are worth knowing, questioning, and finding common ground between.

We watched more of the film, ending at just about 27 minutes in - we will continue next day!