Overview
Now let's return to our discussion of the rains. What happened at the middle of the 4th millennium BC? Did the rain stop? No. The Holocene Wet Phase ended, and "coincidentally" Egyptian civilization began. But it is not all that simple.
Learning Objectives
By the end of Lesson 8, successful students will be able to:
- Diagram the evolution of Egyptian dynasties and climate/rainfall changes over time.
- Describe how the flood level of the Nile affected Ancient Egypt society.
- Identify how the flood records of the Nile tell us about the rainfall information in a large region of the African continent.
- Describe the relationship between the state of the Nile and global climate change.
- Analyze and interpret recent climate data using Excel to better understand the concepts of climactic change and global warming.
- Recognize that the dry out in Northern Africa over the past 10,000 years is not related to human burning of fossil fuels.
Reading Assignment from e-Reserves
Electronic course reserves, or "e-Reserves," are articles that are available online through the University Libraries.You can access our course reserves by clicking on the Resources tab in ANGEL and then clicking on the "Library Reserves" link within the "Penn State Library Tools" box. E-Reserves directions are also available to help you learn how to use the online system.
Deliverables
The following items are due by the end of this lesson (see the Calendar tab in ANGEL for specific due dates). Detailed information about the assignments and submission directions are included in this lesson.
- Discussion Forum: Climate of Africa, Part II
- Assignment: Climate Change Project, Part A
Questions?
If you have any questions now or at any point during this week, please feel free to post them to the Lesson 8 Discussion Forum. (That discussion forum can be accessed at any time by clicking on the Communicate tab in ANGEL and then looking in the Discussion Forums box.)
