Teaching
Comparative Religion Through Art and Architecture
Notes from Indus Valley Workshop - October 21, 2000
Lesson Ideas - Indus Valley, Lascaux Caves and Religion
1. Seals:
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Create a seal - use clay or sculpy; do Indus and modern and compare to
other like objects.
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Try to decipher original seals.
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Create a "Fact" or "Opinion" exercise related to seals.
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Use seals to understand different roles in society - what can they learn
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Make cylindrical seals and compare to Indus Valley seals.
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Compare to Mesopotamian tablets.
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Create a personal seal and describe why each element was included.
(NOTE: The Indus Valley unit suggests that you can use soap to carve
a seal.)
2. Create various religious artifacts - make religious artifacts
that can be worn or displayed
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Evaluation and Analysis:
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Connections between a culture and its stories.
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Religious symbols - compare across cultures.
3. Create a civilization
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Compare and Contrast:
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Virtue of Ma'at vs. Religion.
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Middle East vs. African culture.
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Mesopotamia vs. Harappa.
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City Planning:
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Design a Harrapa City and compare to Oakland.
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Extend the lesson - planned and unplanned communities.
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Lay out a city.
4. Use of Visuals
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Harappa slides and others/images (www.harappa.com):
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With open ended questions - Why Priest? King? What is in common? How to
crack the code?
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Slides of another slides (ex. Sierra Nevada Rock Art):
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With graffiti - have students interpret.
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Compare to Lascaux.
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Beware of interpretation of images:
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McCauley's Motel of the Mysteries is a great resource.
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Ramayana paintings - use this strategy to share information about the Indus
civilization.
5. Etomology/Lesson Ideas
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Word religion - trace through various religions and time periods.
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Create a simulation of religion.
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Do a physical demonstration of "relegere" in various religions. Use their
texts - Torah, Cetta, Bible, etc., in the process.
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Transparencies with religious words - give examples and trace it from various
religious and cultural viewpoints.
6. Cave Painting:
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Do a study of Lascaux - What are these images?
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Read Boy of the Painted Caves. Make your own paintings and put on display
at your school.
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Have students try to interpret them.
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Create your own language using Maslow's hierarchy. Put on paper for interpretation.
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Compare paintings to other like images.
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Compare paintings like visuals in your community.
7. Develop Higher Order Thinking Skills
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Get students to ask questions, interpret evidence and more....
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by comparing Indus Valley to Mesopotamia (mystery).
