Welcome to the Ancient Egyptian Pathfinder. Here you will find many resources to help you discover information on one of the following topics:
Daily Life, Gods/Goddesses, Pharaohs, Fashion, Entertainment, Pyramids, Mummies, Hieroglyphics, Women in Egypt
In this assignment you will be addressing the following level 5 VELS criteria:
Historical knowledge and understanding
* Developing knowledge and understanding about ancient societies and their role in providing the foundations of modern society.
Historical reasoning and interpretation
* Learning to frame questions in the light of their own knowledge and experiences and to develop research and inquiry skills. This includes gathering and documenting evidence from a variety of sources.
Thinking Processes
* Students use a range of question types, and locate and select
relevant information from varied sources when undertaking investigations. (VELS 2006)
REQUIREMENTS:
* You will see in your instruction sheet that your first step is to brainstorm your prior knowledge on the topic and then define your own questions before beginning the research.
* You will also complete a research grid (accessible from the Intranet) for electronic resources like websites, where you copy and paste relevant information and then put it in your own words.
* You are required to include a range of resources and to provide a correct bibliography. Please see the link on the Intranet for bibliography formats.
KEY TERMS AND INFORMATION
Egypt – a country located in North Africa, bordered by Libya, Sudan and Israel. The Nile, known as the longest river in the world, runs through Egypt and provided the fertile land which enabled Ancient Egyptian civilisation to begin.
Ancient Egypt Time line – The Ancient Egyptian Civilisation lasted 3000 years from 3100BC to 332BC. Although it spanned such a lengthy period, many aspects of Ancient Egyptian life remained the same over that time.
Dynasties - Egyptian dynasties were families which retained political power across generations.
Common words associated with Ancient Egypt: Pyramid, Pharaoh, Tutankhamun, Hieroglyphics, Sphinx, Amulet. If you are unsure of the meaning of any of these words use the dictionaries mentioned below.
REFERENCE SOURCES
Check out the reference section of the library. Often finding the information you need is quicker using a printed encyclopedia than the Internet.
World Book Encyclopedia Volume 6 pp. 135-144 (R 030 WOR)
Go to pg 135 and then flick through to find your topic in bold. Although you don’t have to use a note-taking grid for print texts, use the skills you’ve learnt by putting information into your own words. Refer to the Intranet for how to write the bibliographic details of an encyclopedic article.
The Ancient & Medieval World – Egypt and Mesopotamia. (R 930 HIS V.2)
Also in the reference section you will find a collection of books specifically about the Ancient World. Volume 2 will provide you with detailed information about Ancient Egypt. The contents page is very general but if you use the index at the back you will be able to look up your particular topic.
The World Book Dictionary A-K, L-Z (R 423.02 WOR)
Check the World Book Dictionary for any unfamiliar words you come across. As it compliments the World Book Encyclopedia, it will be sure to have the word you’re looking for on Ancient Egypt. ESL students please note that we have bilingual dictionaries for your use.
Online Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt
Your first instinct may be to find information from Wikipedia because it’s an easily accessible, popular source; however, Wikipedia’s content is not always reliable and the authors are not always experts in their field. Wikipedia can be helpful in giving you an overview of the topic and may lead you on to other sources; however, before using information from Wikipedia, check if the facts are supported by another source. Wikipedia provides key words in blue, which are links to more information on that topic. Scroll down to the Contents box to see if there is further information on your Ancient Egyptian topic.
Online Dictionary
http://www.babylon.com/define/52/History-Dictionary.html
This dictionary from the Internet specializes in historical terms so if there are any words (historical or not) that you come across in your research that you are unfamiliar with, you can type the word in and you will get a definition. It is important to carefully check the spelling of the unfamiliar word before seeking a definition.
Print non-fiction
Our library has many books on the topic of Ancient Egypt in section 932. Look at the Dewey numbers on the top of the bay ends to direct you.
You can also do a search on the library catalogue (bibliotech) which is accessible from the Intranet Homepage on the left-hand side.
To narrow your search on bibliotech type in the following:
* ‘Ancient Egypt’
* then ‘and’
* then your topic, i.e. ‘mummies’.
* Hit the search button
You will find that only 2 books appear instead of the 84 books we have on Egypt. This doesn’t mean, however, that other books don’t have information about mummies. The following three books have information about all aspects of Ancient Egypt:
1. The Atlas of Ancient Egypt by Neil Morris (932 MOR)
This book provides you with a two-page spread on each topic related to Ancient Egypt. The information is not overly detailed but it provides interesting facts attached to pictures. This is an excellent source if you learn well through looking at pictures or need pictures for your assignment. Both the contents page and the index will lead you to your chosen topic.
2. The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
by Gil Harvey. (932 HAR)
This book provides illustrations and clearly written information about all topics as well as Internet links to sites that further explore your topic. Using this book is a great way to go directly to websites that contain the information you need. Go to the index to find your topic.
3. History of Ancient Egypt – The Culture and Lifestyle of the Ancient Egyptians by Nathaniel Harris (932.01 HAR)
This book will be very useful if you are looking for more detailed information about your topic. Remember that the assignment requires that you show an in-depth understanding of your topic through questioning and this book delves deeper into some aspects of Ancient Egyptian life. You will find the index most useful in guiding you to your topic.
WEBSITES
Note: remember that you can copy and paste information from these sites into your electronic research grid but then you must change the information into your own words.
Colour Me Egypt
http://touregypt.net/kids/History.htm
This website, designed especially for young people, is a great place to start as navigation is easy due to the menu at the top of the page. Click on any of these links and you will find a page of easily accessible information. The information from this site will provide you with an overview of your particular topic and you can find further detail with the websites below.
The British Museum – Ancient Egypt
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html
The British Museum’s web site on Ancient Egypt provides detailed information on the following topics: Egyptian Life, Geography, Gods and Goddesses, Mummification, Pharaohs, Pyramids, Temples, Time, Trades and Writing. You can choose from this list on the left-hand side. Each list item - for example ‘Pyramids’- has 3 sections: Story, Explore, Challenge. The ‘Explore’ link will provide you with the information you need.
Ancient History - Egyptians
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/
The BBC web site has detailed information on ‘Pyramids’, ‘Mummies’, ‘Gods and beliefs’, ‘Pharaohs and Dynasties’ and ‘Daily Life’. If you click on one of the links in the above categories you will find pictures and information on your topic. Most topics have more than one page of information so don’t forget to click on the next link at the bottom of the page; you can move easily between pages using the next and previous links.
Web search engines
If you would like further information on your topic try the following search engines. Remember that when you find a site you must ask yourself the following questions to establish the authority of the information: Is the information from a well known organization? Do advertisements or games dominate the site? Is there an author for the material? Is the information backed up by other sources?
Google
http://www.google.com/
Like Wikipedia, Google is a very popular research tool for students but should be used with caution. Google brings up lots of hits but they are not always relevant to your research topic or written at an appropriate level for young people. There are however, smarter ways of searching that will help you to narrow down the information. In the Google search box try the following searches:
Ancient Egypt and daily life and students
Or
“Ancient Egypt daily life” (include quotation marks)
Both of these searches will drastically reduce the number of hits that appear and hopefully the information will be more relevant.
Clusti
http://www.clusti.com/
Clusti is a great search engine because it narrows down your search for you and provides you with categories on the left-hand side. If for example, you type in Ancient Egypt and daily life you will find several sub-categories on the side, one of which is ‘Kids 19’. This means that these 19 web sites are aimed specifically at young people.
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