|
Overview:
This lesson has students examine the relationship between climate and the mummification process in ancient Egypt and other parts of the world. They will conclude by writing paragraphs suggesting ways archaeologists and climatologists can work together to study mummies.
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography, world history
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 17: "How to apply geography to interpret the past"
Time:
Two to three hours
Materials Required:
Objectives:
Students will
- list the steps in the Egyptian mummification process;
- list three methods of mummification and three places where mummies have been found;
- discuss the relationship between climate and mummification; and
- write paragraphs suggesting ways archaeologists and climatologists can work together to study mummies.
Geographic Skills:
Asking Geographic Questions
Acquiring Geographic Information
Organizing Geographic Information
Answering Geographic Questions
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
Have students identify Egypt on a world map, and ask them what the climate is like there. For clues, show them pictures of the Egyptian desert. The class should agree that Egypt is an arid country that gets little precipitation and has very hot weather.
Development:
Write the word "mummy" on the board, and ask students how they would define this familiar word. Then provide this simple definition of a mummy: "a preserved old dead body." Emphasize the word "preserved" and tell students that the soft tissue, such as skin, must still exist in order for a body to be considered a mummy.
Have students go to Mummies Unmasked to find out the steps in the Egyptian mummification process. Ask them to list these steps in simple sentences or phrases.
Discuss students' lists as a class. Then discuss the reasons why the Egyptians felt it was important to go through this process. (Make sure they understand that other cultures mummified their dead by different methods and for different reasons.) Why did they want to be careful to preserve the bodies of their dead?
Have students look at the picture of the reconstructed predynastic burial mummy and read the accompanying text. Was this person embalmed using the formal process students have learned about? How was this body preserved? What did the Egyptian climate have to do with it? Is this body a mummy? Why or why not?
Have students read the first page of the How to Make a Mummy site. According to this text, what is the relationship between climate and the mummification process? Students should recognize that a "preserved old dead body" was not necessarily formally embalmed or wrapped. A mummy could have been created by natural conditions.
Have students search the Internet to learn about some of the ways mummies can be created and the places where they have been found. Ask them to list three ways that mummies can be created and three places where mummies have been found besides Egypt. Next to each place on their lists, have them briefly describe the landscape and climate (e.g., "hot desert" or "icy mountains").
Closing:
Discuss the answers to these questions:
- In what type of climate is it easiest to create a mummy?
- Under what circumstances have mummies been naturally created, without the help of people?
- Do you think that early civilizations in very wet regions of the world, such as tropical or temperate rain forests, could have mummified their dead as successfully as the ancient Egyptians did? Why or why not?
Suggested Student Assessment:
Read this scenario to the class:
Imagine that two scientists have met at a party. One is an archaeologist (a scientist who studies the remains of past human life and cultures). The other is a climatologist (a scientist who studies the world's climates).
These scientists get along really well. They even have the same favorite movie—The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff. They think it's a fun movie, but they are also very interested in the ways that civilizations around the world preserve and bury their dead. They agree that it would be interesting to work together some day.
Ask students to write paragraphs suggesting ways that these scientists could work together. They should keep in mind what they have learned about the relationship between climate and mummification as well as what they have discovered about the world's mummies. How do they think a climatologist could help an archaeologist, and vice versa?
Extending the Lesson:
Have students go to the Mummy Road Show site and try to solve the "mystery." Discuss their findings as a class.
Related Links:
| 
Check out:
