Amazonia · c. 400-1542

The Amazon: rivers, gardens and the Tupi

For a long time outsiders saw the Amazon as an empty wilderness. Archaeology tells another story: towns, earthworks and soils made fertile by people. Students explore Marajó Island, the Upper Xingu and the Tupi peoples of the Atlantic coast.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 900 to AD 1542
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

For a long time outsiders saw the Amazon as an empty wilderness. Archaeology tells another story: towns, earthworks and soils made fertile by people. Students explore Marajó Island, the Upper Xingu and the Tupi peoples of the Atlantic coast.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate the Amazon River, Marajó Island and the Tupi coast on the map.
  • Describe evidence that people shaped the Amazon forest, such as terra preta and earthworks.
  • Explain why the idea of an "empty rainforest" mattered for Indigenous peoples.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 900

The great river

Open the map in 900 and zoom out over South America. Follow the Amazon River from the Andes to the Atlantic. Then find the label Tupis along the Atlantic coast. Why would people settle along rivers and coasts?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 900

Marajó Island

Zoom in on Marajó Island at the mouth of the Amazon. Between about 400 and 1400, the Marajoara people built earth mounds here to stay above the yearly floods. Why build on mounds?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1542

A voyage downriver

Jump to 1542, when a Spanish expedition under Francisco de Orellana sailed down the whole Amazon. Its chronicler described many large villages along the banks. Trace the river: where might the largest towns have been?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Terra preta, "black earth", is dark, fertile soil made by people over centuries. What does it tell us about Amazon farmers?
  2. Orellana's chronicler described large villages in 1542, but later travellers saw far fewer. What could have happened in between?
  3. The river was named after the Amazons, warrior women of Greek myth, after the expedition reported fighting women. Why do newcomers name places after their own stories?
  4. Words like jaguar, piranha and tapioca came into English from Tupi languages. Why do words travel with trade and colonisation?
  5. If outsiders believe a forest is empty, what might they decide to do with it?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Moctezuma II, a ruler from the Americas. Afterwards, compare: Moctezuma ruled a great empire from one capital, while Amazon peoples lived in many independent villages and chiefdoms linked by rivers. What are the strengths of each way of living?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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