OUP00_CABECERO_BLANCO
OUP00_CABECERO_BLANCO
3
66
History
Follow these steps to carry out the task.
Find out what happened after a person died until they were burial.
a) When an important man had just died…
❚
How did his family begin the mourning period?
❚
What did the women of the house do with for?
b) When the deceased was taken to the embalming workshop…
❚
Where did the process start? What was done after that? Who did it?
❚
What instruments were used to empty the body?
❚
What was palm wine used for? What was the body dried out with?
c) Fifteen days later…
❚
What were linen and resin used for?
❚
How did they begin to wrap the deceased? What did they cover the
face with?
❚
What type of spells and amulets did they use? What did they
symbolise?
❚
What was the coffin where they put the deceased called?
d) Forty days later…
❚
What was sawdust used for?
❚
What other items did the embalmer use?
e) During the procession to the tomb…
❚
What did the mourners do?
❚
Why did they put food and water in the tomb? What other things
did they include?
❚
What is the
Book of the Dead
? What was it used for?
f) Two thousand years later…
❚
What was mummy dust used for?
❚
What beliefs and practices were associated with it?
Task
Preparing for the afterlife
3
The term
embalm
means to treat with balsams. Do you know why they embalmed
the bodies of some of the deceased in Ancient Egypt? Do you know how they did
this? In this task you are going to research how they prepared for the afterlife in
Ancient Egypt. Then you are going to write a horror story which includes an account
of mummification.
In groups, consult the following websites:
Preparation
MATERIALS
❚
Notebook
❚
Computer with Internet
connection
Top: the god Anubis prepares
a mummy. Middle: mummy
of Ramesses II. Bottom: inside
Tutankhamun’s tomb in the
Valley of the Kings
You can watch
documentaries on
YouTube about Egyptian
mummification. You can
also consult encyclopedias, books
and history journals from the library
in your school and/or local area.
