Ancient Egypt Gallery Pack
Ancient Egypt Gallery
National Museum of Scotland
Ancient Egypt Gallery
National Museum of Scotland
The Ancient Egypt gallery is on Level 3 of the National
Museum of Scotland. Take the escalator from the Grand
Gallery Level 1 up to Level 3. At the top of the escalator turn
right into the Ancient Egypt gallery. There are also several
lifts available. Please ask our visitor service staff for help. The gallery is divided into two sections, Life in Ancient Egypt
and Death in the Afterlife.
Activity sheets
There are ten activity sheets for you to use with your class.
Please choose the topics that are most relevant for your
class.
Page 1
Ancient Egypt Gallery
PTO
National Museum of Scotland
Getting Dressed
Name
Look carefully at the objects on display in
‘Getting Dressed’.
Choose 3 objects that tell you about the clothes that ancient
Egyptians wore.
Write a short sentence about what each object tells you.
Object
What it tells me
1
2
4
Just like people today, the ancient Egyptians liked to look good.
Men and women both wore eye make-up.
Can you find objects in the display that are similar to these
modern objects?
Page 1
Ancient Egypt Gallery
PTO
National Museum of Scotland
Getting Dressed
Name
Talk about whether they look similar or
different to things we use today.
Draw 2 of the objects in this space. Make a note of what
each object is made of next to your drawings.
Page 2
Ancient Egypt Gallery
National Museum of Scotland
At Home
Name
Look carefully at these displays
‘At Home’ and ‘A House at Amarna’.
Fill in this table to compare your house with a house in
Ancient Egypt.
My house
An ancient
My evidence
Egyptian house
What materials is it
made of?
What are the doors
made of?
What are the
windows made of?
How is the house
decorated?
What kind of
furniture does it
have?
Where are
belongings kept?
Most Egyptian houses, even the royal palaces, were built of mud
brick. Only temples or tombs would have been made in stone.
Ancient Egypt Gallery
National Museum of Scotland
Food and Drink
Name
Look around the gallery.
We have many different pieces of evidence about food and drink
in ancient Egyptian times.
How many different kinds of food and drink can you find evidence
for?
Look for pictures, models, dishes and actual food.
Make a list here showing the different kinds of food and how
you found out. We’ve done the first one for you.
Kinds of food and drink
Evidence
Fruit
Paintings showing different fruits and some
surviving real fruits such as dates
Ancient Egypt Gallery
National Museum of Scotland
Religion and Beliefs
Name
Find the display ‘Religion and Beliefs’.
People believed in many different gods in Ancient Egypt.
Osiris, Isis and Horus were very important gods. You can see lots
of statues of them in this display.
Ancient Egyptians thought that the god Osiris became the first
king.
He taught the Egyptians how to grow food and to live in a
peaceful way.
Osiris became the god of the underworld and the dead.
Look for this statue of Osiris
•
What clue tells you that he is the god of the dead?
(think about the shape of the statue)
•
The statue holds something in each hand.
Talk about what you think they are and why he is
holding them.
•
Look carefully at his crown. There is a special animal on
his crown to show that he is a king.
What is the animal?
Page 1
Ancient Egypt Gallery
PTO
National Museum of Scotland
Religion and Beliefs
Name
Find a statue wearing this crown.
This is a statue of Isis.
She was the wife of Osiris.
Her crown has a design of a cow’s horns
and a disc for the sun.
Talk about why the cow and the sun were so
important to the ancient Egyptians.
Osiris and Isis had a son called Horus.
Look again at the statue of Isis.
Talk about what you can see.
What tells you that Isis and Horus are mother and son?
Page 2
Ancient Egypt Gallery
National Museum of Scotland
The King
Name
Find ‘The King’ display.
The King had two jobs, to rule the country and to worship the
gods.
Choose one piece of evidence from this case that tells you
about each of these jobs.
Job
Evidence
Ruling the country
Worshipping the gods
There are clues in the statues
and paintings that tell you
someone is a king.
Look out for:
•
Figures of the king with
hands crossed over his
chest, holding a crook
and a flail (a short stick
with leather straps or
stings of beads handing
from it)
•
A crown with a cobra
read to strike of the
forehead called the
uraeus
•
A striped head dress,
called the nemes
Draw an image or statue
of a king from this display
which shows the clues in
the list.
Page 1
Ancient Egypt Gallery
PTO
National Museum of Scotland
The King
Name
Find the Qurneh burial display.
We think that this might be a royal burial, possibly of a queen
and a child.
Draw in the face of the mummy.
Can you find 3 birds painted on the case?
What colours have been used to decorate this mummy case?
This mummy is part of a burial that was excavated in 1911, by
William Flinders Petrie.
You can see all the objects that he excavated in this display.
What evidence do you think the objects provide that the people
in the burial were important, possibly even royal?
Page 2
Ancient Egypt Gallery
National Museum of Scotland
The Next World
Name
The ancient Egyptians believed that after
death they would begin a new life in the
next world.
To help them, favourite objects and food were buried with them.
Imagine that you are an Egyptian.
What would you take with you into the next world?
Look round the gallery and choose 5 objects.
Fill in this table with the 5 objects would you take with you.
Something I would choose
I chose this because
To remind me of my work:
To remind me of my home:
That I liked to eat:
Connected to my religion:
Something special:
Ancient Egypt Gallery
National Museum of Scotland
Coffins and Mummies
Name
Find the display of coffins.
Circle some words from this list that you think
describe the coffins.
special
decorated
scary
plain
grand
dull
ordinary
impressive
Choose one of the coffins.
Draw it in this space.
Page 1
Ancient Egypt Gallery
PTO
National Museum of Scotland
Coffins and Mummies
Name
Write down the colours used in the coffin.
What different decoration is there on the surface of the coffin?
What is the coffin made of?
Find the mummies on display in ‘Preserving the Body’.
Talk about these questions.
How do these differ from the coffin lids?
Do you think these mummies were of rich or poor people?
Do you think everyone could afford to be wrapped like this?
Page 2
Ancient Egypt Gallery
National Museum of Scotland
True or False?
Name
Read each of the statements listed below.
•
Use the displays to help you decide if the statements are
true or false.
•
If there is no evidence in the museum that helps you to
decide, tick the ‘can’t tell’ box.
true
false
can’t tell
Egyptian children never had time to play
My evidence is
The Egyptians worshipped lots of gods.
My evidence is
The Egyptians did not believe in life after death.
My evidence is
They ate all food with their fingers.
My evidence is
Egyptian women used make up.
My evidence is
Page 1
Ancient Egypt Gallery
PTO
National Museum of Scotland
True or False?
Name
true
false
can’t tell
Only women wore jewellery.
My evidence is
They had no furniture.
My evidence is
They ate lots of different foods.
My evidence is
They did not know how to write.
My evidence is
The Egyptians were very clever.
My evidence is
Page 2
Ancient Egypt Gallery
National Museum of Scotland
Investigating Objects
Name
Choose one object from the
Ancient Egypt gallery
My objects is
There will be a lot of things you can tell about your object just by
looking, such as its size or the materials it is made from.
There will be other things that cannot be answered just by
looking, such as its weight.
Write 5 questions about your object
My questions
1
Possible answers
2
3
4
5
When you have written your questions, show them to a friend.
Can he or she answer any?
Talk about who or what might be able to help you answer your
questions.
•
A friend?
•
A teacher?
•
An expert from the museum?
•
A book?
•
The internet?
•
An ancient Egyptian?
Ancient Egypt Gallery
National Museum of Scotland
Work
Name
Most people in Ancient Egypt would have
worked in the fields helping to grow food.
But there were also many different crafts
which needed special skills.
Fill in the speech bubbles
to describe what kind of
work these ancient Egyptians
did and why their work was
important.
Look around
the gallery.
Make a list of other jobs that
you think there must have
been in Ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt Gallery
National Museum of Scotland