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Photograph: Prasad Pawar Panting and art helped make the Gupta Empire one of the greatest. The paintings in the caves of Ajanta represent the best example. According to author and writer,  William Dalrymple ,  the restored paintings on the Ajanta cave walls in Maharashtra, western India are, "possibly the finest surviving picture galleries from the ancient world." Restoration of the paintings in Cave #10 began in 1999 using infrared light, micro-emulsion and "cutting-edge Japanese conservation technology."   In a story for the Guardian called " The Ajanta Cave Murals: 'Nothing Less Than the Birth of Indian Art ,' " Dalrymple reports that archaeologists "succeeded in removing 75% of the layers of shellac, hard soot and grime from 10 sq m of the murals." Here are some interesting facts about the murals that come from the story. 31 caves make up the Ajanta Caves The paintings tell Jakarta stories which are stories about the earlier lives of...

Google is rolling out some major changes to Google Classroom in August. I've been playing with a Beta version for the past few weeks The major changes include a stream that simply provides a snapshot of upcoming assignments, a page called Classwork that provides more detailed information about upcoming assignments and a page for "People" that allows you to add co-teachers and even parents if your school division will allow it. Announcements now only appear in the stream and not in Classwork.  I love the ability to separate assignments from announcements. Within the Classwork page, you can organize your assignments by unit.  For example, you will be able to group all your assignments for the Renaissance/ Reformation Unit or the unit on revolutions. You can also reuse assignments from a previous year and you can organize assignments by date.  Previously, you could only organize them by topic. Perhaps the biggest change, at least for Chromebook users, includes the ability to...

The Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS)  has a terrific series of lessons about the Arab-Israeli conflict.   The series includes five lessons, each with videos, primary sources, maps, timelines, quizzes, and fill-in graphics. Each lesson opens in Adobe Spark with colorful and engaging graphics. The lessons are balanced and offer both sides. For example, each lesson includes four primary sources, two Arab and two Israeli. The first lesson examines the development of Zionism and Arab nationalism. Documents about the development of Zionism include an excerpt from Theodor Herzl, and one from the First Zionist Congress in 1897.  The lesson examines the development of Arab nationalism with excerpts from the writing of Sati' Al-Hursi and another from the First Arab Congress in 1913. The second lesson looks at the promises made to both Arabs and Jews after World War I.  The first two primary sources focus on the promise made to the Arabs with an excerpt  from t...

The Understanding Slavery Initiative (USI)has a terrific website about transatlantic slavery. (Note, this is an archived website and no longer maintained by USI) One of the best features of the website are the case studies . They are all pdf files, short, and readable. One study reviews the history of Queen Nzinga of Ndongo (modern day Angola).  She negotiated with the Portuguese in 1582 to evacuate Ndongo's capital in return for Portuguese prisoners of war. Sadly, the Portuguese broke the treaty.  But Queen Nzinga eventually became her country's monarch, captured the neighboring state of Matamba, and allied with the Dutch against the Portuguese, eventually forcing them to sue for peace in 1654. Another fascinating case study involves a British slave ship called the Zong which sailed in 1881 for Jamaica with 442 enslaved Africans. The ship got lost and  many of the slaves got sick. The ship's captain threw 132 emaciated slaves overboard to drown because he did not thin...

Is China becoming a new global superpower?  A new initiative reminds many of China's role in the ancinet Silk Roads. Today, the Chinese government is spending trillions of dollars building ports and highways over land and along maritime routes in the Indian ocean.  Over land, for example, a railroad line connects China to London and gas pipelines run from the Caspian Sea to China.  The Chinese are also spending billions of dollars building ports in the Indian Ocean. Some of these ports are built in weak countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka, who cannot repay the cost. Consequently, China got a 99 year lease on the port in Sri Lanka and a 40 year lease on the port in Gwadar, Paksitan. Check out this excellent short clip from Vox and this story from BBC , which includes some excellent maps. The World Economic Forum also has an excellent story. Thanks to Angela Lee for posting the link to this story.

The College Board recently responded to complaints about starting AP World History in 1400 instead of with prehistory, where it has started since the inception of the course. Now, according to the correspondence below, the course will start in 1200 (great, if you love the Mongols, but not so great if you also love the rise and spread of Islam). Many teachers are furious and think the changes do not go far enough. Check out the stories below from Inside Higher Ed and Forbes Magazine and the Twitter response from Amanda DoAmaral. Her exchange with Trevor Packer at an Open Forum duirng the AP World reading in Salt Lake City in June, went viral. Check back. I will try to update the news stories about the new start date of 1200. Inside Higher Ed : Compromising on a Timeline for History Forbes Magazine : The College Board Is Trying To Fix World History But Might Be Making It Worse Education Week : After Outcry, College Board Restores 250 Years to Proposed AP History Course  Politico : ...

How did the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights develop? Facing History and Ourselves produced the video below which decribes Elenor Roosevelt's isntrumental role in its devlopment. And here's an excellent overview of Human Rights from The Youth for Human Rights .

Here's a terrific TedEd clip on how Islamic artists use geometry to develop their designs. Eric Brough developed the clip and even has a book about the geometr  of Islamic design.

BBC IWONDER GUIDES BBC developed IWonder interactive guides in 2014. The guides " e xplore a range of factual and education topics from Science and Natural History, Arts, History, Religion and Ethics, Food and more." They are colorful, interactive, and easy to read and often include short video and audio clips, infographics, and excellent written summaries. The IWonder guides that deal with religion are terrific and can work well in the classroom. For example, the guide, " Why do Buddhists meditate " includes a terrific video clip with host, Betttany Hughes, the British historian. The guide on the Baha’i, " Can a religion accept other faiths ," includes a clip with host, Rev. Peter Owen Jones, the  English Anglican clergyman and author,  and a great slideshow of important Baha’i sites. Here are IWonder guides that deal with religion. Hinduism:  Why do Hindus celebrate god as a woman Buddhism:  Why do Buddhist Meditate Buddhism: The Life of the Buddha: a Sp...

Here are two excellent resources for studying Hinduism, both short documentaries. The first is a 23 minute overview from the The Himalayan Academy, which publishes Hinduism Today Magazine. The documentary is engaging and includes great photography. It's divided into five short parts: origins, sacred texts, Hindu society, beliefs and practices, and finally, festivals. Another resource comes from Freer Sacker Museum and shows Hindu devotion, called Puja. Finally, you can see a terrific graphic that explains the caste system.

Students and faculty at Pennsylvania’s Villanova University created these awesome virtual 3D tours. There are six in all (which I found on Open Culture ) and include Basilica of St. Peter , Basilica of Paul Outside-the-Walls , Basilica of St. Mary Major , and The Pauline Chap el . I've seen 3D tours of the Sistine Chapel but not of the others. If you look at the St. Peter Basilica, you can click on different numbers to view specific areas like the nave or the pieta or the alter.

Here is a terrific Islamic art collection, some of which you can see online, and some of which you can see explained by scholars. It's all part of the The Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art at Shangri La in Honolulu, Hawaii. Doris Duke was the heiress of a tobacco tycoon and traveled throughout the world. But it was her travels to Egypt, Jordan, and India in 1935 where she developed an appreciation and love for Muslim art. Over the next 50 years, she built a large collection of Muslim art, especially with floral motifs. She even commissioned a bedroom designed with a Mughal motif. The best part of the collection is the scholar favorites.  Here, various resident scholars analyze various pieces of art in short video clips of three to five minutes. In the first clip below, Dr. Amanda Phillips, Fellow at the Institute of Iranian Studies at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, explains how a velvet panel made in Bursa used silk from Iran and dyes harvested from oak trees. Later,...

Which religion influenced the beliefs of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism? Monotheism started with its founder long before Abraham. The idea of heaven and hell originated with it, as did the idea of good and evil. Not only did its ideas influence the Abrahamic religions, they also influenced culture. Richard Strauss' "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"  can be seen in the score of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Freddy Mercury, lead signer of Queen, got inspiration from the religion's founder and the Mazda car maker takes its name from the founder. Zoroastrianism started in Iran and grew with the three great Iranian empires which included that of Cyrus the Great, but began to weaken after the invasion of Alexander the Great and the later development of Islam. Many Zoroastrians fled and migrated to India where they became known as Parsis. In a terrific essay for BBC Culture , called "The Obscure Religion that Shaped the West, " Joobin Bekhrad examines the inf...

Here's an awesome podcast called Head On History about Islam and the Middle East. Ali A. Olomi produces the podcast. He's a graduate student pursuing his doctorate in the cultural, intellectual, and religious history of the ancient Mediterranean. Olomi just produced a special podcast about the controversy in AP World History. The College Board wants to start the course in 1450 instead of prehistory, where it has always started. Olomi provides the context for the study of world history, explaining its origin as a discipline and its relationship to Western Civilization courses. In addition to this special podcast, Olomi produces many episodes dealing with the history of Islam. I listened to one about Al Andulus and Islamic Spain. He reviews how Muslims expanded into Spain and Portugal and how  Berbers and Moors influenced Spanish culture. We learn, for example, that the majority of Islamic history for hundreds and hundreds of years took place outside the so-called Arab world in ...