Ancient Egypt was one of the earliest, advanced and most fascinating civilizations in the history of mankind, as the Year 7 students at the College recently discovered. In the unit, ‘Ancient Egypt’, the students had the opportunity to investigate not only Egyptian culture and society but also significant places, environments and artefacts. 

In the first part of their study, students were required to geographically locate Egypt and create a map which they shared with the class. On this map, the students had to identify where significant places such as the Nile River, Gulf of Suez, Saudi Arabia, Mediterranean Sea, Thebes (called Luxor today) and the Valley of the Kings were located, and explain why they were significant.

Having gained an understanding of Egypt’s location, the students explored the roles of the people within the ancient civilisation, and how and why they followed such a strict hierarchical structure. The students were surprised to discover how even so long ago, there was great disparity between how wealthy Egyptians lived, especially the Pharaoh, in comparison to the rest of society and in particular,  those held as slaves.

There was much discussion about being forced to spend a lifetime hauling large stone blocks during the construction of a pyramid.

The students considered the importance of artefacts from that period and discussed who has the right to own such treasures now, the museums, private collectors or the Egyptian Government? They looked at the symbols and scripts the Egyptians used and studied the importance of the Nile River and how the soil around it was good for growing crops such as wheat, flax, and papyrus, learning that wheat was the main staple food for the Egyptians.

An interesting part of their study was discovering the processes of mummification and the steps that were involved, learning the Egyptians used around 20 layers of linen bandages to wrap the bodies which took around 15 to 20 days to complete!

Classes also incorporated hands-on learning activities to extend their learning and they made clay communities around a painted ‘Nile River’, Egyptian artworks and became archaeologists and dug up Egyptian artefacts. What a great unit!

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