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Ancient Timeline

Run the Ancient Timeline MicroSim Fullscreen

About This MicroSim

The Ancient Timeline links time to place. Across the top is a timeline from about 7000 BCE, when farmers settled at Mehrgarh, to about 550 CE, when the Gupta Empire faded. Eight colored bands mark the major periods: Mehrgarh farming, the Indus Valley Civilization, the Vedic Period, the Mahajanapadas, the Maurya Empire, the Sangam Age, the Kushan Empire and the Gupta Empire. Overlapping periods sit in two rows so you can see when they ran at the same time.

Below the timeline is a schematic map with eleven places: Mehrgarh, Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and Taxila (Pakistan), Kandahar (Afghanistan), Lumbini (Nepal), Pataliputra and Nalanda (India), Mahasthangarh (Bangladesh), Madurai (India) and Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka). As you move the year, places light up while they mattered, and an event card explains what was happening.

All dates are approximate and follow the sources in Chapter 2. To fit the crowded later centuries, the timeline gives them more space than the long early period. The map is schematic, not to scale, and draws no borders.

How to Use

  1. Start with the slider at the far left (about 7000 BCE). Read the event card.
  2. Drag the slider slowly to the right, or press Play to move through time automatically. Press Pause to stop.
  3. Watch which dots light up on the map and which period bands are highlighted.
  4. Click or tap any dot to read about that place and see which present-day country it is in.
  5. Use the Jump to an era menu to go straight to a period.
  6. Stop at 100 CE and notice which two periods overlap.

Learning Objective

Students will be able to put the major ancient periods of South Asia in order, from Mehrgarh (about 7000 BCE) to the end of the Gupta Empire (about 550 CE), and connect each period to the places, and present-day countries, where it happened.

Bloom level: Remember and Understand (sequence, locate, explain).

Iframe Embed Code

<iframe src="https://aaryavvatts-lab.github.io/south-asian-culture-textbook/sims/ch02-ancient-timeline/main.html" height="762px" width="100%" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Grade level: 9-12 (world history, ethnic studies, or a South Asian student club meeting)

Duration: 15 to 20 minutes

Activity:

  1. (3 min) Before touching the sim, students write down what they think is the oldest event in South Asian history.
  2. (6 min) Students drag the slider from left to right and fill in a table with three columns: period, approximate dates, places lit.
  3. (5 min) Students stop at 2200 BCE, 250 BCE, 100 CE and 500 CE, and for each write one sentence from the event card in their own words.
  4. (5 min) Pairs click every dot and sort the eleven places by present-day country. Discuss: why is it misleading to call all of this "ancient India"?

Assessment questions:

  1. Put these in order: Gupta Empire, Indus cities, Mehrgarh, Maurya Empire, Vedic Period.
  2. Name one ancient place in Pakistan, one in Nepal, one in Bangladesh and one in Sri Lanka.
  3. Which two periods overlap around 100 CE, and where was each one?
  4. About when was Nalanda founded, and by which empire?
  5. Why does the timeline say "about" in front of almost every date?

Chapter 2: Ancient Roots