History Colorado

Resource Kit Overview

Ways of Knowing Part 1 - Tree Rings

A tapestry created by Emperor Qianlong to express his concern for people suffering famine and homelessness from floods in China.

How do we know about the past?

As you observe the pottery items in this slideshow, explore the evolving role of pottery in Chinese culture and global trade networks throughout the history of China. Use disciplinary lenses and refer to object information and sources in the Additional Materials to conduct research about the significance of each of these pottery items. 

Pottery in China

Explore the types of pottery in the slideshow below. What can the shape and certain features tell us about how they were used or why they were created? 

Ancestral Puebloan Pottery

In this activity, learn about five disciplinary lenses and how they can be applied to explore objects from the past. 

A tool: Using Disciplinary Lenses

Use this annotation activity to collect answer to questions from one of the five disciplinary lenses introduced in the last activity. You will choose just one object from the pottery slideshows to apply disciplinary lenses, and compare your findings with classmates who have selected an alternative lens. 

Applying Disciplinary Lenses

Dozens of languages emerged throughout Chinese history. Evaluate the use of language on objects from across Chinese history and examine the role writing can play across time and context.

Changing Language in China

Pueblo people have been making pottery in the Southwest United States for hundreds of years. We can learn a lot from the traditions and knowledge that have been passed down from generation to generation.

Ways of Knowing Part 2 - Ancestors

Explore some of the ways we can know about the past. Practice and compare the many disciplinary lenses we can use to learn about the past while exploring the form, function, continuity and change of objects from across history.


Additional Resource for Using Disciplinary Lenses: 

Additional Information about Colorado's Pueblo People:

Rocky Mountain PBS Colorado Experience: Living West, Water

Colorado Encyclopedia Article on Mesa Verde National Park 

 Ancestral Puebloans of the Four Corners Region

Field Museum

Exploring Ways of Knowing

World History

Social Studies

Overview

Evidence in the Unwritten 	

Learn about how scientists ask questions to examine artifacts to learn more about the past.   

Ask an Artifact	

Basketry formed an essential element of ancestral Pueblo culture in southwestern Colorado. Baskets continued to be used for a wide variety of purposes even after the introduction of pottery into the area. Baskets weigh much less and thus easier to transport than pottery vessels, and, unlike pottery, they didn’t break when dropped.  Watch these videos to learn about how Pueblo people today still make things from yucca using both traditional and modern methods.

Ways of Knowing From Ancestors, Yucca Example

Pueblo people have been making pottery in the Southwest United States for hundreds of years. We can learn a lot from the traditions and knowledge that has been passed down from generation to generation. Explore how similar forms, from different times and cultures, can function in the same way. Watch these video clips of potter Dolly Naranjo Neikrug to learn how natural materials are used for making pottery over time.

Ways of Knowing From Ancestors, Pottery Example  

In this activity, learn about five disciplinary lenses and how they can be applied to explore the question of how form relates to function in the objects you observe throughout this kit. 

Click on the Object Information and use the links below in Additional Resources research and find answers to these disciplinary questions! 

Applying Disciplinary Lenses to Objects 

People from all over the world study the Mesa Verde in the South West region because these archaeological sites hold rich data. The arid climate, large number of sites, and well-preserved wood in those sites have made it possible to develop a more complete chronology of this region than anywhere else in the world.  Trees produce growth rings of different sizes every year that reveal changes in precipitation.  Scientists use tree rings to pinpoint construction dates of buildings.

Tree Rings Can Tell Time

To understand what life was like in the past, we must look at various sources of information to discover clues and think critically about what they can tell us. To understand our oldest stories, such as ancient cultures, we rely on the incomplete records we find through archaeology to learn about populations of the past. 

Practice and compare the many lenses we can use to learn about the past while exploring the form, function, continuity and change of objects from across history.


Lesson Plan: The Dirt on Ancestral Puebloan Plaster and Paint

Lesson Plan: Pottery of the Ancestral Pueblo

Video:Rocky Mountain PBS Colorado Experience: Living West, Water

Colorado Encyclopedia Article on Mesa Verde National Park Colorado 

Encyclopedia Article Ancestral Puebloans of the Four Corners Region

Understanding the Past

Tree Ring Core

3 Tree Ring Cores from southwest Colorado.  Important for dendrochronology

Tree Ring Core

Description

Object Information

Appears In

Exploring Ways of Knowing

Understanding the Past