Grade 6 Spring — The Classical World and Late Antiquity to ~500 CE: Late Rome and Byzantium, Han China, Mauryan and Gupta India, Sasanian Persia, Aksum and Early Ghana, Classical Maya and Teotihuacan — Whose 'Fall'? Whose Golden Age? Whose Living Descendants?

Analyze the broader Mesoamerican classical-period civilizations — Olmec antecedent (c. 1200-400 BCE) and Teotihuacan (c. 100 BCE - 650 CE) — independently developed agricultural, mathematical, calendrical, and urban innovations contemporaneous with the Late Roman world

Analyze Mesoamerica's broader classical-period landscape: Olmec civilization (c. 1200-400 BCE) as Mesoamerica's mother culture per Diehl 2004 — colossal stone heads at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán + La Venta, earliest Mesoamerican writing-system fragments (Cascajal Block c. 900 BCE), early calendrical and ball-game traditions; Teotihuacan (c. 100 BCE - 650 CE) — Pyramid of the Sun + Pyramid of the Moon + Avenue of the Dead + Feathered Serpent Pyramid, multi-ethnic urban population peaking at ~125,000 c. 400-500 CE (one of the world's largest cities of its time, contemporaneous with Late Antique Rome AND Gupta India AND Classical Maya), trade and cultural exchange with the Classical Maya (Siyaj K'ak''s arrival at Tikal 378 CE documents Teotihuacan-Maya contact); Teotihuacan's identity (ethnic / linguistic) remains debated.