Life & Death in —Teacher Notes

General information about these notes: These notes are designed to help your class get the most out of their self-guided visit. This pack focuses on some aspects of life and death in Ancient Egypt, including the Journey to the ceremony. Please note that the children will be looking at a real of a young boy, between the ages of four and six. Please do read the information panels where you will find additional information. In these accompanying notes there are hints and tips for asking your class more questions about what they are looking at. There are additional websites we recommend for you and/ or your class to find out more as well as ideas for activities back in the classroom. http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/history/egypt/

Let’s begin with life...Case—Ancient & Crafty (The Pots)

The ancient Egyptians developed the use of pottery around 7,000 years ago. Egyptian potters used the wheel to improve the quality and speed of production as early as 4,000 BC, creating pots from the two different types of clay seen in this display. Initially pottery was seen as one of their greatest technical achievements, but in later dynastic times the potter was viewed as dirty and they became the butt of jokes. People in the settlements along the River Nile called it ‘the river of life’. The river was essential for growing food (irrigation) and—of course—for the clay used for making storage pots.

Activity 1a—Observation: The pots are different colours, sizes, shapes and have different bases.

Activity 1b—Different colours: The 3 red pots are made of river Nile silt, which is very fine particles that make a paste-like clay. This silt is almost identical to the colour of the rocks in Torbay. The 2 pale coloured pots are made from Egyptian desert clay called marl, which is a mix of clay and lime only found in some locations at the edge of the desert.

1c—Different sizes & shapes: The children may have lots of different ideas about why the pots are different sizes and shapes. The fundamental idea to draw out of them is that they were made to store many different things. You could discuss with the children what types of storage they have at home. E.g. cardboard boxes (cereals, instant soup, etc), tin cans (baked beans, canned tomatoes, etc), glass jars (jam, Marmite), plastic Tupperware type containers (storing left over food, storing a packed lunch).

The The conical

Ask Ask the children when they

Think about the sand on the beach (or think of paving stones) stones) think of paving the beach aboutthe (or sand on Think

It It was made by the potter’s thumb. We can imagine that this

The The lamp has been made from clay in the shape of a shell. The black It is thought that these were based on the shape of a poppy seed head

Meet the Ancestors Activity Pack for more Activitymore information) Pack for the Meet Ancestors — What made the small dent? Clay Clay shell lamp: Cypriot Cypriot Juglet: Ancient & Fashionable (The Jewellery & Cosmetics) (The Jewellery Fashionable & Ancient — — — The The ancient Egyptianswere very fashionconscious. Mostclothing was very simple and made

— surfaces. bases (pointy ended pots) were for use on uneven surfaces storing and on sand as they would could be pushed have into it. been The flat bottomed pots pretty would havebeen useful used on flat for Ask the children why they think some pots have flat bottoms and others are pointed. the potter might have felt abouta leavingthumb printin the pot? (Perhaps itwas awayof the marking his.) pot as it to identify Activity 2 pot has just been made giving us a real link to the past. You could ask the children how they thought Case small flame to add to thefat in the lamp. Thiswas the same process used byour stone age ancestors. ourAge (See Stone These These would have been filledwith animal fat or oil. Aspark from flints rubbed together wouldfall onto dry straw or other material. Gently blowing onto this would provide the oxygen needed to create a Activity 4 lamp forgettingthe out. ancientto blow an of Egyptian theresult colouration is in the summer. How does it feel (very hot!). Perhaps sandals were useful to prevent feet from burning or occasions ceremonies. for special worn or they were perhaps mostly bare, although leather or reed sandals were sometimes worn. think sandals might have been worn. gallery) gallery) were worn in very early times. Men andboys working in the fields or involvedwith craftwork wore little more than aloincloth or akilt like garment, just likethe one Psamtek iswearing. Feet were Clothing: from linen, flaxand sometimes wool. Simple sheathgarments (seen on some of the images the in poisons is the most well known example. poisonsmost well is the effective,drug thatis stillused today modernin medicine.The Victorians alsohad bottles different of shapes and textures for easy identification theof contents. The Victorian ridgedbottle identifying for Activity 3 because they were used for transporting opium based products. Opiumis a very dangerous, but very

Cosmetics: Commonly used for practical reasons, as well as being fashionable, men and women, girls AND boys used make-up. The two main forms of eye make up were green eye paint and black kohl. The eye paint was made from malachite (a green carbonate of copper), and black kohl eye liner from galena—a dark grey ore of lead—applied with a wooden stick. Henna (a red-brown stain from a plant) was used to paint nails and dye hair. Henna is still used all over the world today as a natural red hair colouring and is used in a number of Asian ceremonies - particularly weddings—to produce intricate temporary patterns on hands (henna tattoos).

Ideas for classroom: The children could use henna paste to create hand decorations for each other if learning about Diwali, which is always around the same time as the English Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night—5th November. They could also dress as Egyptians and draw Egyptian style portraits of each other to put on a long scroll of paper for a classroom display.

Jewellery: Egyptian faience was a ceramic material created to resemble precious stones, such as turquoise and lapis lazuli. Ancient Egyptians used faience to produce a range of objects including jewellery, figurines, tiles and architectural elements. Faience objects were common in ancient Egypt and made from ground quart or sand with a small amount of lime and plant or natron (a natural salt). The blue glaze was made of soda lime and silica. An intriguing theory is that the ancient Egyptians also used blue glass fragments found in the desert. Scientists have found ‘fields’ of glass in the desert from a suspected meteorite impact: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXTB2QyRg4U

Ideas for classroom: Make a diadem (Egyptian head adornment) or a headdress to wear as part of an ancient Egyptian costume. Make a necklace from blue sticky shapes on thick card or—as a D&T project make real ceramic beads from clay and paint them before creating the necklace.

Activity — 5 Egyptian portrait: Encourage the children to look around at the images of different Egyptians. For example there is a white reproduction sculpture of an Egyptian head near the Pots case. They could use the ’hair’ as inspiration for their drawing. They could also complete the portrait once they’ve finished the activity pack

Activity —6 Dark lined eyes: The ancient Egyptians drew their almond shaped eyes to look like the eyes of the God , to protect them from evil spirits. The galena the eye make-up was made from was also thought to help keep insects away.

Activity —7 Red cheeks: The Face make up included stain for cheeks made from red ochre from the same red clay used to make the pots. It would have been ‘washed’ and dried in the sun (or burnt) to produce the rouge.

Now for the death bit... Psamtek—The Boy Mummy Activity —8 Observing the mummy: The key thing for the children to notice is that the mummified body is smaller than the coffin base. The blue objects draped over the body represent the inner organs. The heart was left in because they thought it contained the dreams and memories of the dead, and therefore your soul. Of course it was also needed to be weighed during the ‘Journey to the Afterlife ceremony.

Activity — 9 The coffin would have originally been used in the New Kingdom and left in a tomb for 1000 years. It must then have been found by people in Psamtek’s time (later intermediate period) and reused for this small boy. After being put in another tomb the coffin and mummy was discovered in the 1920s and sold to Lady Leeds. This reused royal coffin is over 2,500 years old. Wood survives well in Egypt because the climate is so dry.

Activity 10—The position of the arms is very important and tells archaeologists what the status of the owner is. The decorative detail (including the inclusion of knees carved into the wood), and placing of the carved arms of this coffin indicates that it belonged to a very wealthy family—maybe even royalty—so at first it was thought that Psamtek must have been from a wealthy family himself. However, research on the mummy shows that the coffin is 1000 years older than he is.

Activity 11—The Sons of Horus were minor deities who protected the internal organs of the dead which were removed during the mummification process. These were then embalmed in the same way as the body and placed in stone or wooden canopic jars. These were sometimes kept together in a .

Activity 11b—Designing a canopic jar: Initially, the jars had plain disc lids but human-headed lids later became more common. After the late Eighteenth Dynasty (about 1550-1295 BC), the stoppers often represented the . The god Qebhsenuef (intestines) had a jackal head; (the stomach) had a falcon head; Hapy (the lungs) had the head of a baboon, and Imsety (the liver) had a human head. NB: The children have this information in their packs.

A change took place in the embalming practice during the Twenty-First Dynasty (about 1069-945 BC).The internal organs were returned to the body cavity after being wrapped, protected by wax or clay figures of the Sons of Horus. This made the canopic jars redundant, though they were still included in the tomb as they were viewed as an essential element of a good burial. The jars were often not hollowed out and were simply dummies, though as in these examples, they were decorated and inscribed as if they were intended for use.

Source:

Journey to the Afterlife Ceremony

Activity 11a—Journey to the Afterlife (this information is also on one of the tall, yellow pillars that are part of the enclosed Egypt display).

Step one—Answer: The mummification process took 70 days.

Mummification—In a 70 day process embalmers removes and discarded the brain and place most of the internal organs in a canopic jar. The body was the dried out with natron salts, treated with oils and resins, wrapped in linen and placed in a coffin.

Step 2—Answer: The priests stood the mummy up on its feet.

Opening of the mouth ceremony—When the funeral processions arrived at the tombs the funerary priests stood the mummy up in its coffin and performed the Opening of the Mouth cere- mony. This magically restored all the deceased’s senses so they could live again in the afterlife

Step 3—Answer: The soul was called ka and the spirit was akh.

Journey to the Afterlife—With the deceased’s soul (ka) left in its mummified body its spirit (akh) could travel on separately to the afterlife through the underworld, guided and protected by spells in the , and maps painted inside the coffin.

Step 4—Answer: The heart was weighed against a feather.

Judgement of —If the body made it through the underworld they were brought before Osiris for judgement and their heart was weighed against a feather by the goddess —the symbol of harmony and good conduct. If the heart was heavy with sin they died a second time but if the heart was light they passed into eternity

Step 5—Answer: In early times the Egyptians believed the dead were transformed into stars.

Arrival in Paradise—We don’t know exactly what they believed the afterlife was like. During the early dynasties they may have believed people were transformed into stars. In later periods they continued normal life in the ‘field of reeds’—a paradise modelled on Egypt.

Activity 12—The Shabti: Shabti were funerary figurines usually in the form of a mummy that were popular in the Middle Kingdom. Their purpose was to help out in the afterlife. They were made from a range of materials (ask the children for suggestions) and—during the New Kingdom—were placed in tombs in large numbers. Many of them were inscribed with Chapter VI from the Book of the Dead which summoned them to work. For a while shabtis were not in the form of but instead dressed as a living being, each carrying a whip or baton. These were the ‘supervisors’ who controlled the rest of the workers in the afterlife.

What jobs can the children think of that would have been performed in daily life in ancient Egypt, that the shabti would do in the afterlife?

Other Egyptians linked activities to do during your visit:

 The Curse of the Mummy's Hand: Become a newspaper reporter and discover the truth behind the 'Curse of the Mummy's Hand' in our 'Egyptomania' exhibition, then receive a newspaper with your name in the headline! This interactive game was developed by the BBC for Torquay Museum and is based on actual recorded events surrounding the discovery of King Tutankha- nun's tomb by Howard Carter and the untimely death of Lord Carnarvon.

For more information on learning at Torquay Museum please go to: www.torquaymuseum.org/learn Or contact [email protected] Tel: 01803 293975