The document outlines a task to summarize and analyze two primary historical sources, focusing on their audience, purpose, context, and significance. Students are instructed to create a cohesive paper with a strong thesis, supported by quotes, examining relationships between the sources and their differing perspectives over time. A diverse range of topics is included, from early hunter-gatherer societies to pivotal events such as the Crusades and the Renaissance.

1. Briefly summarize and analyze two primary sources, identifying
their intended audience, purpose, context in which they were
produced (what was happening at the time), and their overall
historical significance (why it is important). Once you have
analyzed the documents, discuss how they relate to each other.
For example, do they reveal different perspectives or change
over time?
The purpose of this is to go deep into a piece of material and
engage with the historians’ craft of how to interpret pieces of
the past. This is not a right/wrong type of paper. This is your
interpretation based on what you know. The paper needs to have
a strong thesis statement supported by quotes from the primary
source with a conclusion that sums it up.
The paper should be 2 – 3 pages
PRIMARY SOURCES:
Hunter-Gatherer and Agricultural Societies
Hunting and Warfare - Cave Paintings
Çatal Hüyük City Plan
Code of Hammurabi
Greece
Herodotus: On the Kings of Sparta

2. Accounts of the Hellenic Games
Plato: The Republic
Rome
The Roman Way of Declaring War
The 12 Tables
Strabo: The Grandeur of Rome
Late Antiquity and the Emergence of Islam
Sidonius Apollinaris: A Civilized Barbarian and Barbarian
Roman
The Prophet Muhammad's Last Sermon
The Qu'ran 1, 47
Feudalism
Pope Gregory the Great: Succession to Tenant Holdings on
Church Land
Æthelwulf, King of Wessex: Grant of a Tenth of Public Land
Canute the Great: The Granting of Fiefs
The Crusades

3. Gregory VII: Call for a Crusade [First Crusade]
Eugene III: Summons for a Crusade [Second Crusade]
The Decline of Christian Power in the Holy Land
Richard the Lion-Hearted Conquers Cypress
The Middle Ages
Gregory of Tours: The Harsh Treatment of Serfs and Slaves
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Prologue to the
Wife of Bath's Tale
The Renaissance and Discovery
Niccolo Machiavelli: The Prince [excerpts]
The Book of the Courtier [Excerpt]
The Life of Leonardo da Vinci
Christopher Columbus: Extracts from Journal
Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Around the World