Ancient Models of the World

1. Ancient Models of the World

2. Discussion Questions: • Describe the motion of the Sun in the sky. • After the Sun sets in the west, how does it get back to the east before the next morning? • What is a model?

3. If you had gone to school 3,000 years ago, you may have been taught that one of the following models was the only way to explain observations of the Sun, Moon, and stars.

4. Think about these questions as we look the examples: • How might these explanations have evolved? • How do the explanations reflect the surroundings of the people who created them?

5. Egypt The Earth is Flat. The sky is like a flat plate, supported at four places by mountains. The sun is carried across the sky in a boat, from east to west. At night, the sun is carried back to the east through the Underworld.

6. India The Earth is a circular disk, surrounded by the ocean. In the center of the world is a great mountain. The sun goes around the mountain once a day. In the evening, the sun goes behind the western side of the mountain. It travels behind the mountain at night, and comes out on the eastern side in the morning.

7. China The sky is a round dome, surrounding a flat square-shaped Earth. The ocean goes all around the Earth. The sun travels in a big tilted circle. At night the sun is not under the Earth, but rather on the side of the Earth.

8. Greece Most ancient Greeks believed that the Earth floated in the ocean like a cork in water. One person, name Anaximander, thought that the Earth was a cylinder with a round top, floating in the air. The sky surrounded the Earth, and beyond the sky was the region of fire. The sun, moon, and stars were holes in the sky, through which the fire could be seen.

9. When the Sun and the Moon Were Children – A Chatino Myth

10. Your Task: Imagine that you are living in America several thousand years ago. Choose a location in America – this can be a specific state or general location, i.e. by an ocean, in the mountains, in the desert, in the plains, in a forest. Invent a model of the world to explain how Native Americans would have described how the Sun gets from the western part of the sky back to the east during the night. The model should also be designed to explain observations of the Moon and stars. The model can be a flat Earth or any other shape that might explain the observations.

11. Why did we do this activity? How does it apply to Space Science?