EFL students and historical thinking

Change Context Causality Contingency Complexity

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Presenter:

Eric Gondree

Overview

Introduction: What is History?

How does it relate to teaching language? CLIL

Can kids think like historians?

The 5 C’s:

• Change
• Context
• Causality
• Contingency
• Complexity

Putting it all together: Five questions to ask

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My Social Studies Background:

• 1997: BA in East Asian History, Russian Studies minor at Wittenberg U.
• 2007: Social Studies Teaching Certification for NY State (Buffalo State College)
• 2011, 2012, 2018, 2020-23: Taught U.S. Culture/History electives
• Wrote course-packs for electives
• EFL/U.S. History book Journey to America Today (2020)

What is History?

• Please discuss this question for 60 seconds.

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• The definition requires some thought

What is History?

• “The bodies of knowledge about the past produced by historians, together with everything that is involved in the production, communication of, and teaching about that knowledge.” (Marwick, 2001)

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• Not just what we know, but how* we know and communicate it

*Interdisciplinary: Archaeology, paleolinguistics, DNA analysis, etc…

How does it relate to teaching language? CLIL

• Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)

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• Marsh (1994): “…the learning of content and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language.”

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• Eurydice (2006): “all types of provision in which a second language … is used to teach certain subjects in the curriculum.”

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• Kiji & Kiji (1993): Content on foreign culture can be a practical means for language instruction

How does it relate to teaching language? CLIL

• Content about history & foreign culture can be a practical vehicle for language instruction (Kiji and Kiji, 1993).
• Helps students to learn foreign culture
• Helps to add context to foreign language
• Example of “creative use” in “meaning focused input” of Paul Nation’s Four Strands of language teaching

(Nation & Yamamoto, 2012)

Historical aspect to language:

If you’re going to learn Chinese…

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Historical aspect to language:

“Oracle bone script”

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Historical aspect to language:

Language reforms?... Traditional vs Simple?…

Wade-Giles vs Pinyin romanization?...

…And so on!

Can kids think like historians?

• “…learn how to formulate and support arguments based on primary sources…” Thomas & Burke (2017)

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Can kids think like historians?

• Toyota Historic Museum in Nisshin, Japan

Can kids think like historians?

• Put pictures in correct order?

Let’s try it out

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• Let’s do the activity! 2 minutes.

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• Please save your comments for the end of the activity.

Discussion

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• Explain: Why did you make your analysis?

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• Explain: What helped you do it?

Discussion

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• Explain: Why did you make your analysis?

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• Explain: What helped you do it?

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• That’s historical thinking!

The 5 C’s of Historical Thinking

• (Thomas & Burke, 2007)

The 5 C’s “…stand at the heart of the questions historians seek to answer, the arguments we make, and the debates in which we engage.”

The 5 C’s of Historical Thinking

• Change
• & Continuity
• Context
• Stories need this
• Causality
• Causes & effects
• Contingency
• Interconnectedness of events
• Complexity
• Different people & different perspectives

1. Change

• How has the world changed?
• How has the world not changed?
• (Continuity)

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Example: How has food changed over time?

• Where did chocolate come from?
• What my Japanese students think:

Example: How has food changed over time?

• Cocoa beans?
• Reality: Meso-American drink
• As far back as 400 CE

“Chocolātl”

No sugar!

Example: How has food changed over time?

• Cocoa beans?
• Also: Aztec currency

= 1 bean

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= 3 beans

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= 100 beans

(Codex Mendoza, 1542)

How and why did this change happen?

• “The Colombian exchange”

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Example: How has language changed over time?

• Seeing origins of modern vocabulary
• “Software bug”, “debugging”

Example: How has language changed over time?

• Seeing origins of modern vocabulary
• “Software bug”, “debugging”

1947 ?

Example: How has language changed over time?

• Ivan IV Vasilyevich (1530 – 1584)
• ”Tsar of all the Rus”

(Gerasimov, 1965)

(Repin, 1897)

(Late 1500s)

Example: “Ivan the Terrible”

• Ivan IV Vasilyevich (1530 – 1584)
• ”Ivan the Terrible”

Example: “Ivan the Terrible”

• Ivan IV Vasilyevich (1530 – 1584)
• ”Ivan Grozny”
• Grozny = ”Awe inspiring” ”formidable”

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Example: “Ivan the Terrible”

• Ally of England

Old English Yard Seal of Muscovy Company

(Moscow) Joint-stock corp. (1555)

How did this happen? Mistranslation

• Elizabethan English 🡪 Modern English

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• King James Bible (1611): Psalms 68:35

(Psalms chapter 68, n.d.)

🡨 (Compiled by

conservative scholars,

from 1604-1611)

“Ivan the Awesome”?

• Elizabethan English 🡪 Modern English

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• New International Bible (1978): Psalms 68:35

(Bible gateway, n.d.)

• (Updated

wording)

Example Activities: Change

• Interviewing grandparents or older neighbors.
• What do they think?

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Old newspapers or photographs?

• How do they compare with today?

2. Context

Stories need context to be understandable

2. Context

Stories need context to be understandable

2. Context

The beginning of every Star Wars movie…

Context: Sons of Ivan IV…

Ivan V (d. 1573)

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(Repin, 1885)

Eldest son of Ivan IV, killed

by same in 1581

Context: Sons of Ivan IV…

Ivan V (d. 1573) Fedor I Dmitry I

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Regent Boris Godunov

Death of Dmitry I (1591):

• Accident or murder?

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Official investigation:

Dmitry’s mother

Prince Dmitry

Ivanovich

(died age 9)

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After the Death of Dmitry I:

• Church of St. Dmitry on the Blood (1692)

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• Commemorate last

Uglich

Town seal

Of Uglich

After the Death of Dmitry I:

• The “exiled bell”:
• Riot, lynchings after 1591 death of Dmitry

After the Death of Dmitry I:

• The “exiled bell”: blamed for riot
• “Tongue” cut off, whipped 12 times
• Exiled to Tobol’sk (Siberia)
• Locked in a cell

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After the Death of Dmitry I:

• The “exiled bell”: blamed for riot
• “Tongue” cut off, whipped 12 times
• Exiled to Tobol’sk (Siberia)
• Locked in a cell

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• 1892: Pardoned,

Returned

Context…

• Each of these items has a story…

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• …without it, these mean little

Example Activities: Context

• Historical photos: What’s happening?

Example Activities: Context

• Historical pictures? What details?

Example: Tomb of Ptahhotep II �

• Vizier for Pharoah Djedkare Isesi of 5^th Dynasty, Old Kingdom (2414-2375 BCE)

Context Activity: Mixtec book

• Codex Zouche-Nuttall c. 1450 CE (Jiménez et al., n.d.)

Details: Mixtec book

• With a partner: Find…

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• 1: A jar (of pulque beer or chocolate)
• 2: The man’s name: Eight Deer
• 3: The woman’s name: Thirteen Serpent
• 4: The Date: 12 Serpent (day), 13 Flint (year)

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Activity answers:

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(Jiménez et al., n.d.)

Art vs. Propaganda

• Neoassyrian palace wall, Nineveh
• Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal (669-631 BC)

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Did it really happen

like that?

(The British Museum, n.d.)

Art vs. Propaganda

• Public ritual?
• Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal (669-631 BC)

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Did it really happen

like that?

Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)

• Assyrians vs. Elamites

Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)

• Assyrians vs. Elamites

(The British Museum, n.d.)

Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)

• With your partner: Find…
• 1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill
• 2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows
• 3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads
• 4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the

bones of their ancestors into flour

• 5: Which side looks better-armed?

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Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)

• Assyrians vs. Elamites

1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill

2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows

3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads

4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the

bones of their ancestors into flour

5: Which side looks better-armed?

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Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)

• Assyrians vs. Elamites

Who’s going to win?

1: Elamite soldiers being forced off a hill

2: A surrendering Elamite being hit by arrows

3: Collection & piling of Elamite heads

4: Elamite prisoners being forced to grind the

bones of their ancestors into flour

5: Which side looks better-armed?

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Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)

• Assyrians vs. Elamites

“…I [Ashurbanipal], great king, strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria…

…dammed up the Ulai River with the bodies of the warriors and people of Elam.

For three days I made that stream flow full of bodies instead of water…”

(Russell, 1999)

Context Activity: Battle of Ulai (653 BCE)

• Assyrians vs. Elamites

Possible discussions:

Art or propaganda?

Who was the audience?

How should they feel?

3. Causality

• Factors which cause changes or result from changes
• Causes and results can be numerous or unseen
• Some factors may outweigh others

3. Causality

• Causes of World War I?
• 1914 Assassination of Archduke

Franz Ferdinand?

3. Causality

• 7 expansionist powers (Rising Germany vs. established status quo empires)
• 2 tight military alliances
• Secret treaties

No partial mobilization plans

• Scramble to mobilize

Nationalism

Balkan ‘tinderbox’

• Ottoman power vacuum
• Serbian irredentism vs

Austro-Hungarian ambitions

3. Causality

• 7 expansionist powers (Rising Germany vs. established status quo empires)
• 2 tight military alliances
• Secret treaties

No partial mobilization plans

• Scramble to mobilize

Nationalism

Balkan ‘tinderbox’

• Ottoman power vacuum
• Serbian irredentism vs

Austro-Hungarian ambitions

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• Franz Ferdinand??

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• It’s not so simple

Causality Activity: Ötzi the Iceman

1991: Frozen Copper Age man found in Austrian Alps

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Causality Activity: Ötzi the Iceman

1991: Frozen Copper Age man found in Austrian Alps

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Died approx. 3350-3105 BCE

With clothes, tools & arrows

Incl. copper axe,

medicine bag, etc.

Ötzi the Iceman: Reading Activity

Group reading assignment: Examining evidence

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In groups:

Read & explain your answers:

Other analysis from Ötzi …

Mosses & pollen: Indicator of past altitudes

Axe, tools & arrows: varied wear & repair 🡪

Medium-skilled toolmaker, right handed

Types of stone suggest trade network

Wounds and injuries: varied healing

Including oldest known tattoos: 🡪

DNA: Blood of other 3 people found

Own blood suggests nearby copper smelting

Position of body:

Turned onto stomach well after death

Fatal arrowhead missing

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(Deter-Wolf et al., 2016; Dickson, 2008; Gostner et al., 2011; Groenman-van Waateringe, 2011; Maderspacher, 2008;

Vanzetti et al., 2010; Wierer et al., 2018; Zink et al., 2011)

Reconstructing Ötzi’s final hours…

(Wierer et al., 2018)

Example Activities: Causality

• Write a historical diary or letter
• Someone in the past is making a decision or persuading a friend to make a decision. Why?
• Think of 3+ reasons
• Think of 3+ outcomes

4. Contingency

• Interconnectedness of past events
• Events depend on previous conditions
• What were past decisions?
• History might have turned out differently

Example: Contingency

• What if…?

Adm. Zheng He

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(1371-1433?)

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Example: Contingency

• What if…?

China’s 15th

century voyages

of exploration

had continued?

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(African giraffe

gifted to Ming

Emperor Yongle,

1415)

Example Activities: Contingency

• Write realistic alternative histories, speculations about future…
• …evidence & imagination

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Why didn’t something

happen?

5. Complexity

• Historic phenomena can involve multiple, connected components
• Different people have different perspectives
• Beware of oversimplifications

Example: News or Propaganda?

• 1770: “The Bloody Massacre in King-Street”
• By Paul Revere

Illustration of “Boston

Massacre” on night of

March 5, 1770

Was it a “Massacre”?

• 1770: “The Bloody Massacre in King-Street”
• “Massacre” from

“Macellum,” Latin for

“butcher shop”

(Massacre: Online etymology dictionary, n.d.)

Was it a “Massacre”?

• 1572: St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre…
• 5,000 – 30,000 Huguenots

Was it a “Massacre”?

• 1919: Amritsar Massacre…
• 370 – 1,500+ Punjabis

Boston “Massacre”…

Examining the image…

• 1770: “The Bloody Massacre in King-Street”

Peaceful crowd?

Peaceful & unarmed?

Peaceful crowd?

Peaceful & unarmed?

John Adams: Defense attorney

Peaceful crowd?

Peaceful & unarmed?

Crowd

“tumultuous,” “riotous”

“…a club was thrown

at Captain Preston…”

John Adams: Defense attorney

Victims’ social class?

Middle-class?

Victims’ social class?

Actually:

workingmen

Rope-makers,

dockworkers,

sailors

apprentice

“ivory turner”

Boston “Massacre”…

• News or Propaganda?

(Cohen, 2023; Schuman, 2022;

The Gilder Lehrman Institute advanced

placement history study guide, 2012)

The danger of teaching complexity:

Making it brief & easy…

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Erases a lot of details…

Oversimplification Example: “The Fall of Rome”

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Oversimplification Example: “The Fall of Rome”

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• Rome falling to invaders in 5^th Century?
• 410 (Visigoths)
• 455 (Vandals)
• 476 (Ostrogoths)

What perspective: Which Rome?

Carolus Magnus (Charlemagne),

1^st Holy Roman Emperor,

800-814

What perspective:

• The Western Roman Empire
• Western (Frankish) view

Carolus Magnus (Charlemagne),

1^st Holy Roman Emperor,

800-814

The Eastern Roman Empire?

• Eastern Orthodox View

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• Byzantium 🡪
• Constantinople
• Taken by Turks in 1543
• “Caesar” 🡪 “Tsar”

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Collapse of Western Roman Empire: External factors

• Invasions, plagues, “Late Antique Little Ice Age” causing crop failures…
• Dim sun, unusual cold in 536: “Worst year to be alive”

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(Gibbons, 2018;

Toohey et al., 2016)

Collapse of Western Roman Empire: Internal factors

• Invasions, plagues, “Late Antique Little Ice Age”…
• Internal factors: Economic instability, political crises, military overreach, internal divisions…

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Ultimate cause? Social complexity 🡪 Vulnerability

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• Social complexity 🡪 More investment
• 🡪 Decreasing returns 🡪 Stagnation
• 🡪 Crisis 🡪 Collapse

(The costs of

complexity

outweigh the

benefits)

(Tainter, 1988)

“The Fall of Rome” “The Entropic Dissolution of Western Rome”?

Putting it all Together:

• Combining the 5 C’s:
• Change
• Context
• Causality
• Contingency
• Complexity

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• Five Questions to ask

How can we read history?

• Five questions to ask about historical
• readings…

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• They can serve as the basis for exercises & activities

Five Questions to Ask

• 1. When and why was it written?

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• At what point in time?
• Who was the audience?
• Was it supposed to be secret? Or public?
• Was it recorded knowingly or unknowingly?
• How was it distributed?

Five Questions to Ask

• 1. When and why was it written?
• 2. Whose viewpoint?

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• Who was it?
• Who did they work for? What allies did they have?
• What viewpoint did they have? Why?
• Are other viewpoints omitted?

Five Questions to Ask

• 1. When and why was it written?
• 2. Whose viewpoint?
• 3. Is it believable?

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• Do the people act reasonably?
• Is the story coherent?
• Is anything impossible, odd or missing?

Five Questions to Ask

• 1. When and why was it written?
• 2. Whose viewpoint?
• 3. Is it believable?
• 4. Is it confirmed by other sources?

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• Do other sources contradict it?
• Are there alternate perspectives?
• Is there additional information?

Five Questions to Ask

• 1. When and why was it written?
• 2. Whose viewpoint?
• 3. Is it believable?
• 4. Is it confirmed by other sources?
• 5. How is it supposed to make you feel?

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• Angry? Upset? Proud? Happy?
• Is there loaded, emotive language?

Five Questions to Ask

• 1. When and why was it written?
• 2. Whose viewpoint?
• 3. Is it believable?
• 4. Is it confirmed by other sources?
• 5. How is it supposed to make you feel?

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To summarize the 5 C’s…

• Change
• Context
• Causality
• Contingency
• Complexity

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• Not just: Who?, What? & When?
• Also: How?, Why?... What if? & Why not?

Thank you for joining!

Questions? Comments?

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This PPT available for download at: http://eric.gondree.com

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References:

Bible gateway: Psalm 68:35 - new international version. Bible Gateway. (n.d.). Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+68%3A35&ver sion=NIV

Codex mendoza (1542). The Public Domain Review. (n.d.). https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/codex-mendoza-1542/

Cohen, K. (2023, January 17). How picturing the Boston Massacre Matters. National Museum of American History. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/how-picturing-boston-massacre- matters

Deter-Wolf, A., Robitaille, B., Krutak, L., & Galliot, S. (2016). The world’s oldest tattoos. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 5, 19–24.

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References:

Dickson, J. H., Hofbauer, W., Porley, R., Schmidl, A., Kofler, W., & Oeggl, K. (2008). Six mosses from the Tyrolean Iceman’s alimentary tract and their significance for his ethnobotany and the events of his last days. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 18(1), 13–22.

Gibbons, A. (2018). Why 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive.’ Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw0632

Gibson, L. (2020). What is historical thinking? Canadian Historical Association.

Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://cha-shc.ca/teaching/teachers- blog/what-is-historical-thinking-2020-09-07.htm

Gostner P, Pernter P, Bonatti G, Graefen A, and Zink AR. 2011. New radiological insights into the life and death of the Tyrolean Iceman. Journal of Archaeological Science 38(12), 3425-3431.

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References:

Groenman-van Waateringe W. (2011). The Iceman's last days – the testimony of Ostrya carpinifolia Antiquity 85(328), 434-440.

Jiménez, D. M., et al (n.d.). Art of the Americas. Introduction to Art History I. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://pressbooks.pub/art100/chapter/art-of-the-americas

Maderspacher, F. (2008). Quick Guide: Ötzi. Current Biology 18(21), R990-R991.

Marsh, D. (1994). Bilingual Education & Content and Language Integrated Learning. International Association for Cross-cultural Communication, Language Teaching in the Member States of the European Union. Paris: University of Sorbonne.

Marwick, A. (2001). The new nature of history: Knowledge, evidence, language. UK: Red Globe Press.

Massacre: Online etymology dictionary. Etymology. (n.d.). https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=massacre

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References:

Psalms chapter 68 (original 1611 KJV). PSALMS CHAPTER 68  (ORIGINAL 1611 KJV). (n.d.). Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Psalms-Chapter-68_Original- 1611-KJV

Rodwin, N. (2021, March 4). "A glorious tribute which embalms the dead:" paul revere and Henry Pelham's Boston Massacre. Paul Revere House. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.paulreverehouse.org/a- glorious-tribute-which-embalms-the-dead-paul-revere-and-henry- pelhams-boston-massacre

Russell, J. M. (1999). The Writing on the Wall: Studies in the Architectural Context of Late Assyrian Palace Inscriptions. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. p. 164.

Schuman, E. (2022, October 11). The Bloody Massacre. Boston Athenaeum. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://bostonathenaeum.org/blog/the-bloody-massacre

Tainter, J. (1988). The Collapse of complex societies. New York: Cambridge University Press.

TeachingHistory.org (2022). What is Historical Thinking? National History

• Education Clearinghouse. https://www.teachinghistory.org/historical- thinking-intro

The British Museum (n.d.). Wall Panel #124801b, Retrieved March 21, 2023, from https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1851- 0902-8-b

The British Museum (n.d.). Wall Panel #124874, Retrieved March 21, 2023, from https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/

W_1851-0902-8-b

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References:

The Gilder Lehrman Institute advanced placement history study guide. (2012, March 24). Paul Revere's engraving of the Boston Massacre, 1770 | AP US History Study Guide from The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://ap.gilderlehrman.org/resource/paul-revere%27s-engraving- boston-massacre-1770

Thomas, A and Burke, F. (2007). “What Does It Mean to Think Historically?”

• Perspectives on History. https://www.historians.org/publications-and- directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2007/what-does-it-mean- to-think-historically

Toohey, M., Krüger, K., Sigl, M., Stordal, F., & Svensen, H. (2016). Climatic and societal impacts of a volcanic double event at the dawn of the Middle Ages. Climatic Change, 136(3–4), 401–412.

References:

Vanzetti, A., Vidale, M., Gallinaro, M., Frayer, DW., & Bondioli, L. (2010). The Iceman as a burial. Antiquity 84(325), 681-692.

Wierer, U., Arrighi, S., Bertola, S., Kaufmann, G., Baumgarten, B., Pedrotti, A., Pernter, P., &; Pelegrin, J. (2018). The Iceman’s Lithic Toolkit: Raw Material, technology, typology and use. PLOS ONE, 13(6).

Zink, A., Graefen, A., Oeggl, K., Dickson, JH., Leitner, W., Kaufmann, G., Fleckinger, A., Gostner, P., and Egarter, Vigl E. (2011). The Iceman is not a burial: reply to Vanzetti et al. (2010). Antiquity 85(328).

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