Social Sciences and History / Unit 3 SSH 0208 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Placing Ancient Near Eastern States on a Timeline
The idea
The exam's ancient questions are often about order and overlap, and the anchor's dates make a ladder. Mesopotamian cities from about thirty-five hundred BCE. Narmer's Egypt about thirty-one hundred. The Old Kingdom from about twenty-seven hundred. The Hittites from about seventeen hundred. The Bronze Age collapse about twelve hundred to eleven hundred. Iron from about eleven hundred. Saul's kingdom about ten twenty. Assyria dominant until its fall in six twelve. Cyrus's Persia from five fifty. Hold three anchors, thirty-five hundred, twelve hundred and five fifty, and place everything else between them.
In practice
Given the items Hittite Empire, Sargon's empire, Assyrian Empire, Persian Empire, the order is Sargon, Hittites, Assyria, Persia. Asked which state existed at the Bronze Age collapse: the Hittites vanish with it, Assyria survives it, Persia is centuries later. Asked to pair a writing system with a people: cuneiform is Mesopotamian; the alphabet is Phoenician, copied by the Greeks.
Where people slip
The trap is Egypt's length. Egypt spans the whole ladder, so it is never "first" unless the question means Narmer, and never "ended at the collapse", because it survived to be conquered by everyone after. A second trap is treating Israel as a great power; the anchor calls Jerusalem a hill town of about five thousand.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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