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Ancient Egypt at The British Museum
From: The British Museum
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| This amulet is called the 'Isis knot' and is a symbol of protection. | |
 panning an astonishing 3,000 years, the civilisation of Ancient Egypt has captivated the popular imagination ever since the Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt four and a half centuries before the birth of Christ. The British Museum's educational website Ancient Egypt (www.ancientegypt.co.uk) offers a creative and challenging introduction to the ancient Egyptians. Through stories, interactive games (with both ancient and modern sources), and media-rich explorations, users even have the opportunity to put what they've learned into practice--from counting with ancient Egyptian numerals to asking for guidance from Egyptian gods and goddesses. |
Subjects covered on the Ancient Egypt site range from mummification, myths, gods and goddesses to pyramids, trades, writing and food. An exciting introduction to the practice of hieroglyphics teaches how the Egyptians clarified ambiguous phrases with 'sense signs', so that learners can even begin to make sense with short phrases in ancient Egyptian. Scribes, we learn, were the only people in ancient Egypt who could read and write the sacred hieroglyphs that would appear on temples and in tombs. They also kept government records and wrote letters for the pharaoh. The most famous of all ancient Egyptian scripts is hieroglyphic. However, throughout 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian civilisation, at least three other scripts were used for different purposes. |
An adventure down the Nile, where the user is able to make choices about the journey at every step, teaches how the ancient Egyptians thought of their land. Egypt was divided into two types of land, the 'black land' and the 'red land'. The 'black land' was the fertile land on the banks of the Nile, which ancient Egyptians used for growing crops. This was the only land in ancient Egypt that could be farmed because a layer of rich, black silt was deposited there every year after the Nile flooded. The 'red land' was the barren desert that protected Egypt on two sides, which separated ancient Egypt from neighbouring countries and invading armies. They also provided the ancient Egyptians with a source for precious metals and semi-precious stones. |
The wesbite's introduction to mummification offers users the chance to witness what noblemen, such as Nebamun, were attempting to take with them into the afterlife. We see an actual papyrus, a receipt for linen ordered by one family for a mummification--it states a delivery estimate of 72 days! |
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| Papyrus receipt for linen ordered for a mummification. | |
The ancient Egyptians believed that it was important to recognise and worship gods and goddesses so that life continued smoothly. They believed that temples were the homes of the gods and goddesses. Every temple was dedicated to a god or goddess who was worshipped there by the temple priests and the pharoah. One goddess was Hathor, from the 'House of Horus'. In appearance, she was either a woman with the ears of a cow, a cow, or a woman with a headdress of horns and a sun disk. Hathor was a protective goddess. She was also the goddess of love and joy. Hathor was connected with foreign places and materials. For instance, Hathor was the goddess of the desert and the turquoise mines in the Sinai. |
The ancient Egyptians believed in many different gods and goddesses, each with their own role to play in maintaining peace and harmony across the land. Some gods and goddesses took part in creation, some brought the flood every year, some offered protection, and some took care of people after they died. Others were either local gods who represented towns, or minor gods who represented plants or animals. |
No ordinary history lesson, the British Museum's Ancient Egypt website integrates what scholars know about the daily life of Egyptians into exciting interactive tales, so that we may begin to imagine how a nobleman might actually organise his day between eating, sleeping, entertaining and managing accounts. And how does a farmer's day look, after sleeping on 'rough linen'? Media-rich games, maps and images are all part of an innovative and exciting account of the cradle of Western civilisation. |
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