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Day 2, class activity.
This resource will introduce the concept of hieroglyphics to the students and contains a practice translation activity to be done as a class.

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Ancient Egypt Hieroglyphics | Worksheet | Education.com

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Get acquainted with ancient Egypt hieroglyphics. Then your student can read and write their own name in hieroglyphs!

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Day 3, video.
This video goes over the evolution and importance of pyramids in Ancient Egypt

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The Pyramids of Egypt and the Giza Plateau: Ancient Egyptian History for Kids - FreeSchool

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Day 3, children's book.
This book discusses many ideas connected to the pyramids of ancient Egypt, and focuses on the engineering and mathematics behind the them on pages 15-31.

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instant access to thousands of great kids books.

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Instantly access 40,000 high-quality books for kids

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The leading digital library for kids offering unlimited access to 40,000 of the best children's books of all time. Sign up for a free 30 day trial to instantly access high-quality online books for kids, ebooks, audio books, quizzes, videos, and more.

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Day 2, primary source.
A short article regarding hieroglyphics and when they were first used and why.

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Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic writing, numerals and mathematical problems using the ancient numbers and the Rosetta stone.

Champollion & Egyptian Hieroglyphic Writing

Ancient Egyptian history covers a continuous period of over three thousand years. To put this in perspective - most modern countries count their histories in hundreds of years. Only modern China can come anywhere near this in terms of historical continuity.

Egyptian culture declined and disappeared nearly two thousand years ago. The last vestiges of the living culture ceased to exist in AD 391 when the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I closed all pagan temples throughout the Roman Empire.

Hieroglyphs were called, by the Egyptians, "the words of God" and unlike the simple elegance of modern writing systems, this early attempt at recording words, used a number of techniques to convey meaning. The picture symbols represent a combination of alphabet and syllabic sounds together with images that determine or clarify meaning and depictions of actual objects which are the spoken word of the thing they represent.

All writing systems probably evolved in this way but their original forms were lost as pictures were refined to a simple abstraction making writing an efficient tool for day to day business. Indeed, the ancient Egyptian Hieratic script served this function but the Egyptians deliberately preserved Hieroglyphs, in their original forms, because they believed them a gift from the gods which possessed magical powers. So they inscribed them on temple walls, tombs, objects, jewellery and magical papyri to impart supernatural power not for mundane day to day communication.

It was not until Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 that the wonderful artefacts of the Egyptians were seen in Europe and their ancient culture began to awaken from its long slumber. In 1799 a French captain named Pierre Bouchard discovered the Rosetta Stone which was carved with the same text in two languages, Egyptian and Greek, and three writing systems, hieroglyphic, demotic, and the Greek alphabet.

This was a tremendous piece of luck because it enabled scholars to unlock the hieroglyphic code and without the stone, we would know nothing of the ancient Egyptians, and the details of their three thousand years of history would remain a mystery.

The man who did more than any other to recover the words of the ancient Egyptians was Jean-François Champollion. He was an historian and brilliant linguist and by the age of sixteen had mastered not only Latin and Greek but six ancient Oriental languages, including Coptic, which was the late form of ancient Egyptian.

Champollion had a unique advantage over others in the task of cracking the hieroglyphic code. Because he understood Coptic he was able to translate the meanings of the ancient Egyptian words.

In the 1820s, Champollion established an entire list of Egyptian symbols with their Greek equivalents and was the first Egyptologist to realize that the symbols were not only alphabetic but syllabic, and in some cases determinative, meaning that they depicted the meaning of the word itself.

Egyptian Hieroglyphic Writing

Hieroglyphic symbols are pleasing to the eye; everyone wants to see their name in hieroglyphs. But understanding the ancient script is difficult and, unless you're interested in the finer points of Egyptian religion, make tedious reading (the contents of hieratic papyri are far more fascinating). However, gaining some understanding of the hieroglyphic writing system can be fun as well as instructive. With a bit of study it is possible to quickly gain enough knowledge to recognise the names of pharaohs - useful if you are planning a trip to Egypt.
Egyptian Hieroglyphic Alphabet Egyptian Mathematics Numbers Hieroglyphs Mystery of the Rosetta Stone Egyptian Hieroglyphic Typewriter

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Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic writing, numerals and mathematical problems using the ancient numbers and the Rosetta stone. Ancient Egyptian history covers a continuous period of over three thousand years. To put this in perspective - most modern countries count their histories in hundreds of years.

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Day 2, interactive source.
This website is an online tool that allows its users to write their name (or any other word) in English and the website will scribe it in hieroglyphs.

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Write Your Name in Hieroglyphs - Penn Museum

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Inscribe your name in Egyptian Hieroglyphs script.

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Day 2, interactive source.
A short worksheet where students have to decode a message written in hieroglyphs.

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Day 4, primary source.
This article goes over the process of mummification, who was mummified, and the study of mummies today.

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The methods of embalming, or treating the dead body, that the ancient Egyptians used is called mummification. Using special processes, the Egyptians removed all moisture from the body, leaving only a dried form that would not easily decay. It was important in their religion to preserve the dead body in as life-like a manner as possible. So successful were they that today we can view the mummified body of an Egyptian and have a good idea of what he or she looked like in life, 3,000 years ago.

Mummification was practiced throughout most of early Egyptian history. The earliest mummies from prehistoric times probably were accidental. By chance, dry sand and air (since Egypt has almost no measurable rainfall) preserved some bodies buried in shallow pits dug into the sand. About 2600 BCE, during the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties, Egyptians probably began to mummify the dead intentionally. The practice continued and developed for well over 2,000 years, into the Roman Period (ca. 30 BCE-CE 364). Within any one period the quality of the mummification varied, depending on the price paid for it. The best prepared and preserved mummies are from the Eighteenth through the Twentieth Dynasties of the New Kingdom (ca. 1570-1075 BCE) and include those of Tutankhamen and other well-known pharaohs. It is the general process of this period that shall be described here.

Mummification Process

The mummification process took seventy days. Special priests worked as embalmers, treating and wrapping the body. Beyond knowing the correct rituals and prayers to be performed at various stages, the priests also needed a detailed knowledge of human anatomy. The first step in the process was the removal of all internal parts that might decay rapidly. The brain was removed by carefully inserting special hooked instruments up through the nostrils in order to pull out bits of brain tissue. It was a delicate operation, one which could easily disfigure the face. The embalmers then removed the organs of the abdomen and chest through a cut usually made on the left side of the abdomen. They left only the heart in place, believing it to be the center of a person's being and intelligence. The other organs were preserved separately, with the stomach, liver, lungs, and intestines placed in special boxes or jars today called canopic jars. These were buried with the mummy. In later mummies, the organs were treated, wrapped, and replaced within the body. Even so, unused canopic jars continued to be part of the burial ritual.

The embalmers next removed all moisture from the body. This they did by covering the body with natron, a type of salt which has great drying properties, and by placing additional natron packets inside the body. When the body had dried out completely, embalmers removed the internal packets and lightly washed the natron off the body. The result was a very dried-out but recognizable human form. To make the mummy seem even more life-like, sunken areas of the body were filled out with linen and other materials and false eyes were added.

Next the wrapping began. Each mummy needed hundreds of yards of linen. The priests carefully wound the long strips of linen around the body, sometimes even wrapping each finger and toe separately before wrapping the entire hand or foot. In order to protect the dead from mishap, amulets were placed among the wrappings and prayers and magical words written on some of the linen strips. Often the priests placed a mask of the person's face between the layers of head bandages. At several stages the form was coated with warm resin and the wrapping resumed once again. At last, the priests wrapped the final cloth or shroud in place and secured it with linen strips. The mummy was complete. The priests preparing the mummy were not the only ones busy during this time. Although the tomb preparation usually had begun long before the person's actual death, now there was a deadline, and craftsmen, workers, and artists worked quickly. There was much to be placed in the tomb that a person would need in the Afterlife. Furniture and statuettes were readied; wall paintings of religious or daily scenes were prepared; and lists of food or prayers finished. Through a magical process, these models, pictures, and lists would become the real thing when needed in the Afterlife. Everything was now ready for the funeral.

As part of the funeral, priests performed special religious rites at the tomb's entrance. The most important part of the ceremony was called the "Opening of the Mouth." A priest touched various parts of the mummy with a special instrument to "open" those parts of the body to the senses enjoyed in life and needed in the Afterlife. By touching the instrument to the mouth, the dead person could now speak and eat. He was now ready for his journey to the Afterlife. The mummy was placed in his coffin, or coffins, in the burial chamber and the entrance sealed up.

Such elaborate burial practices might suggest that the Egyptians were preoccupied with thoughts of death. On the contrary, they began early to make plans for their death because of their great love of life. They could think of no life better than the present, and they wanted to be sure it would continue after death.

But why preserve the body? The Egyptians believed that the mummified body was the home for this soul or spirit. If the body was destroyed, the spirit might be lost. The idea of "spirit" was complex involving really three spirits: the ka, ba, and akh. The ka, a "double" of the person, would remain in the tomb and needed the offerings and objects there. The ba, or "soul", was free to fly out of the tomb and return to it. And it was the akh, perhaps translated as "spirit", which had to travel through the Underworld to the Final Judgment and entrance to the Afterlife. To the Egyptian, all three were essential.

Who Was Mummified

After death, the pharaohs of Egypt usually were mummified and buried in elaborate tombs. Members of the nobility and officials also often received the same treatment, and occasionally, common people. However, the process was an expensive one, beyond the means of many.

For religious reasons, some animals were also mummified. The sacred bulls from the early dynasties had their own cemetery at Sakkara. Baboons, cats, birds, and crocodiles, which also had great religious significance, were sometimes mummified, especially in the later dynasties.

The Study of Mummies Today

Ancient writers, modern scientists, and the mummies themselves all help us better understand the Egyptian mummification process and the culture in which it existed. Much of what we know about the actual process is based on the writings of early historians such as Herodotus who carefully recorded the process during his travels to Egypt around 450 BCE. Present-day archaeologists and other specialists are adding to this knowledge. The development of x-rays now makes it possible to x-ray mummies without destroying the elaborate outer wrappings. By studying the x-rays or performing autopsies on unwrapped bodies, experts are learning more about diseases suffered by the Egyptians and their medical treatment. A better idea of average height and life span comes from studying the bones. By learning their age at death, the order and dates of the Egyptian kings becomes a little clearer. Even ties of kinship in the royal line can be suggested by the striking similarities or dissimilarities in the skulls of pharaohs that followed one another. Dead now for thousands of years, the mummy continues to speak to us.
Websites and Books on Ancient Egypt, 2012 (PDF)
Anthropology Outreach Office, Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History

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Egyptian Mummies | Smithsonian Institution

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The methods of embalming, or treating the dead body, that the ancient Egyptians used is called mummification.... Learn more

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Day 5, children's book.
In the book That's Me in History: Ancient Egypt, readers are introduced to the beliefs central to Egyptian culture, especially the  afterlife, which is highlighted in Chapter 3.

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instant access to thousands of great kids books.

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Instantly access 40,000 high-quality books for kids

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The leading digital library for kids offering unlimited access to 40,000 of the best children's books of all time. Sign up for a free 30 day trial to instantly access high-quality online books for kids, ebooks, audio books, quizzes, videos, and more.

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Day 4, video.
The video by The Met explains the mummification process followed in the Ancient Egyptian culture.

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#MetKids—How Were Mummies Made in Ancient Egypt?

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Day 1, lesson plan source. A lesson plan on the social pyramid of Ancient Egypt.

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Brief Description

By creating a pyramid diagram that reflects the social order in ancient Egypt, students can compare the ancient social order with the social order in our world today.

Objectives

Students

work cooperatively in groups.

research four roles or jobs, selected from a list of 12.

share information about their research.

arrange the 12 jobs or roles in order of social importance on a pyramid diagram.

create a pyramid diagram to reflect some jobs in today's culture.

write essays in which they compare and contrast the cultural and social order in ancient Egypt with today's social order.

ancient, Egypt, society, pharaoh, diagram, pyramid, culture, civilization

Materials Needed

paper or index cards

a variety of materials about ancient Egypt from print and/or online sources

Lesson Plan

Many kinds of workers contributed to the civilization that the ancient Egyptians built. In this activity, students explore the different roles that people might have played in ancient Egypt.

Before starting the activity, write each of the following 12 "jobs," or positions in society, on a piece of paper or a blank index card:

Put the 12 pieces of paper into a container.

Organize students into groups of four. Have each student in the first group draw a card from the container, record his or her role in ancient Egypt, and return the cards to the container. Repeat the procedure with each group. Each student in each group will have a different role to play; students in one group might have peers in another group who will be investigating the same role or job.

Students in each group pool their cards. The four members of each group are responsible for using print and online sources to gather information about all four of the roles or jobs their team has drawn. Give students two or three class periods to complete their research. As students do the research, they should consider the following question:

Based on the information you have been able to gather, where on the social scale do you think the people who held those positions stood? Which of the four positions you are investigating probably was the most important, had the highest prestige, or was held in the highest regard?

Challenge students to envision a class structure and to organize the jobs or roles they research in order of their importance.

When students complete their research, write all 12 roles or jobs on a board or chart. One job or role at a time, ask students to tell you what they learned about the people who held those positions. Students can take notes, or you can make notes on the board or chart. As students learn about the roles their group did not explore, they should try to envision where each group might have fit into the hierarchy of class or importance in the Egyptian culture.

Next, have each group draw a triangle on a sheet of paper. Students will transform this triangle, which happens to be in the shape of an Egyptian pyramid, into a diagram reflecting the ancient Egyptian culture. Ask: Who was the most important person in Egyptian culture? Who was next in importance? Explain that those positions should appear near the top of the pyramid. Ask: What were the more common jobs held by the largest number of people? Explain that those jobs should appear near the bottom of the chart. Have students talk about the jobs in their groups as they use their pyramids to create a diagram of Egyptian class structure.

Now bring the groups together to share their diagrams and their thoughts. Was there a consensus or were there differences in the hierarchy in which the student groups placed the jobs?

Finally, you might want to share the online resource Ancient Egyptian Social Life, at which students will find a diagram offering a view of where people who filled each role or job stood in the social order.

Assessment

Students create pyramid structures that reflects some of the jobs in today's society. Then they write brief essays comparing the social structure in ancient Egypt with the social structure they see in society today. Lesson Plan Source

Education World

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

FINE ARTS: Music

FINE ARTS: Visual Arts

LANGUAGE ARTS: English

MATHEMATICS: Connections

GRADES Pre-K - 12
NM-CONN.PK-12.3 Recognize and Apply Mathematics in Contexts Outside of Mathematics

SCIENCE

SOCIAL SCIENCES: World History

GRADES 5 - 12
NSS-WH.5-12.2 Early Civilizations and the Rise of Pastoral Peoples
NSS-WH.5-12.3 Classical Traditions, Major Religions, and Giant Empires

See more lesson ideas in Education World's History Center.
Return to the Bring Ancient History to Life! lesson plan page.

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Brief Description By creating a pyramid diagram that reflects the social order in ancient Egypt, students can compare the ancient social order with the social order in our world today. Objectives Students work cooperatively in groups. research four roles or jobs, selected from a list of 12. share information about their research.

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Day 1, video.

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Day 1, interactive source.

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You may already know about several people who lived in ancient Egypt . . .
King Tutankhamen (Tut for short) is famous for the riches found in his tomb. Or Cleopatra , the ambitious queen who ruled Egypt, is known for her tragic death. These two people were pharaohs - the most important and powerful people in Egyptian society.

The Pharaoh . . . Ancient Egyptians believed that the pharaoh was a god. The pharaoh communicated with the gods for the Egyptian people by performing special rituals and ceremonies in the temples.

The Social Pyramid . . . The pharaoh was at the top of a social pyramid that looked something like this:

© Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University,
Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester and Dallas Museum of Art
For more information please contact odyssey@emory.edu.
Last Update:

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You may already know about several people who lived in ancient Egypt . . . King Tutankhamen (Tut for short) is famous for the riches found in his tomb. Or Cleopatra , the ambitious queen who ruled Egypt, is known for her tragic death.

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Day 1, children's book.
We would read this book in our class to help get a better understanding of what a pharaoh had to go through in their daily life and specifically what King Tut went through. I would by the book for my classroom here

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Howard Carter Journal Entry on King Tut's Tomb

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Howard Carter Journal Entry on King Tut's Tomb

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Day 1, primary source.
This primary source gives a small glimpse at the journal/diary entries of Howard Carter, the famous archeologist that is credited with find King Tutankhamun's tomb.

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Day 4, children's book.
The video is a read aloud of the mummification process in Ancient Egypt.

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Day 4, class activity.
This reading delves into the process and significance of mummification in Ancient Egyptian culture.

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Day 4, interactive source.
This interactive website has the students go through the mummification process from start to end.

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Making a Mummy - The Children's University of Manchester

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Pyramids, Temples, and Obelisks Lesson Plan

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Pyramids, Temples, and Obelisks Lesson Plan

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Day 3, lesson plan source.
Students will pair up to create pyramids out of the resources provided to them. The will experiment with the different resources to see which resources and structures work best.

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Egypt's Golden Empire . For Educators . Lesson 5 | PBS

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For Educators National Standards - Lesson 1: Hieroglyphs and Communication - Lesson 2: Tombs and the Afterlife - Lesson 3: The Queens of Ancient Egypt - Lesson 4: Egypt's Greatest Leaders - Lesson 5: Architectural Marvels - Lesson 6: A Day in the Life of an Egyptian - Lesson 7: Touring Ancient Egypt - Lesson 8: The Science and Technology of Ancient Egypt

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Discovering Egypt Website - 3D Models of the Pyramids

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Discovering Egypt Website - 3D Models of the Pyramids

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Day 3, interactive source.
This website contains a wide variety of information that students can find by interacting with the elements. This includes sections delving into the different sets of Egyptian pyramids.

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Pyramids Temples of Egypt reconstructions of pyramids and temples

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Pyramids Temples of Egypt computer-generated reconstructions of what the pyramids and temples might have looked like when they were first built.

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Day 5, video.
This video talked about the three things you need to know about Egyptian afterlife and gives a better understanding of why it was so important to their culture.

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Ancient Egyptian afterlife – What was it like?

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Day 5, primary source.
This article contains an image of two caskets within an Egyptian tomb, which connects closely to the afterlife beliefs and religion of the Egyptian people.

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Egypt on Saturday announced the discovery of an ancient limestone tomb of two priests from the fifth dynasty (about 2500 BC) at the plateau of the famed Pyramids of Giza.

The double tomb belonged to a person called Behnui-Ka, who held the titles of purification priest and top judge during the Old Kingdom of Egypt, and another priest called Nwi, who was titled "the purifier of King Khafre."

The tomb is a part of an ancient cemetery, which was partially unearthed during excavations in the south-eastern side of the pyramids area, Mostafa Waziri, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told a press conference at the site.

The cemetery was reused extensively during the Late Period (since early 7th century BC). Many Late Period painted and decorated sarcophagi were also discovered at the site.

Last month, archeologists unearthed a 3,500-year-old tomb and a mummy inside an unopened coffin dating to at least 1069 BC at two sites in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor.

Egypt has in recent months announced a series of ancient discoveries. Authorities hope that the discoveries will help revive the country's battered tourism industry, a main source of national income.

The industry has been hard hit by widespread unrest since the 2011 uprising against Egypt's long-time dictator Hosny Mubarak.

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Egypt discovers 4,400-year-old tomb of two priests near the Great Pyramids in Giza

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Egypt on Saturday announced the discovery of an ancient limestone tomb of two priests from the fifth dynasty (about 2500 BC) at the plateau of the famed Pyramids of Giza. The double tomb belonged to a person called Behnui-Ka, who held the titles of purification priest and top judge during the Old Kingdom of Egypt, and another priest called Nwi, who was titled "the purifier of King Khafre."