Topic:             The Axum Empire:

You have a choice of assignments for your digital project.

1. Develop your own website on a relevant topic covered in the course. There are many different ways that you can do this with different online software tools. My Website Creation Assignment assignment in HIS 135 might give you some ideas on how to get started, but you do not have to follow those exact requirements.
2. Your topic must be approved by your instructor (Axum Empire APPROVED), and the topic must be a very specific, focused topic. This assignment requires the use of a minimum of 10-15 web sources, and a substantial amount of writing on the website itself. Please let me know any ideas you might have for this and please make sure that I see a draft of your work (up to 300 points possible). Also, you do not have to set up a website such as those for HIS 135 (with an assignment, etc.).
3. an online Timeline (150 points)
4. a Data Visualization project (150 points)–this is my favorite option.***(professor’s favorite)
5. a Prezi aka a narrated, online presentation (150 points)—Female Voice an online Exhibit (150 points) This features the showcasing of specific objects/images.

More helpful information

Creating a short, simple data visualization (dv). Your dv must

• be devoted to some historical subject (That is a pretty broad option. You should with your instructor some possible sources for your data. Census data, and it does not have to be US census data, is usually pretty accessible.)
• identify a data source to use
• have at least ten data points
• have a short description as part of the dv
• be published and available on the web, using Many Eyes (or any other dv tool)
• I have also come across Visualizing.org (a new data visualization tool available on the web). You can program your own visualization and then upload it there. The easiest way to do this is to pick one of the chart examples available from Google, plug in your data, and then upload it.
• once you have finished the dv, you should email your instructor a short explanation (about half a page) of what the dv reveals about the data.

The Data Visualization assignment is worth a maximum of 150 points

**Some helpful links/resources (by student)**

Aksumite Empire

• http://www.digplanet.com/wiki/Category:Aksumite_Empire

Ancient African civilizations : Kush and Axum / Stanley Burstein, editor

• http://www.lib.miamioh.edu/multifacet/record/mu3ugb2760533

The Kingdom of Axum (slide share)

• http://www.slideshare.net/lacfnc06/the-kingdom-of-aksum

axum University

http://alexlittle.net/blog/tag/axum-university/

The Fall of The Aksumite Empire

http://wn.com/the_fall_of_the_aksumite_empire

Questions to Consider

1. What were some of the distinctive features of early Axum Empire
2. Was there an early “African” cultural or social pattern?