Long before anybody climbed on a bull in a rodeo arena, young athletes on the island of Crete were grabbing charging bulls by the horns and flipping right over their backs. Meet the Minoans.
Contributions of Early Cultures – Minoans is now live on Dueling History. Students start in the Palace of Knossos and click their way through 14 panels: geography, the first flush toilet, Arthur Evans, the Snake Goddess, rodeo bull-leaping, the Minotaur, and Theseus with Ariadne’s ball of string. It ends with a Titian painting, the eruption that brought the Minoans down, and a crossword that moves Theseus through the maze one right answer at a time.
The big question is the one I always ask: what did this culture give us, and how did we improve it? Plumbing, palace architecture, and yes, the rodeo.
The free teacher guide has suggested pacing, notes for each panel, a rodeo comparison across cultures, discussion questions, and the crossword answer key.
Leave a comment