Friday, August 26, 2011
Eternally fascinating, Egypt’s pyramids, hieroglyphics and mummies have captured imaginations for centuries. Egypt’s mythical characters and striking artifacts have made appearances in museums and popular media throughout the world.
In our Egypt unit students delve into the engrossing details of Egyptian culture. Riding over a framework of core learning, your child will complete an Egypt Festival project.
Your child will also explore the mummification process as reconstructive archaeologists—social scientists/historians who reenact the practices of a people to more deeply understand that culture. To make a long story very short, the process of mummification involved a salt called natron that dried out a body so that it would not decay. Our humble mummification project does not involve any of the gorier aspects of mummification that the Egyptians needed to deal with, but will allow the students to see, first-hand, the principles of mummification using common materials. Students will come to understand how this process ties into all aspects of Egyptian life, from the hieroglyphic messages students will write for their mummies’ sarcophagi to the myths that point to the cultural roots of mummification.
Through participation in the compelling activities of this unit, the students will become knowledgeable Egyptologists.
Research Sites for Ancient Egypt
Excellent General Sites
The British Museum
The ORIGINAL Tomb Raiders, and the finest Egyptological collection outside of Egypt.
Mysteries of Egypt
A good general site from civilization.canada, eh?
Ancient Egypt Site
Created by an Egyptologist, this site has gathered great resources from many places and put them here.
Once you get past the fact that they're trying to sell you, everyone you know or ever met a tour of Egypt, you'll find that this site has good, accurate information. And if you get sick of researching, you can buy stuff!
Everything Egypt from soup to nuts. (beginning to end) Information on pyramids and monuments, pharaohs, mummification, religion, daily life and hieroglyphs fill this site with well-illustrated information. They even have GAMES!
Egypt: Secrets of an Ancient World
Explore Egypt National Geographic style. News stories, interactive features and other information grace this site. Like an Egyptian themed amusement park.
And don't forget Ms. Jaffe's links page
. There are many overlaps, but some updates.
Excellent Sites about specific topics.
PBS on Pharaohs.
PBS on Pyramids.
Part of the Secrets of Lost Empires
series from PBS.