Notes for teachers
Key Stage 2
Daily life in ancient Egypt
The final page of these notes can be copied and given to students who you
think may need additional support during the session, or to adult helpers.
About this session
This session takes place in one of the Museum’s lecture theatres where the
students view images projected on to a large screen. The session is designed
for audiences of up to 120 students, usually from different schools.
It encourages student participation mainly through a lively process of question
and answer, but does not include hands-on activities such as dressing up or
handling objects. The session lasts for 45 minutes.
Session outline
 This session demonstrates how an investigation into Egyptian daily
life can begin from a single image – in this case a tomb painting of
Nebamun hunting in the marshes – and expand out to include
information from objects.
 The session begins by explaining the purpose and original location of
Nebamun’s tomb paintings, currently on display in the British Museum.
 It then goes on to consider a number of themes, such as clothing,
childhood, environment and writing, which can be investigated using
information from the painting and other objects in the Museum.
 The session concludes by reflecting on how objects are a source of
evidence which help us to understand life in the past.
Key themes include elite burial, ideas about the afterlife, clothing and
personal adornment, childhood, environment, animals, gods and goddesses,
music, and writing.
Key vocabulary includes object, gallery, tomb painting, Nebamun – a rich
Egyptian official, daily life, environment, goddess, instrument, and hieroglyphs.
Notes for teachers
Preparing for your session
 Locate Egypt in an atlas and on a globe. Identify key geographical features.
 Introduce/revise the key themes and key vocabulary listed above.
 Use the Museum’s resource on tomb painting
Following up your session
 Imagine that you are one of the people in the painting – write a diary entry
about your daily life. Animate one of the paintings with speech bubbles.
Use one of the paintings as the starting point of a story and write about
what happens next. Don’t forget to include a description of what is
happening at the start of the story so that the reader knows who the
characters are in the story and what they are doing.
 Discuss how the enquiry began with one object and moved on to many.
 Discuss how the session used different sorts of evidence: a painting and
then individual objects and also writing. Discuss what other sorts of
evidence would help us find out more about the topics mentioned, for
example different sorts of written text, other types of object.
 Try using the same process on a new picture – it need not necessarily
be Egyptian.
 Let the British Museum schools team know about your time at the Museum
or share your follow-up work on Twitter @BM_Schools
Galleries with related objects
Room 61: Egyptian tomb paintings
Rooms 62 and 63: examples of everyday objects found in ancient tombs
Room 64: objects from Early Egypt
Curriculum links
KS2 History – first civilisations
This session supports work on how to find out about events and people from
appropriate sources of information. It also demonstrates how to select
information relevant to the focus of an enquiry within the context of the
achievements of the earliest civilisations including a depth study of one of the
following: ancient Sumer, the Indus Valley, ancient Egypt, the Shang dynasty
of ancient China.
Notes for teachers
Key Stage 2
Daily life in ancient Egypt
Summary sheet
In this session you will:
 find out about the tomb paintings created for the tomb of an ancient
Egyptian called Nebamun
 find out how to use parts of the painting and objects on display in the
Museum to find out about daily life in ancient Egypt.
Key words
Nebamun – a rich ancient Egyptian official
object
tomb painting
daily life
environment
goddess
instrument
hieroglyphs
Tomb paintings
 You will find out about the tomb paintings of Nebamun – a rich ancient
Egyptian official.
Daily life
 Using different parts of the tomb painting which shows Nebamun and his
family hunting in the marshes you will find out about clothing, jewellery,
childhood, cats, environment (papyrus marshes, the River Nile, river
animals), gods and goddesses, music, writing.
 You will see some objects which will help you find out more about these
aspects of daily life – many of the objects are on display in the British
Museum’s galleries.
Objects as evidence
 You will recap how objects can be used as a source of evidence to help us
find out about life in the past.