Religion and Society @ Damascus College Ballarat
  • Home
  • Unit 1
    • Early Start >
      • Spirituality
      • Can Religion Be Defined?
    • Outcome 1 The nature and purpose of religion >
      • Truth Narrative
      • Understanding Human Need
      • Theories Explaining Religion
      • World Distribution Of Major Belief Systems
      • The Nine Aspects of Religious Traditions >
        • Rituals in Society
        • Religious Festivals of Life
        • Islam (Sunni)
        • Judaism (Orthodox)
    • Outcome 2 Religion through the ages >
      • The Nature of Religion In the Ancient World
      • Ancient Religions Research
      • Australian Indigenous Religion
    • Outcome 3 Religion in Australia >
      • History, Statistics and Relationships >
        • Historical Perspectives
        • Sacred Spaces
        • Statistics of Religion
        • Government Policies
        • Religious Leaders
        • Australian Spirituality
        • Personal & Community Stories
        • Ecumenism
        • Interfaith Dialogue
        • Future of Religion in Australia
      • Personal Meaning / Tensions >
        • Personal Religious Identity
        • Who is your God?
        • Stages of Faith Development
        • Tensions and Ethical Positions
    • Revision and Exam Preparation
  • Unit 3
    • Early Start R&S 3/4 >
      • Holiday Homework
    • AREA OF STUDY 1 Responding to the search for meaning
    • AREA OF STUDY 2 Expressing meaning
    • AREA OF STUDY 3 Significant life experience, religious beliefs and faith
  • Unit 4
    • AREA OF STUDY 1 Challenge and response
    • AREA OF STUDY 2 Interaction of religion and society
    • Unit 3&4 Exam Preparation
  • Year 12 Certificate
    • Early Start Certificate 12
    • Term 1
    • Term 2 & 3
  • VCAL RE
    • VCAL 11
    • VCAL 12

Ancient Religions Research

The religious ideas and practices of ancient civilisations may be studied because historians have pieced together the aspects of these religions through archaeological and textual research. Your research rests on the painstaking work of historians and archaeologists, of sociologists, librarians, artists, internet designers, writers and anthropologists. We cannot take their work for granted. Be ready to acknowledge all sources of information.

Ancient Religion Research Task Rubric (DOCX)
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The Task

You will need to choose some partners and one of the ancient religions (gain your teacher’s approval for this) and then complete your research in readiness for a presentation. We will be using search engines on the internet and teacher recommended sites to complete the research. The research and bibliographical information will be stored in shared documents. Use your understanding of the nine aspects of religious traditions to grow your understanding these worlds of meaning from early Neolithic civilizations through to the Axial Age.
 
Your teacher will support you through the group establishment phase and with the selection of an ancient religion to study. There will also be decisions to be made about the allocation of work tasks with in the group

Initially, your group will need to find these places on a map and place them in a time frame within the history of the world.

You are trying to understand the world views of these ancient people by looking at the aspects of the traditions, especially rituals and stories to understand their beliefs. How these religions related to and impacted and played their role in their ancient societies is also to be investigated. We are also interested in what happened to these systems of religion and if any ideas from that time have made it down through history to modern times? 



Key Areas of Consideration for the Presentation

  1. Religious and spiritual ideas of ancient religions and the aspects of religious traditions
  2. The roles of religion in ancient societies (political, social and economic).
  3. The evolution of ideas and movements.

Key Questions

  1. How did they imagine the world worked?
  2. How did they understand existence?
  3. What was their understanding of the Cosmos and of the Earth?
  4. Who or what was the cause of all things?
  5. What were their major beliefs about death and the afterlife?
  6. What ceremonies existed that indicate something of their beliefs system?
  7. Who was important and how was that decided?
  8. How was life arranged so that at least some people could prosper?
  9. How was the fertility of crops and livestock guaranteed?
  10. What was a good life?
  11. What happened to this religion? Was it wiped away or did it live on in any sense?
  12. Are there any ideas that have made it down to modern times even in some adapted form?

What is the evidence of these beliefs?
  • Artifacts
  • Rituals
  • Ancient Writing
  • Archaeology
  • ​Stories

Create a bibliography of your research - a list of websites.
Present your findings for the class using Information Technology - the use of graphics and illustrations on loan from the internet need to be acknowledged.

You can begin by downloading the nine aspects chart to the far right.

There are links to each of ancient religions. Click on any of the Options in the next column to get started



The Options

year_11_ancient_religions-resources.docx
File Size: 181 kb
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tek
​Ancient Babylonian

Ancient Egyptian

Mayan

Sumerian

Canaanite


Ancient Greek

Ancient Roman

Celtic

​Az
tec





The Tools

nineaspects_1.jpg
File Size: 33 kb
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​Sacred Texts
Rituals
Individual Spiritual Experiences
Beliefs
Ethics
Symbols
Stories
Social Structure
Spaces, places, times, artifacts




Key Search words

Cult
Mythology
Deity / Gods
Cosmology
Fertility
Morality
Afterlife
Cermonies / Ritual
​Festivals

Meditation on Life's Big Questions

Meditation on Existential Questions (docx)
File Size: 13 kb
File Type: docx
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