Studying Egypt, 2009

I started this unit with things my children already knew about—pyramids and mummies. After about a week, we continued by using the book Pharoahs of Ancient Egypt (by Elizabeth Payne) as our outline. This book discusses some of the more prominent pharaohs and the archeological discoveries related to them. I added a few other things—trade routes in connection with Hatshepsut, Egyptian religion in connection with Akhenaton, Biblical Joseph during the Hyksos’ reign, etc.

One of our books for this unit was The Curse of the Pharoahs by Zahi Hawass (Egypt’s current Director of Antiquities). Hawass has an engaging, instructive style. After reading his book, we started noticing Dr. Hawass everywhere—in our DVDs (not always named, but we recognized his face) and mentioned in other books. Then I started to wonder… it seems that this man has a lot of energy…and ego. One book I read talked about how American researchers were “kicked out” of Egypt because Zahi Hawass didn’t like what they were learning about the Sphinx! I’ve decided this is one of those cases where we learn more than we planned on: not only about Egypt, but about the “politics” of archeology.

Along those same lines, Motel of the Mysteries by David McCauley is a must-read so that you learn not to believe everything the archeologists might say.

I really enjoyed a DVD we happened to find about Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten (Nefertiti Resurrected). Archeologist Dr. Joann Fletcher believes that a damaged mummy—found in the Valley of the Kings—may be Queen Nefertiti. There is evidence that this woman died from a stab wound, which is consistent with the fact that Nefertiti had enemies in high places. There is also evidence (from the positions of her mummy’s arms) that this woman ruled as pharaoh! Fletcher has theorized that Nefertiti was renamed Smenkhkare, the pharaoh who was Akhenaten’s co-regent and who ruled for three years after Akhenaten’s death. The evidence is compelling!

Another excellent DVD was Discovering Egypt (Video Visits series). The feature title shows mostly modern-day Egypt, but the “Cities of Ancient Egypt” option has computer imaging that turns the ruins into what they may have looked like anciently.

Finally, my favorite part of this block was our foray into archeoastronomy. Robert Bauval has written a series of books about the ancient Egyptians and how their immense knowledge of astronomy guided their building of pyramids and temples. This is FASCINATING! I no longer accept the premise that those pyramids were just a bunch of tombs.

Now I want to visit the land of the Nile :)