UNIDAD 9: LAS CIVILIZACIONES FLUVIALES
ACTIVITY 25: ANCIENT EGYPT
1. Read the following text.
The most powerful person in ancient Egypt was the pharaoh. The pharaoh was the political and religious leader of the Egyptian people, holding the titles: 'Lord of the Two Lands' and 'High Priest of Every Temple'.As 'Lord of the Two Lands' the pharaoh was the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt. He owned all of the land, made laws, collected taxes, and defended Egypt against foreigners.
As 'High Priest of Every Temple', the pharaoh represented the gods on Earth. He performed rituals and built temples to honour the gods.
Many pharaohs went to war when their land was threatened or when they wanted to
control foreign lands. If the pharaoh won the battle, the conquered people had
to recognise the Egyptian pharaoh as their ruler and offer him the finest and
most valuable goods from their land.
Information and pictures from: http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/pharaoh/home.html
2. Read the text.
Over many
centuries, the ancient Egyptians developed a method of preserving bodies so they
would remain lifelike. The process included embalming
the bodies and wrapping them in strips of linen. Today we call this process
mummification.
First, his body is taken to the tent known as 'ibu' or the 'place of purification'. There the embalmers wash his body with good-smelling palm wine and rinse it with water from the Nile.
One of
the embalmer's men makes a cut in the left side of the body and removes many of
the internal organs. It is important to remove these because they are the first
part of the body to decompose.
The liver, lungs, stomach and intestines are washed and packed
in natron
which will dry them out. The heart is not taken out of the body because it is
the centre of intelligence and feeling and the man will need it in the afterlife.
A
long hook is used to smash the brain and pull it out through the nose.
The body is now covered and stuffed with natron which will dry it out. All of the fluids, and rags from the embalming process will be saved and buried along with the body.
 In the past, when the internal organs were removed from a body they were placed in hollow canopic jars. |
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Imsety the human-headed god looks after the liver. | |
| Hapy the baboon-headed god looks after the lungs |  |
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Duamutef the jackal-headed god looks after the stomach | |
| Qebehsenuef the falcon-headed god looks after the intestines. |  |
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Finally, they wrapping the mummy.
Information and pictures from: http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/mummies/explore/main.html
3. Would you like to play a game in the underworld? Click here.
4. Read the text.
The ancient Egyptians believed that it was important to record and communicate information about religion and government. Thus, they invented written scripts that could be used to record this information.
The most famous of all ancient Egyptian scripts is hieroglyphic. However, throughout three thousand years of ancient Egyptian civilisation, at least three other scripts were used for different purposes. Using these scripts, scribes were able to preserve the beliefs, history and ideas of ancient Egypt in temple and tomb walls and on papyrus scrolls.
5. Click here and find out where writing was used.
6. Copy these questions into your notebook and answer them.