Social Studies — Study Sheet

🏺 What Is Cultural Heritage?

Cultural heritage is everything a group of people creates and passes down to the people who come after them. It is what one generation leaves for the next: buildings, objects, ideas, languages, stories, recipes and celebrations.

Tangible heritage Things you can touch. Temples, statues, coins, roads, walls, pottery, aqueducts, ruins and old books.
Example: the Parthenon in Athens and the Colosseum in Rome.

Intangible heritage Things you cannot touch, but that people still keep alive. Languages, myths, music, festivals, recipes, games and ways of governing.
Example: democracy, the Olympic Games and Greek myths.

Why does heritage change or stay the same?
Some things persist because people keep finding them useful or important — like voting, the alphabet or the Olympics. Other things change because society changed its mind or found something better — aqueducts became water pipes, and scrolls became books and screens. And some things disappear because we decided they were wrong — like slavery and gladiator fights.

In the test, "persist" means it is still here today. "Change" means it turned into something else. Look for both!

⚖️ Ancient Greece vs. Ancient Rome

Two ancient civilizations, side by side. Compare them line by line — this is the heart of the test.

Feature	🏛️ Ancient Greece	🦅 Ancient Rome
Architecture	Columns and marble temples. Three column styles: Doric (simple), Ionic (scrolls), Corinthian (leaves). Open-air theatres carved into hillsides. Famous: the Parthenon.	Arches, domes and concrete — Roman inventions that let them build bigger. Aqueducts, paved roads, public baths and huge amphitheatres. Famous: the Colosseum and the Pantheon.
Way of life	Life happened in the polis (city-state). Citizens met in the agora to trade and argue about the city. They loved philosophy, theatre and sport — the Olympic Games started here.	Life centred on the family and the forum (the main public square). Romans enjoyed public baths, chariot races and gladiator games. They were famous engineers and soldiers.
Agriculture	Rocky, mountainous soil — hard to farm. They grew olives, grapes and barley, and used the sea to trade what they could not grow.	Rich, fertile land. Wheat, olives and grapes on huge farms called latifundia, worked mostly by enslaved people. Extra grain arrived from Egypt and North Africa.
Religion	Polytheistic — many gods living on Mount Olympus: Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, Apollo. People visited oracles and told myths to explain the world.	Also polytheistic. Romans borrowed the Greek gods and gave them Latin names: Zeus → Jupiter, Athena → Minerva, Poseidon → Neptune. Later the empire became Christian.
Socioeconomic structure	Citizens (free men born in the city), foreigners and enslaved people. Women could not vote. Athens invented democracy; Sparta was ruled by soldiers.	Patricians (rich noble families), plebeians (ordinary people) and enslaved people. Rome went from Republic (ruled by the Senate) to Empire (ruled by an emperor).

Easy way to remember: Greece gave us IDEAS (democracy, philosophy, theatre). Rome gave us ENGINEERING (roads, arches, aqueducts, laws).

🏙️ How Cities Grew — and Why They Mattered

Ancient cities did not appear by accident. People settled where life was possible, and the city grew around what they needed most.

💧WaterA river, spring or aqueduct. Without water there is no city — this always comes first.

🌾FoodFarmland nearby to feed everyone, so not everybody had to farm.

🛡️DefenceWalls, and a hill to see enemies coming. In Greece this high point was the acropolis.

🛒TradeA market square — the agora in Greece, the forum in Rome — plus roads or a port.

⛪ReligionA temple for the gods, usually in the most important spot in the city.

🏛️GovernmentA place to make decisions and laws — the assembly in Athens, the Senate in Rome.

Why cities were so important: when many people live together, not everyone needs to grow food. Some can become potters, teachers, builders, soldiers or artists. That is how new jobs, new ideas, writing, laws and art appeared. Cities are where civilizations grow.

Roman city planning: Romans built new cities on a grid, with two main streets crossing in the middle — the cardo (north–south) and the decumanus (east–west). The forum sat where they met. Many European cities still follow those Roman streets today.

⏳ Changed or Still Here? Heritage Over Time

Some things from Greece and Rome are still part of your life. Others changed shape, and a few are gone for good.

Athenian democracy — citizens voting in the assembly

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Elections and voting today still here

The ancient Olympic Games in Olympia

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The modern Olympics, every 4 years still here

The Greek alphabet

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Letters like α, β and π in maths and science still here

Latin, the language of Rome

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Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and French grew out of it still here

The Roman Senate

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Brazil still has a Senate — same name, same idea still here

Greek theatre with comedy and tragedy

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Theatres, cinema and TV drama still here

Roman aqueducts carrying water into the city

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Water pipes and taps in your house changed form

The Colosseum and its crowds

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Football stadiums and arenas changed form

Scrolls and wax tablets

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Books, tablets and screens changed form

Slavery as a normal part of society

Abolished — today it is a crime gone

Gladiator fights to the death

Gone — but sport arenas remain gone

Worshipping the gods of Olympus

No longer a religion — the myths survive as stories, and the names live on in planets and brands gone as religion

If the question asks what "persisted", think: do we still do it today? If it asks what "changed", think: what did it turn into?

🔤 Key Vocabulary

Learn these words in English — they will appear in the questions.

Word	Meaning
heritage	What people from the past passed down to us: buildings, ideas, customs and language.
civilization	A large, organised society with cities, government, writing and its own culture.
ancient	From a very long time ago — thousands of years in the past.
polis	A Greek city-state: a city that governed itself, like Athens or Sparta.
agora	The open market and meeting square in a Greek city.
acropolis	The high, fortified hill of a Greek city, where the main temple stood.
forum	The main public square of a Roman city — market, law court and meeting place.
aqueduct	A bridge-like channel that carried fresh water into a Roman city.
column	A tall stone pillar that holds up a roof — typical of Greek temples.
citizen	A member of the city who had rights, such as voting. In Greece, only free men.
democracy	Government where citizens vote to decide. It began in Athens.
republic	A state with no king, governed by elected representatives — like early Rome.
empire	Many lands and peoples ruled by one power, usually led by an emperor.
senate	The council of important men who advised and governed in Rome.
patrician	A member of a rich, noble Roman family.
plebeian	An ordinary Roman citizen — farmer, worker or merchant.
merchant	A person who buys and sells goods; a trader.
artisan	A skilled worker who makes things by hand, such as pots or jewellery.
polytheistic	Believing in many gods.
myth	An old story that explains the world or the gods.
tangible	Something you can touch, like a statue or a wall.
intangible	Something you cannot touch, like a language or a tradition.
persist	To continue to exist over time.
preserve	To protect something so it is not lost or destroyed.

Read each word out loud once. Hearing it helps you recognise it in the test!