Auburn School District No. 408
915 4th Street Northeast, Auburn, WA  98002

 04/05/02

NEWS RELEASE
Mesopotamia Marketplace to be held at
Cascade Middle School on Friday, April 5

Cascade Middle School will be recreating a Mesopotamia Marketplace on Friday, April 5, from 7:45 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.  The event is designed to be an authentic, hands-on experience for students studying ancient cultures, especially ancient Mesopotamia.  The following represents a description of the plan:

First students are assigned roles by random selection.  Roles are described as follows:

The first group of sellers will be given a booth area to set up their wares:

• Farmers:  supply buyers with a variety of agricultural products that would have been available in the ancient Middle East.  These must be real items, not pictures.

• Artisans:  These are craftspeople:  jewelry, pottery, musical instruments, carved boxes, etc.

• Clothing supplies:  Provides either finished clothing items or raw materials such as cotton, cloth, etc.  (Students are encouraged to use local thrift stores as resources)

• Construction supply/occupational aid:  These vendors focus on supplying materials that could be used to build shelters (bricks, wood, etc.) and/or materials that could be sued by others to continue with their occupations (i.e. wheels, tools).

The next group of participants are called "travelers."  They will wander the market selling their wares.

• Product:  These sellers have any type of product they wish to sell:  arts and crafts, agricultural products, clothing, etc.  They are not limited to one item, but can be a type of "roving department store."

• Service:  The participants will be the servants.  They must find someone to hire them and start work as soon as possible!

Each of the above participants will be divided into social levels of poor, middle class, and wealthy as it was in ancient times. 

Other roles:  Two students will be beggars.  They seek donations from fellow students and in exchange give a token that can be used to pay taxes.

Government:  The market will not be without a form of government.  Soldiers and priests will preside over the management of the market.

Priests:  The most important and highest class of the market:

Role: 

• Design and build temple

• Mediate conflicts

• House offenders

• Collect taxes:  give a token as a receipt

• send soldiers to announce times of tax collection

• jail participants who do not pay

• collect based on social status (3 items from wealthy, 2 from middle class, and one from poor)

• divide taxes equitably at the end of the activity

• pay soldiers

Soldiers:  Patrol the market, looking for disruptive patrons

• Arrest those disturbing the peace

• Announce tax collecting times

• Look for those who haven't paid taxes

• Help priests build the temple

During the marketplace, it is wonderful chaos!  Students lay out blankets for booths, wander the halls with baskets, wheeled carts, and busily trade for their basic needs.  Each student has a shopping list depending on /his/her social level.  The temple is constantly busy as tax payers come in and out, and soldiers bring in people for trials or jail time. 

For more information, contact Sandra Luettgen, Cascade Middle School teacher, at (253) 931-4995.