Mummy Facts to Share with Your Students During Halloween

With Halloween around the corner, you may find these MUMMY FACTS of interest to share with your kids. 

1. Many mummies, male and female, were buried with extra hair wigs for the afterlife.
2. Mummies of pharaoh (kings) had onions place in the eye sockets for eyes.
3. With Halloween around the corner, perhaps, you may find these MUMMY FACTS of interest to share with your students.
4. Many mummies, male and female, were buried with extra hair wigs for the afterlife.
5. Mummies of pharaoh (kings) had onions place in the eye sockets for eyes.
6. Some mummies were wrapped in 20 layers of linen.

The oldest mummies are not Egyptian. Found in what is now Chile and Peru, the Chinchorro mummies date to 5000 BC (Egyptians date back to 2500 BC). The Takla Makan Mummies are 3000 year old mummies found in China. Interestingly, their features are NOT Chinese!

Egyptians didn’t just mummify people. Mummified gerbils, birds, cats, dogs, fish, snakes, baboons, crocodile, hippo and even a lion have been found! During the 70 day mummification process, ancient Egyptians removed the brain through the nostrils using a hook shaped instrument. Believing it had no value, the brain was thrown away.

The center of intelligence and caring, the ancient Egyptians kept the heart, wrapping it and replacing it back into the mummy. Other organs were placed in special containers called canapic jars.

Believing mummies had healing powers, for almost 500 years, mummies were ground up and used to treat stomach aches and other ailments.Yuck!

During Victorian times, mummies being unwrapped after dinner was popular entertainment for the guests!

Believing you could take possessions into the next life, King Tut was found with licorice root,watermelon seeds as well as chariots, games, weapons and furniture and a change of underwear.

One mummy actually has a passport! When Ramses 11 went from Egypt to France, a passport was issued!

             
Extension Activities:

If you were a mummy, what are 5 things you’d pack away for the afterlife. Why would you place these items in your tomb?

Draw/color a mummy coffin. Write 5 facts learned about mummies on your drawing in complete sentence form.

Write a day in the life of a mummy on display in a museum. What do you hear? See? Smell? Feel?

Do you think mummies should be on display in a museum or be left in their tomb? Write a persuasive paragraph on your position. Include at least 2 reasons for your position.

Try my biographical play on King Tut. Lots of mummy information. AND, remember NOVEMBER 4th is KING TUT DAY.... http://edworldexchange.com/?q=node/250

Gail