Birmingham Museum
and Art Gallery
Learning Department
Ancient Egypt
Teachers’ Notes
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
The Learning Department
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery uses its collections, buildings and services to encourage
learning, inspiration and enjoyment for all. The museum education department is one of the largest
of any local authority museum in England and learning is seen as underpinning the work of every
department in the museum.
At Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, we offer a range of services to schools which include:
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Teacher led visits and handling sessions
Unassisted visits
INSET for teachers
School loans
Web-based learning resources
Pupil worksheets
Teachers’ notes
For more information about services for schools at Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery please
visit schoolsliaison.org.uk. Here you will find an extensive range of resources to support your
visit alongside pre-visit and follow-up work, including interactive online material relating to the
collections.
Booking a Visit
All school and college visits must be booked in advanced, including self-guided visits. To make a
booking please contact the Education Bookings Team on:
Telephone: 0121 202 2244
Email: educationbookings@birminghammuseums.org.uk
Please Note:
Objects are frequently removed and re-arranged for the purposes of exhibitions and conservation.
On some occasions galleries have to be closed at short notice. Therefore, not all the paintings
in this document will be on display at any one time. If you wish to see a particular painting/object
during your visit, please call 0121 303 1966 beforehand to check it will be on display.
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
Contents
An Introduction to Gallery 34
4
Mummies - Preparing for the Afterlife
5
Preparing for the Afterlife
6
Writing
7
Egypt before the Pharoahs
8
Egyptian Art
9
Gods
10
Life at Home
11
Life at Work
12
The Last Pharohs
13
Stone and Clay Pots 14
Jewellery, Make Up and Pastimes
15
Amulets
16
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
An Encounter with Ancient Egypt
An Introduction to Gallery 34
This pack has been designed to support a school visit to the
Egyptian Gallery by teachers and their classes. It includes
text relevant to the display cases, containing information
about everyday life in ancient Egypt. Several artefacts in
those cases have been featured, many of them related to the
Gallery’s worksheets.
All school visits to Gallery 34 must be booked in advance by
telephoning the Learning Department - 0121 303 3890.
One class may book the gallery for a one-hour slot and it
would be appreciated if the allocated time is adhered to.
Birmingham LEA Schools which have booked handling
sessions should telephone 303 4517 to confirm details of their
visits.
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
Mummies - Preparing for the Afterlife
Embalming was used to preserve a body, so that the soul could periodically return to it, to rest and
obtain food, among other things. The process was developed slowly, to a peak in the 21st Dynasty.
Fallacies
Arabic bitumen, ‘mumiya’ was rarely used in embalming.
From the 11th to the 16th century, powdered mummy was used as a drug, but it was not always
the genuine article!
Stepping three times over a mummy, or walking round one seven times is a cure for sterility.
Method
Mummification would take around 70 days to complete, plus rituals. The internal organs would be
removed through the left side of the body and the brain through the nose. The body would then be
placed in a bed of natron - a kind of salt - for about 40 days, to absorb the moisture, then it would
be rubbed with oils and resins. Amulets could be placed beneath the covering strips of cloth, the
body cavity could be packed with resin-soaked cloth, sawdust, mud or sand and the tools and
materials used in the process were buried in or near the tomb because they contained the
essence of the dead person.
Display Features
Key:
A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
F)
A
D
B
E
C
F
Coffin - painted plaster on wood, bearing the name of a lady, Tadi-en-hemt-awy, daughter of Nes-Khonsu
Outer coffin of Padimut
Inner coffin and mummy of Padimut
Coffin set of unknown mummy
Man - elaborately wrapped, with gilded terracotta studs
1: Falcon
2: Cat
3: Ibis Chick
4: Snake
5: Ibis
6: Ibis
7: Ibis burial pot 8: Nile crocodile
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
Preparing for the Afterlife
The Afterlife
The Ancient Egyptians had a quest for life and
believed that death was not the end. An afterlife
and immortality were hoped for. They believed that
the spirit went to the netherworld, an improved
earth. The soul survived on earth, resting in a
preserved (mummified) body. An inscribed statue
or painting could substitute for a destroyed
mummy. A tomb, grave goods and food ensured
the soul’s survival.
Ushabtis
These were boxed figures of workers, usually made from faience, wood or stone. Up to 400
figures, sometimes made of bronze or wax were expected to carry out work for the dead person in
the afterlife and were placed in a tomb.
Canopic Jars
These were used for the preservation of internal organs, removed during mummification. Each lid
personified one son of HORUS, a god of the sky.
5
5
6
5
IMSET - human-headed protector of the stomach and large intestines
HAPY - ape-headed protector of the small intestines
DUAMUTEF - jackal-headed protector of the lungs and heart
QEBEHSENUEF - hawk-headed protector of the liver and gall bladder
Case Features
1 Painted ushabti box, belonging to the ‘scribe of the divine offerings of Amun, Ptah-hetep’
2 Deep blue glazed ushabtis; an overseer with kilt and whip; ushabtis with hoe and pick, rather
than two hoes, and back pillars
4 Ptah-Seker-Osiris figure, embodying the characteristics of the gods of creation, the necropolis
and the underworld. Plaster on wood, gilded face
6 Dummy canopic jar with the jackal head of Duamutef. Inscribed for Hepetch-neter. Limestone
9 Late-Roman mummy-mask, painted plaster over cartonnage with a gilded face
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
Writing
Hieroglyphic writing, used from 3000 B.C. to 300 A.D., consisted of about 700 pictographic signs.
These signs were divided into two groups; ideograms which indicated meaning and phonograms
which indicated spelling. Phonograms were subdivided into signs for one, two and three
consonants. No vowels were written.
Hieroglyphics were used for formal inscriptions in temples or tombs, but letters, accounts and
everyday writings were written in a cursive script, called hieratic.
From 600 B.C., demotic writing developed and was used until 450 A.D. Coptic writing was used
from the end of the third century A.D., consisting of Greek characters with a few demotic signs
added.
Paper, made from papyrus reeds was used for permanent texts, whereas day to day accounts
were recorded on ostraca, pieces of broken pottery or limestone flakes.
School exercises or temporary jottings were written on gesso-covered wooden boards, then
waxed, wooden panels.
Soot or red ochre, plus water and gum made black or red ink and writing was set down with a
rush-stem brush.
Case Features
2 Large writing board, showing an hieratic inscription over others, partially-erased
3 Limestone ostracon with an unfinished hieroglyphic inscription
4 Writing tablets with recessed wooden panels, thinly coated with wax
5 Wooden writing case with reed brushes and two hollows for red and black ink
7 Pottery ostracon with hieratic inscription
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
Egypt before the Pharoahs
The earliest traces of humans in Egypt are primitive flint tools, found in the upper terraces of
the Nile Valley. These Palaeolithic, North African, nomadic hunters were food gatherers, but by
Neolithic times (PREDYNASTIC ) only the Nile Valley supported a population.
Agriculture brought permanent communities, and advances were made in arts, technology, such
as products of copper and painted pottery, and also in political and administrative processes.
The EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD of ancient Egyptian history brought greater advances. Writing,
Egypt’s unified government and the arts were all improved and the earliest surviving monumental
buildings of mud-brick were built.
Case Features
10 Early red burnished ware pottery with deliberately blackened tops for decoration
11 Flint tools - arrow heads, lance-heads and knives
12 Slate palettes - for grinding eye-paint. Geometric and animal shapes were used, such as birds
and hippopotami
Slate palette
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
Egyptian Art
Painting
Inscriptions with paintings suggest information was being displayed and not an impression.
Stylised human figures, using a consistent grid-system, were laid out with a piece of string dipped
in paint. A scene was outlined in black ink then corrected in red by a master artist. Apart from the
18th Dynasty, no perspective or shading was used.
Paint
Paint was made from powdered minerals, such as copper ores which produced blue and green,
ochre which produced red, brown and yellow, plus chalk and soot which produced white and black
respectively.
Sculpture
Sculpture was mainly functional. Low-relief carving was produced using similar methods as for
wall-painting. Sculpture in the round, using a grid and guidelines inked on the wood also utilised
the same methods as for wall-painting.
Minor Arts and Crafts
These included pottery, basketry, weaving, stone-cutting and woodworking. From the 18th
Dynasty, glass and faience work was common. Moulds were used to facilitate mass-production.
Motifs, such as geometric designs and Greek art subjects, animals, plants, heroes and mythical
creatures were used. After the 7th century A.D., Christian saints and biblical scenes became
popular.
Case Features
4 Fragments of painted limestone from a tomb wall
5 Fragments of painted mud-plaster, showing a man
holding a tall water jar
6 An arm from a wooden statue
7 Bead-work from a mummy
9 Unfinished limestone lion with traces of the artist’s
grid
13 Schist head of Osiris
Painted mud plaster
8 Limestone noble nobleman’s Bust
The bust is of an 19th Dynasty nobleman from the reign of Amenhotep III, 1300 B.C. when
offerings were made to the dead. It was part of a joint figure of a man and woman, for the woman’s
hand is still visiable on the back of the man’s right shoulder. The back inscription is the beginning
of a funerary formula to REHARAKHTI-ATUM. The god HORNEDJITEF, the eldest son of HORUS,
is mentioned, but the owner’s name is lost. The wig, dress and pierced ear-lobes are typical of
male fashion at the time.
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
Gods
Gods were worshipped both nationally and locally. Statuettes of gods were used as amulets in
temples and on personal shrines. The images of many gods took the forms of animals which were
eventually given human forms and characteristics.
Case Features
1 Wooden model-shrine with figure of PTAH
2 Bronze OSIRIS figure with gilded eyes
3 Bronze seated ISIS figure, nursing HORUS
8 Bronze APIS bulls
9 Bronze cat, symbolising BASTET
11 Bronze deified IMHOTEP with a papyrus roll on one knee
14 Bronze AMUN figure with headdress missing
15 Bronze box for mummified falcon
17 Bronze ibis symbol of THOTH
Horus figure
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
Life at Home
Houses were made from mud bricks. These were made from Nile mud and chopped straw which
was sun-dried in rectangular wooden moulds. Stone doorways were occasionally used. Mud with
straw was used as mortar and plaster. Date-palm and reeds were used for lintels and jambs. Flat
roofs were formed by date-palm trunks, 60cm apart, being covered by reed mats, palm-fronds and
mud plaster.
‘Terraced-room’ villages were constructed for labourers. A farmer’s house would consist of livingrooms, kitchens, grain stores, animal shelters and often a walled compound for animals.
Large houses with two storeys were built for nobles, with alternative gardens and ornamental
pools.
Royalty and rich Egyptians used wooden beds, chairs, stools and chests, which were highly
carved with gilded or ivory inlays.
Case Features
1 Date-stem brush
2 Unused pottery torch
4 Chair legs: wooden and animal-shaped
5 Head-rest
9 Wooden spoon, scoop and spatula
10 Coffin-board section, showing a painted house
11 Terracotta model of a house, with a yard, a high wall, grain bins, with a side-staircase to a flat
roof. Mats, washing or food is draped over the wall to dry
14 Food remains in a dish.
Wooden spoon,
scoop, spatula
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Head-rest
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
Life at Work
Agriculture
Two strips approximately 5k wide, were cultivated (each side of the River Nile). The annual
autumn flood deposited fine fertile silt in the Egyptian plains. The land was then hoed and
ploughed, using oxen and wooden ploughs. In spring, cereal was reaped, trample-threshed by
oxen or donkeys and winnowed by tossing the grain into the air and allowing the chaff to blow
away. The staple crops were barley, emmer, flax, leeks, onions, lentils, beans and lettuces. Cattle,
goats, sheep and pigs were used for food produce and wild gazelle, fish and birds were commonly
trapped.
Army
There was a regular officer-corps and conscripted farmers formed the infantry.
Building
Labour was recruited by conscripting farmers and also using criminals and war prisoners.
Skilled Workers
Potters, weavers, woodworkers, plasterers and other specialists were allocated to a palace or
temple.
Professional Classes
The professions included priests and scribes. ( High officials and nobles began as scribes.) There
was a vigorous education programme and many training texts survive today. Officials did not
specialise; for example, a former priest could be appointed ‘building supervisor.’
Case Features
1 Stoneworker’s tools, including a wooden mallet and chisels
3 Bronze arrowheads
4 Bronze knives
6 Woodworker’s equipment; bronze adzes, nails
7 Bronze fish-hooks and harpoons
8 Restored wooden blade of a broad hoe
12 Axe blades
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Mallet
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
The Last Pharaohs
The 3rd Intermediate Period
After the New Kingdom, the Nile Delta was ruled by the XXI Dynasty Kings but the south was ruled
by the high priests of Amun at Thebes. The early XXII Dynasty Kings unified Egypt, restoring some
prosperity. The unification lasted for about 200 years, but towards the end of this Dynasty, political
segregation was again evident. The later Kings of Dynasties XXII, XXIII and XXIV ruled the divided
country concurrently.
The XXV and XXVI Dynasties
During these Dynasties, the loosely re-unified Egypt was invaded by the Assyrian Kings,
Egarhaddon and Assurbanipal. The latter installed Egyptian governors in cities. For example,
Psammetichus I, who subjugated neighbouring governors, had become so powerful by 650 B.C.
that he stopped the annual payments to the Assyrians. He founded the XXVI Dynasty and reunited Egypt. This was the last great period of 125 years of Egyptian rule, which brought an arts
revival and a rediscovery of old traditions.
Foreign Rule
Over a century of Persian rule began in 525 B.C. after Cambyses marched on Egypt. Alexander
the Great conquered Egypt in 332 B.C. and after the death of his Macedonian heirs, a former
army general, Ptolemy, established a line of Egyptian monarchs, the last of whom, Cleopatra VIII,
committed suicide after defeat at the battle of Actium in 30 B.C. Egypt then became a Roman
province.
Case Features
3 Woven rush sandals
4 Child’s leather sandals
6 Pottery lamps – Roman
9 Glass flask – Roman
11 Bone-work figures, possibly toy dolls
17 Basket-work
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
Stone and Clay Pots
Until around 3100 B.C. the Egyptian people were divided into two lands, Upper and Lower Egypt.
At this time Egypt became united under one monarch, the first of thirty ‘DYNASTIES’ of pharaohs.
Old Kingdom
During Dynasties III and IV the Egyptian monarchy was unified, pyramids were built and
expeditions were made south to Nubia for African gold, ivory and ebony, and to Sinai for copper
and turquoise. Friendly relations were fostered with Syria. Local government anarchists forced a
decline of royal power in the final century.
Middle Kingdom
Dynasties XI and XII reinforced the monarchy. Literature flourished and fortresses annexed in
Northern Nubia. Military measures were taken against Palestine. The Hyksos ( Asiatic Kings)
began ruling Northern Egypt.
New Kingdom
The Hyksos were expelled and Egypt was united. A further annexation of Nubia took place. The
Egyptian empire spread into Palestine and Syria. The finest tombs and temples date from this
time. The end of Dynasty XX saw inflation and political strife.
Case Features
1 The large alabaster bowl is inscribed with the name King Merenptah
3 Two pots with modelled faces of BES
5 Nubian pottery - highly burnished ‘Kerma’ ware
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
Jewellery, Make Up and Pastimes
Jewellery
Gold, silver and bronze were the commonest materials used in the making of jewellery, often set
with semi-precious stones, especially carnelian, turquoise and lapis lazuli.
Glazed steatite (soapstone), shell, faience and glass were commonly used for beads. Master
craftsmen made finer jewellery and several specialists - a goldsmith, a stonecutter, a faience
maker and a bead maker could be involved with the production of one piece. Specialist necklace
makers threaded complicated bead collars. Finer work was worn by royals and richer nobles.
Poorer classes wore faience and animal bone necklaces.
Make Up
Cosmetics were probably used because of Egypt’s climate, for protection.
The commonest was eye-paint. Kohl, usually a lead ore called GALENA
replaced powdered green malachite. Raw lumps have been found, some as
powder in tubes and some as paste in pots. Powdered red ochre was used
as rouge and added to oil to form lip-paste. Henna-stained palms, soles and
nails were common and perfumes were made from pounded herbs, aromatic
plants, oils and fats, then rubbed into the skin.
Kohl pots
Mirrors, usually made from polished bronze or copper, combs, tweezers, toilet spoons, cosmetic
sticks, mixing palettes, pumice stones and alabaster pots were all common toiletry items. Tubes or
boxes contained the mixtures.
Pastimes
The Ancient Egyptians were fond of sports and games, including hunting,
fishing and fowling. Board games using counters were popular and banquets
featured singers, dancers and musicians. Instruments included the sistrum,
harps, drums, pipes, bells and cymbals. Tumblers, acrobats and wrestlers
entertained too.
Reed balls
Case Features
8
10
11
15
17
18
19
20
21
Silver finger ring…. King Akhenaten
Gold ring…. Queen Nefertiti
Bronze finger ring….King Smenkhare
Scarab in a gold ring….King Tuthmosis III
Bronze mirror with ivory handle
Bronze razor, hair curlers and tweezers
Wooden kohl-tube and two compartmented boxes with incised floral
design and blue pigment
Mud toy monkey
Alabaster gaming piece
Bone dice
Wooden castanets with the head of Hathor
Bronze cymbols and fragment of a model sistrum
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Bronze Mirror
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
Amulets and Sacred Animals
The DJED PILLAR was an abstract amulet, signifying stability in the living. It was also considered
a symbol of OSIRIS for the dead.
The PAPYRUS STEM was a symbol of fertility for crops and for life in general. It was also used as
the hieroglyph for ‘to be green.’
The WEDJAT EYE, the left eye of HORUS, was used as protection against the ‘evil eye’ and it also
symbolised light.
The ANKH sign symbolised life.
The IBIS was a bird sacred to THOTH, god of the moon and patron of scribes.
FLIES symbolised bravery!
The FALCON bird symbolised the god HORUS, a sky god in its early form.
The RAM symbolised fertility and was associated with several gods.
The BULL also symbolised fertility and was associated with both the power of life and the afterlife.
BABOONS were sacred to THOTH.
Display Features
• Pigs were considered dirty and were associated with the evil god Seth. Sows and piglets
symbolised the continuance of life through offspring.
• Crocodile amulets offered protection from real crocodile attacks.
• Cats were associated with the goddess Bastet.
• Flies symbolised bravery! They were persistent, buzzing constantly and always hard to drive
away.
• The Hare was a symbol of the goddess WENET and was respected for its speed and good
senses.
• Frogs symbolised a creative force and were associated with HEKET, a goddess of birth.
• Snakes were associated with harvest, kingship, creative forces and the powers of evil.
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Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Ancient Egypt - Teachers’ Notes
Amulets
Amulets are very common artefacts and over 200 kinds have been identified. They were worn
carried or placed between the bandages of mummies to benefit the dead. Subjects included gods,
animals, plants, even abstracts - usually represented by the concept’s hieroglyphic sign.
Amulets generally protected the wearer, so that a model ear restored hearing power to the dead
and a god figure brought the favour of that god.
Amulet Display Features
• Isis nursing Horus– thus a protector of children
• Anubis, a jackal-headed god of embalming and a guardian of tomb
• Sekhmet, a lion-headed goddess of war, a magician connected with healing
• Bes, a friendly, popular, grotesque dwarf who protected the home and household
• Shu, a god of the air, supporting the roof of heaven
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