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Overview:
This lesson will have students think about how their own cultures honor the dead and how some ancient cultures, including the Egyptians, honored their dead through mummification. Students will look at pictures of mummies and write or draw pictures about an imaginary trip to the "mummy room" of a museum.
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
- discuss the ways their cultures honor the dead;
- discuss the mummification process and the reasons ancient Egyptians often mummified their dead;
- describe pictures of Egyptian, South American, and Chinese mummies; and
- write sentences or draw pictures describing mummies and explaining why people created them.
Geographic Skills:
Acquiring Geographic Information
Organizing Geographic Information
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
Ask the class to describe some of the ways we honor people who have died in our families or communities. They might say that we have funerals, bury the bodies at cemeteries, or write poems or stories about the deceased. Students of some cultures might mention special holidays that commemorate their dead ancestors.
Development:
Point out Egypt on a world map, and explain that this is where the most famous mummies have come from. Explain that the Egyptians mummified bodies from 4,500 years ago until about 1,500 years ago.
Tell students that the ancient Egyptians created mummies as a way to make sure their deceased loved ones would still look good when they made it to the afterlife. Ancient Egyptians often placed food and even beloved pets (also mummified) into the coffins to travel to the afterlife with the dead people.
Have students look at the picture at Mummies Unmasked and explain that this shows Egyptian priests putting the finishing touches on a mummy. If you can project this picture onto a screen for the whole class to see, scroll over the picture and paraphrase the explanations so students can understand what's going on in the picture.
Point out western China and the Peru/Chile border on a map, and tell the class that mummies have also been found in these regions. Although the mummies were not made in exactly the same way as the Egyptian mummies, they were also created to preserve dead people for their journeys into the afterlife.
Have students look at the pictures of South American (Inca) mummies and Chinese mummies. Ask them to describe what the mummies are wearing. Why do they think living people put clothing on the people they were burying?
[Note: Preview images before showing them to your class; some of them might be frightening to very young children. You might want to describe what the mummies are wearing instead.]
Closing:
Discuss as a class the reasons students think people in different parts of the world wanted to mummify their dead.
Suggested Student Assessment:
Ask students to imagine that they are wandering through a museum and happen to enter a "mummy room." Here, they see mummies from Egypt, South America, and China.
Have students write sentences describing the mummies, expressing their reactions to the mummies, and explaining why people created these mummies. They can illustrate their sentences with pictures of the mummies.
If students are not yet able to write, have them draw pictures of the mummies and share their pictures in small groups.
Extending the Lesson:
Have students look at Animal Mummies, which shows Egyptian tombs that include pet mummies, wall decorations and models of pets, and pet sarcophagi. Explain that these are all ways the Egyptians honored their dead pets.
Make sure students realize that the gazelle is actually a mummified animal and that Egyptians often mummified other animals, such as cats and dogs. Also point out that the cat sarcophagus is similar to a coffin that we might use today.
Discuss the reasons why people in ancient and modern times like to preserve the bodies of their pets. How do we honor our pets today when they die? What things do we do differently from the ancient Egyptians, and what things do we do similarly?
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