Teaching activities Week 1 Week 1 – A life in objects; my inspiration, food, hero and image The activities follow the format of the Radio 4 show with each designed to take 15-20 minutes a day for a couple of weeks. This week is about looking at a variety of objects and their links to personal as well as world history. Pupils may well have seen these objects as part of the CBBC Relic: Guardians of the Museum programme. Day 1 - My inspiration: Neil Macgregor talks about the Mummy Hornedjitef Introduction . Play the class the first 04.19minutes of the first A History of the World programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/sogITE3FSKStl k12qd2W3w . It is Neil Macgregor, the Director of the British Museum introducing the project and stating the reasons for his love of history and the telling history using objects. Put the image of the Mummy Hornedjitef on an Interactive White Board (IWB). Scroll in and out showing pupils the various sections of the Mummy Case and telling them the story of Hornedjitef. The Story of Hornedjitef – key elements 1 'When he arrived at the Museum in 1835, the hieroglyphic script had only just been deciphered, so the first step forward was to read all the inscriptions on his coffins, which told us who he was, what his job was, and something about the religious background that he knew.' (John Taylor) He was a priest in the Temple of Karnak around 250 BC. Like all Egyptians, he believed that if his body was preserved, he would live beyond death, but before reaching the afterlife, he would have to undertake a hazardous journey, for which he needed to prepare with the utmost care. So he took with him charms, amulets and spells for every eventuality. On the lid of his inner coffin, he even had painted a map of the heavens stretched out above him as an aid to navigation. Hornedjitef has, in fact, commissioned his own personal firmament and time-machine. This elaborate coffin will let him travel through both time and space, and all this meticulous preparation on his part has allowed us to travel in the opposite direction, back to him and to his world. 'In the last 20 years, there have been huge steps forward in ways of gathering information. So we're now looking at the condition of the bodies non-invasively, just by scanning them. We can examine the teeth in great detail, look at the wear and the dental disease that they suffered from, we can look at the bones, we can see now that Hornedjitef had arthritis in his back which must have been very painful for him.' (John Taylor) But the scientific advances of the last couple of decades have allowed us to find out about a great deal more than Hornedjitef's bad back. If the words on his coffin tell us about his place in society and what that society believed about life after death, the new scientific techniques let us go one stage further -to analyse the materials with which mummies and coffins were made, and to see how Egypt was connected to the world round about it. Read the full programme transcript for more information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/about/transcripts/episode1/ 2 Activities 1. Ask the class to discuss what they can learn about religious beliefs, science, occupation and wealth of Hornedjitef. 2. Discuss the following questions: . Why do you think this object inspired Neil Macgregor‟s passion for history and a career in Museums? . What elements of the object do you find inspirational? . Why did seeing an object inspire Neil Macgregor more than reading a book? 3. Ask the pupils to think very carefully and decide what objects have inspired their own passions for a particular subject and/or activities. 4. Split the class into pairs. Ask pupils to explain to a partner how one object could change and/or has changed their own history. Eg: Being given a blackboard at 5 led to a desire to be a teacher, seeing the Queen‟s china and dolls house led to an interest in history, seeing a 1966 world cup ticket led to a passion for football, being given my granddad‟s tennis racquet meant I learned to play tennis. 5. Ask a selection of pupils to feedback their ideas. Then discuss the fact that an object can be part of several individuals‟ personal history as well as that of a nation or the World as a whole. For example, for some children being asked to watch the Queen‟s coronation on a television led to a lifelong interest in the entertainment television provided and the scientific advances needed for it to work and develop. The coronation was also a moment of world and national history in its own right and the fact that it was the first major world event shown on TV changed how society found out about world news. Day 2 – My food – The Hoxne Pepper Pot and the spice trade Introduction . Place blackpepper (India), paprika (South America), and cumin (India) on the desk. 3 . Tell the class the names of the spices and ask the class if the know where they come from. Ask students by pointing to the country on the globe/map. Play the hot and cold game. You say hot or cold depending on how close they are getting to the country of origin. Discuss the importance of the use of spices in the preservation of food and how they make food unique to certain areas. Activities 1. Put up the image of the Hoxne Pepper Pot on the IWB. Do not tell the class when it was made or anything about it other than it was used to store pepper. 2. Look at the pepper pot and discuss what it is made of, who it may have been made for, when they think it was made? Conclude with a summary of why they have learned from the object. 3. Tell the class that it is a Roman pepper pot. Explain that Pepper did not grow in Britain or any other part of the Roman Empire. It was grown in India and to get to Suffolk, the pepper was first shipped to Egypt and then transported by sea, river and over land. 4. Ask the class to think about who would have been able to consume pepper in Roman Britain. They should be thinking about the cost of importing pepper and who would be able to afford to do this and then who would have enough money to buy this luxury. 5. Discuss what has changed in the world in terms of who can buy pepper now and what it is used for. For example, in Roman Britain it was the preserve of the wealthy now everyone can have pepper but its uses remain largely the same. For further activities that look at the development of world trade through exploration, see the full lesson plan: causation – exploration and world trade. 4 Day 3 - The Hero - Sutton Hoo Helmet and the poem Beowulf Introduction . Put the image of the Sutton Hoo Helmet on the IWB. Examine the detail of the Helmet. Ask pupils to imagine they have just discovered the Helmet at an archaeological dig. Split the class into pairs and ask them to discuss what they would say in a telegram sent to the director of the British Museum about this object. Ask students give their feedback. Play the class the extract from 06.20 to 0.7.42 minutes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/kpnm6FD3TOaNri1gN PGJ1w (This is the section in which Seamus Heaney reads from Beowulf.) Activities 1. Discuss the fact that this Helmet haunts the imagination. What was the man who wore it really like? 2. As a class construct a word portrait of the Hero behind the Helmet. Ask the class to suggest words that would describe the person who would have worn the helmet. They will need to justify their decision with evidence from the object. For example, they could say the person who wore it was rich because of the material it is made from. 3. Then create a poem called „The Hero behind the Helmet‟. In pairs ask the class to write a line for a poem using alliteration or similes or metaphors. Each pair can read out their line. For example: The Hero behind the Helmet He was grand and glorious, vain and valiant, regal and ruthless, as fierce as a lion and wealthy like the Queen. 4. Once they have completed the poem explain that they have told a story in the oral tradition. Poems such as Beowulf were originally spoken rather than written down. 5 Day 4 – My image – The Head of Augustus and the image he wanted to create as Roman Emperor Introduction Give pupils a brief introduction to Augustus. Adapt the information below according to the age and ability of the class. The story of Augustus – key elements . Augustus was Julius Caesar's great-nephew. The assassination of Caesar in 44 BC left Augustus the heir to his fortune and to his power. He was only 19, and he was suddenly catapulted into a key role in the politics of the Roman Republic. Known at that point as Octavian, he quickly outshone all his peers in the scramble for absolute power. The pivotal moment in his rise was the defeat of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium in 31 BC. Already holding Italy, France, Spain, Libya and the Balkans, Augustus now followed the example of Alexander the Great and seized the richest prize of them all - Egypt.