Lesson video

Hello everyone.

How are you today?

I hope you're feeling good.

My name is Ms. Afzal, and I'll be your teacher for this lesson.

I'm feeling really pleased about that because we've got a very fascinating topic today.

We're looking at death and the ancient Egyptians.

I wonder if you know much about their death rituals, and what they believed about the afterlife.

Don't worry if you do or you don't, it's okay.

We're gonna be getting right into it today.

Our lesson is called Death and the Ancient Egyptians, and it comes from the unit of work, Ancient Egypt, what stayed the same across 3000 years.

So if you're ready to get into this topic of death and the ancient Egyptians, if you have some focus, energy and enthusiasm, we'll begin our lesson now.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can explain how some aspects of the way ancient Egyptians treated dead bodies changed, whilst others stayed the same.

I hope this sounds interesting to you.

We have some keywords in our lesson.

I'd like us to go through them one at a time saying them out loud, my turn, your turn.

Afterlife.

Soul.

Ba.

Mummification.

Canopic jars.

It's good to hear those keywords out loud.

And now I'd like you to turn to someone nearby and tell them, have you heard of any of these words before?

And do you even have an idea of what they could mean?

Pause here while you do this.

Thanks for sharing.

Let's find out what these keywords mean.

Ancient Egyptians believed that there was life after death, which they called the afterlife.

Ancient Egyptians believe that the soul is a part of a human, that it is separate from a body, and that it is the center of feeling and thought.

The ancient Egyptians used the word ba for someone's soul.

Preserving a dead body through embalming and cloth wrapping is known as mummification.

The ancient Egyptians placed a dead person's organs inside canopic jars during the mummification process.

So these are our keywords: afterlife, soul, ba, mummification and canopic jars.

Let's look out for them.

Let's listen out for them.

Let's think carefully about these keywords.

They'll be coming up in our lesson today.

Today's lesson is called Death and the Ancient Egyptians, and it has two learning cycles.

What were ancient Egyptian beliefs about death?

And what did ancient Egyptians do when people died?

Let's begin by exploring what ancient Egyptians' belief about death were.

Religion was very important to ancient Egyptians.

They had many gods and goddesses, and believed that the pharaohs were the human forms of their gods.

Statues and pictures of Egyptian gods often show them with a mix of human and animal body parts.

Pause here and share with someone, do you know of any ancient Egyptian gods or goddesses?

Pause here and share with someone if you do.

Thanks for sharing.

Let's take a look at one.

Here's an illustration of Toth, the God of the scribes, shown with a human body and the head of an ibis, a bird.

Ancient Egyptians believed in the afterlife.

They believed that if a person had pleased the gods during their human life, then they would go to the afterlife when they died.

This is why being religious was very important to the ancient Egyptians.

Let's get a fact from Lucas.

So pharaoh's tombs were full of amazing objects for them to use in the afterlife.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Where did the ancient Egyptians believe people went after they died?

Choose from this selection: A, heaven, B, the afterlife, C, nowhere.

Pause here while you decide, where do the ancient Egyptians believe people went after they died?

Well done if you selected answer B, the afterlife.

This is where ancient Egyptians believe people went after they died.

Ancient Egyptians believed that when a person died, the human body was no longer alive but their soul lived on.

They believe that the soul was made of what a human thinks and feels, and thought that their soul was able to leave the body and go to the afterlife.

Let's get a fact from Laura.

Ancient Egyptians believed that the soul was separate from the body.

The ancient Egyptians called the soul ba.

The hieroglyph for ba is a bird with a human head.

Ba was shown as a bird because the ancient Egyptians believed that the soul could fly from the body to the afterlife, just like a bird could fly through the sky.

And here we can see ba as a hieroglyph on the left, and as an ornament on the right.

Pause here and share with someone some details that you notice on this ornament of ba.

Thanks for looking closely and sharing what you noticed.

Pause here and share with someone, do you know the name of this ancient Egyptian God that we can see on the screen?

Thanks for sharing.

This is Anubis.

Anubis was the ancient Egyptian God that leads souls to the afterlife.

Anubis was one of the most important gods for the ancient Egyptians because they wanted to please him, so he would lead them to the afterlife.

And we can see in this illustration of Anubis that he's shown with a human body and the head of a jackal, a wild dog.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Which of these did the ancient Egyptians believe led souls to the afterlife?

A, Anubis, B, Toth, C, ba.

Pause here while you decide which of these did the ancient Egyptians believe led souls to the afterlife?

Well done if you selected answer A.

Indeed, it's in Anubis that the ancient Egyptians believed led souls to the afterlife.

Let's have another check for understanding.

Aisha and Jacob are talking about ancient Egyptian beliefs.

Who do you agree with?

Here's Aisha, "Ba was a very important ancient Egyptian God that took souls to the afterlife.

" And Jacob, "Ba was the ancient Egyptian word for the soul.

Anubis was the God that took souls to the afterlife.

" They can't both be right.

Pause here and share with someone who do you agree with?

Well done if you selected Jacob.

Indeed, ba was the ancient Egyptian word for the soul, and Anubis was the God that took souls to the afterlife.

And now it's time for your first task.

Before I explain what the task involves, pause here and share with someone what hieroglyph can you see on the screen?

Thanks for sharing.

This is a hieroglyph of ba, and ba has a human head and a body of a bird.

Around your copy of the hieroglyph that represents ba, write answers to these questions and remember to use full sentences.

One, what did the ancient Egyptians believe would happen to someone when they died?

Two, ba was the ancient Egyptian word for what?

Three, why was ba shown as a bird?

Four, who was Anubis?

So pause here while you write your answers to these questions around the hieroglyph representing ba.

Enjoy your task and I'll see you when you're finished.

It's good to be back with you.

How did you get on with that task?

Let's take a look at some answers.

One, the ancient Egyptians believed that if a person had pleased the gods during their human life, then they would go to the afterlife when they died.

Two, ba was the Egyptian word for soul.

Three, ba was shown as a bird because the ancient Egyptians believed that the soul could fly from the body to the afterlife, just like a bird could fly through the sky.

And four, Anubis was the ancient Egyptian God that led souls to the afterlife.

Well done if you answered the questions like this.

And now we're onto our next learning cycle, what did ancient Egyptians do when people died?

The ancient Egyptian belief that ba would leave the human body to go to the afterlife also stated that each night, ba would return to the human body.

So the ancient Egyptians wanted to try to preserve human bodies in a good condition, so ba could return to them.

And here we can see an illustration of Anubis visiting a coffin to help ba leave the body inside it.

The earliest ancient Egyptians in the Old Kingdom tried to preserve dead bodies by wrapping them in linen cloths and drying them out with sand.

This was not always successful.

For hundreds of years, they worked on finding different ways of keeping the bodies of the dead in as good a condition as possible.

Let's hear a fact from Alex.

Bodies that are not well protected can decay quickly.

Preserving them stops or slows down decay.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Which of these did the ancient Egyptians believe left the body and returned to it at night?

Choose from this selection, A, Anubis, B, Toth, C, ba.

Pause here while you decide.

Which of these did the ancient Egyptians believe left the body and returned to it at night?

Well done if you selected answer C.

Indeed, the ancient Egyptians believed that ba left the body and returned to it at night.

As the Old Kingdom ended and the New Kingdom began, a process called mummification had been developed by the ancient Egyptians.

Mummification was the best way of preserving the bodies of the dead.

They were still wrapped in linen cloths, but by this time, the body went through several other important steps first.

And here's a photo of a mummified body on display at a museum in the USA.

Pause here and share with someone, do you know what any of these important steps are that the body went through before being wrapped in linen cloths?

Thanks for sharing your ideas.

Let's find out what those important steps were.

The first step to mummification was to remove the internal organs, like the liver and lungs.

These were then kept in special canopic jars.

The next step to mummification was to embalm the body.

This means that it was treated with salts, oils and herbs and wrapped in linen cloth.

This would protect it from decay.

This process is called embalming.

Let's get a fact from Izzy.

Dead bodies that have been preserved in this way are called mummies.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Number the sentences to show the correct order of what happened when somebody died, according to the ancient Egyptian beliefs and practices.

The first has been found for you.

So number one, a person dies in ancient Egypt.

And let's read through the remaining beliefs and practices.

The body is embalmed with salts, oils and herbs.

Their internal organs are placed in canopic jars.

At night, ba returns to the body of the human it left.

Anubis helps ba to leave the body and go to the afterlife.

Their body is wrapped in linen cloths.

So pause here while you number the sentences to show the correct order of what happened when somebody died according to the ancient Egyptian beliefs and practices.

So how did you get on with showing the correct order of what happened when somebody died according to their ancient Egyptian beliefs and practices?

So we already have number one, a person dies in ancient Egypt.

Two, their internal organs are placed in canopic jars.

Three, their body is embalmed with salts, oils and herbs.

Four, their body is wrapped in linen cloths.

Five, Anubis helps ba to leave the body and go to the afterlife.

And six, at night, ba returns to the body of the human it left.

Well done if you ordered the beliefs and practices in this way.

And now it's time for your task.

I would like you to put a tick to show the time when each mummification process was used.

So the times are the early ancient Egyptians, that's the Old Kingdom, and the later ancient Egyptians, that's the New Kingdom.

And here are the mummification processes.

Treating a body with salt, oil and herbs.

Drying a body out with hot desert sand.

Removing internal organs and putting them in canopic jars.

And wrapping a body in linen cloths.

So pause here while you put a tick to show the time when each mummification process was used by the early ancient Egyptians or the later ancient Egyptians.

Enjoy your task and I'll see you when you're finished.

It's good to be back with you.

How did you get on with that task of putting a tick to show the time when each mummification process was used by the early ancient Egyptians or the later ancient Egyptians?

Let's go through each mummification process.

Treating a body with salt, oil and herbs was used by the later ancient Egyptians in the New Kingdom.

Drying a body out with hot desert sand was used by the early ancient Egyptians, the Old Kingdom.

Removing internal organs and putting them in canopic jars, this was done by the later ancient Egyptians.

And wrapping a body in linen cloths was done by the early ancient Egyptians and the later ancient Egyptians.

Well done if you completed the table in this way.

Well done for having a go at this task.

In our lesson Death and the Ancient Egyptians, we've covered the following: the ancient Egyptians believed in many gods.

One of these was Anubis, who guided the souls of the dead who had pleased the gods to the afterlife.

When an ancient Egyptian died, they believed that their ba, soul, left their body but returned at night, so they wanted to preserve dead bodies as much as possible.

The process of mummification was developed to preserve the bodies.

This process changed over time, as the ancient Egyptians tried new and better ways to preserve the body.

By the end of the Old Kingdom, they had started to embalm and mummify the bodies, placing the organs in canopic jars.

Well done everyone for joining in with this lesson on death and the ancient Egyptians.

It was so great to explore some of the different gods that they believed in, to find out about their belief in the ba, the soul, and this incredible process of mummification, and to see how that process developed over time, from the early ancient Egyptians to the later ancient Egyptians.

I hope you found this lesson interesting, and that you've learned some new information.

I've really enjoyed teaching you, and I'm looking forward to seeing you at another lesson soon.

Bye for now.