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Ancient History and Archaeology

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Ancient Egypt This is the British Museum site, so it's quite good. Full of facts and well thought out. Hint: when you click on a subject link, a picture appears. You have to click on the picture to go to the actual link.

Ancient Greece from the British Museum. Wonderful! For grade six and up, we think. Lets students explore and learn with good graphics, games, activities, plenty of facts. Teachers should visit Staff Room before using the site, and should also check this site out first. British Museum gets a vote of thanks for this.

Ancient History  the BBC site. Wonderful! This extensive site covers ancient: Egypt, Greece, Rome, Britain, Anglo-Saxons, India, Vikings, and more! Another great BBC ed site.

Ancient Mexico Amazing site about ancient Native American Mexico. The map has city maps of various ancient cities. All in all a fine site for learning. Has links to sister sites, Ancient Peru (the Incas, etc) and Ancient Chile. More Ancient sites are coming.

Archaeology the BBC site. Good overview of the subject with emphasis on Britain.  Good coverage of battle field, aerial, and underwater techniques.

Archaeology for Kids from the National Park Service (NPS.)  May be the best intro site for kids. Very good site covers different branches of archaeology, tools, how to dig, lesson suggestions, how to become an archaeologist, more.

Bible Places "features photographs and descriptions of sites in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and Greece with an emphasis on biblical archaeology, geography and history." Despite the name, this site is not overtly religious.  Go to the left-hand menu. In "The Sites" section are very good photo tours of dozens of different archaeological sites.  We've done a lot of ancient Egypt with kids. This site fits in just fine.

Brief History of the Assyrians These ancient people of the Bible are still around today. Read all about them at this site!

Butser Ancient Farm is actually a group of sites, about an Iron Age farm and a Roman villa later built at the same place. Learn about ancient British buildings, what crops they planted, and what animals they raised. Unique and very informative.

Cahokia Mounds official site.  Learn about the largest mound complex north of Mexico and the cradle of the Mississippian Culture. The Legends of America Cahokia Mounds site has additional information.  The Washington Post has an online educational article with yet more Cahokia goodies here. The National Park Service has a small web page about Cahokia with more info and a nice picture of the temples in their prime.

Dendrochronology from the NPS. This interactive presentation of tree ring dating is quite good. Like Tree Ring Analysis, this is a fine lesson on tree ring dating. Part of a larger site.

DIG the online archaeology magazine for kids!  Big site about archaeology.  We really liked Ask Dr. Dig and all the links from there.  The home page's list of links is another great resource.

History for Kids! North American section in progress. So far this site covers: China, India, West Asia, Greece, Egypt, Africa, Islam, Germany, and The Middle Ages for Kids! Excellent, well done, easy to use, facts seem correct.

Imperial History of the Middle East  "Who has conquered the Middle East over the course of world events? See 5,000 years of history in 90 seconds..." This is a flash map, like watching a video.

Lascaux Cave The Cave of Lascaux is the French government's site (in English) about this stone age cave and its world famous paintings.  You can see the best parts of the cave at the Virtual Visit , which lets you explore the cave section by section, with closeup jpegs of the paintings.

Lost King of the Maya from PBS Nova.  Good little site from the TV show. Excellent interactive map of Mayan cities. Includes teacher guide.

Maya Adventure from the Minnesota Science Museum. Well laid out site with information about culture and history on every Mayan site! With photo section and project-based learning activities.

Mayan Civilization for Kids Ancient Mayan civilization and culture for kids. Comprehensive and easy to use.

Medicine Wheel This is the original Native American wheel, located in the Bighorn mountains of north central Wyoming. This site has a lot of maps and a LOT of photos of the site.  Good information, too. From the University of Wisconsin.

Moundville Archaeological Park site from the University of Alabama.  About 800 years ago, this was the largest city in America. Lots of information and pictures.

Mr. Donn's Ancient History Page   Lesson Plans & Activities for K-12 teachers & students. Lesson plans and activities, like it says, for just about everyone from Aztecs to Vikings. One of the few sites that covers ancient India and Japan. Has geography lessons at the 3rd-5th grade level. Also free clip art. LOTS of social studies lesson plans, up through high school. This is a great site and a lot of work went into it. Enjoy.

Mummy Bundles of Puruchuco has a short video and a good interactive take-apart of a Peruvian mummy! Very well done, for upper elementary to adult. From National Geographic.

Mummy Maker  from the BBC.  This ed game was so popular with our 4th and 5th graders that we are giving it its own link! It is part of the BBC Ancient History site above. Can you make a mummy? As an assistant to the Chief Embalmer, you must prepare a body! Accurate, and kids love the eeeew! gross! aspects!  Hints for teachers: ask the cat for advice, write down the dear departed's name in hieroglyphs when it is shown, and remember this sequence: hook, heart, write down name, salt,  makeup artist, oil then resin, make label.

Newgrange is a 5,000 year old (or older) passage barrow mound in Ireland that was also an observatory that tracked the winter solstice. This huge mound has been 100% restored with the original white marble front wall! Many great photos and information.  See photos of the sun hitting the interior during the winter solstice here.

Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago is an amazing site offering virtual tours of the Institute's world famous collection of ancient Middle Eastern artifacts!  Takes a little practice to use but worth the effort!

Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China.  Uniter of ancient China, founder of the (short-lived, harsh) Qin Dynasty!  He was the Emperor in the movie "Hero."  Could you unite China?  Do you dare enter his tomb? Check out his famous terra-cotta army!

Rameses: Wrath of God, or Man?  The Discovery Channel site. Tour Rameses' realm, play the games. Do you have what it takes to be a Pharaoh like Rameses II? And who really won the Battle of Kadesh, anyway?

Roman Britain is big collection of photos from Roman ruins all over Britain. Very interesting.

Roman Villa a reconstructed Roman villa in England, part of the Butser Ancient Farm group of sites, about an Iron Age farm and a Roman villa later built at the same place. Pictures of the villa being built. Virtual tour of the villa. Photos of mosaics from a real villa, excavated and partly restored.

Romans in Britain Well done BBC site. Concentrates on Romans in Britain, but covers Roman life and some history. This site has great virtual tours of Roman forts, towns, etc. Special section on Hadrian's Wall. Also has a Romans in Scotland section.

Rome Reborn virtual ancient Rome site. Tour Rome as it grows from a Bronze Age village to 500 AD.  Choose still images or Flash movies. Various academic institutions worked on this site, which is hosted by the University of Virginia.

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World with virtual tours.  See the seven wonders "up close and personal."  Also shows Stonehenge, the Sphinx, and the Tower of Babel. This site has various ads but the site content is academic.

Stone Pages (rhymes with "stone ages?") "Stonehenge, stone circles, dolmens, ancient standing stones, cairns, barrows, hill forts and archaeology of megalithic Europe."  Good photos and information on dozens of Neolithic sites.  Also has QuickTime VR virtual tours of the sites here (including Skara Brae!) Simply amazing.

Sun Dagger at Fajada Butte, New Mexico. Short and sweet, this site has a great photo of the "sun dagger" formed by a slice of sunlight hitting a spiral design on a hidden rock. This only happens during the summer solstice.  Winter solstice and the vernal and autumnal equinoxes have their own sun daggers. The spiral carving looks an awful lot like the one at Newgrange in Ireland (see above) which is kind of spooky. Another site has more photos and is more technical. We'll add more about Chaco Canyon and other Anasazi places later, promise.

Temple of Karnak Great Hypostyle Hall Project.  From the University of Memphis (the one in Tennessee), this is a fine site.  Kids will like the temple tour the best.  This temple was in a James Bond movie and also in The Mummy Returns.

Titanic virtual dive!  (and much more) Well, OK, unless you're a kid the Titanic isn't "ancient history" but it IS archaeology!  Kids can dive down to the wreck in a virtual sub with a virtual ROV they can operate.

Tree Ring Analysis  Part of Bioweb, excellent Canadian site listed in the Biomes section.  Like Dendrochronology, this is a fine lesson on tree ring dating.

Uffington White Horse site with many photos, including the nearby "Uffington Castle" Iron Age hill-fort. This is the huge white horse carved into a chalk hill in southern England thousands of years ago. Local residents have maintained it for as long. Perhaps a Celtic religious site, sacred to the goddess Epona, who watched (watches?) over horses. Includes shots of archaeologists restoring the site. Scroll down to see the photos.

Vesuvius - Pliny the Younger's letter to the historian Tacitus about the eruption and the death of his uncle, Pliny the Elder. Pliny the Elder was a senior naval officer who led a squadron of ships to rescue the people of Pompeii. Amazing nearly 2,000 year old letter, great Primary Source for history. Probably best for 5th grade and up, or a literate 4th grader.

Viking Quest is an online game from the BBC Ancient History site listed above.  Players must plan, prepare, and execute a raid on the monastery at Lindesfarne. Gives a good insight into what it meant to be a Viking and a Viking victim. Hints: take the chief's gold, do not land in front of the monastery, do not burn the monastery.

Vikings Who Were the Vikings? is the companion site to the PBS Nova TV program of the same name.  Interesting and factual.

Virtual Egypt Live from Ancient Egypt!  Photo tours, games, facts, links, it's all here!

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Here's an "ancient" Brittany photo.

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