Last summer we had a special Egyptian exhibition at the museum and I had a lot of school parties coming in to learn 'the secrets of the pharoahs' in which I taught them how to mummify a corpse. That particular workshop was specially designed to be delivered as an outreach once the exhibition was over, though I actually did it as such three times while the exhibition was on - once for a special school where the logistics of getting so many children with a variety of disabilities to the museum daunted the teachers (though I believe several of the children later brought their parents to the exhibition) and twice to schools where they couldn't/wouldn't raise the funds to pay for the bus to get them to the museum.
Despite the fact that the workshop has been on our books for over a year since, today was the first time I had been 'back in Egypt' since July 2006. Today Hilary and I went to Aby, a tiny village near Alford, where we taught the entire KS2 class of 11 girls and 3 boys aged 7 to 11. As is so often the case with these tiny schools, they were lovely.
Hilary, who hasn't done Egyptians before, talked to them about what museums are about, and then did the archaeology section where the children have a chance to handle and discuss local finds from the post-mediaeval right back to the late stone-age. They are then asked which they think match the period of Egyptian civilisation. This is essentially the same as what we do to put both Romans and Saxons in an archaeological context, which Hilary has been doing for years - in fact she taught me both these workshops.
At this point I take over with a look at three items (reproduction) taken from an Egyptian tomb which they examine as if they were archaeologists making drawings and listing details about materials, size and what they think the item is and why it would be in a tomb.
Then we move over to the climax of the workshop - they mummify Vic-ramses. I take them across to where the body is hidden under a cloth and build up the tension. Are they brave enough to prepare a dead body for mummification? Then I remove the cloth . . .
Here he is - as the children say 'a teddy mummy' - and the children love it.
One child is chosen to be the priest who cuts him open, and then we stone him to death for defiling the body. The children remove Vic-ramses' internal organs. Behind him are the canopic jars dedicated to Qenbensenuef, Duamutef, Imseti and Hapi into which his intestines, stomach, liver and lungs will be placed. His brain (a mere snot producer) is mushed up and thrown away.
Then we bandage him and suround him with some of the things he will need in the after-life. Beside Vic-ramses is his mirror so that he can put on his make-up and look good in the after-life, and two ushabti to work for him. He is protected by amulets in the shape of the Eye of Horus, the Knot of Isis and the Backbone of Osiris.
He has a golden pectoral. On his heart is a scarab to protect him when Anubis weighs his heart against a feather, so that he will not be found wanting and his heart thrown to the crocodile monster.
The discussion with which we conclude the workshop was the most wide-ranging I have ever presided over. We covered food, houses, irrigation, as well as the comparison with Britons of the same period. The question came up of whether they would like to be ancient Egyptians. Some were quite keen, but changed their minds when they realised that there was a much greater possibility of being a slave than a pharoah, and then there was the question of television, computers, and most of all chocolate. One boy none-the-less fancied being a boy pharoah if he could do just what he wanted and have absolute power. I said that he would have his own way in many things but would have to obey certain strict rules of behaviour. Such as? Well, not being able to choose who to marry; it would have to be a woman of equal and royal status - in fact it might well be his sister! This decided him: no amount of power was worth that, and his sister whole-heartedly agreed.
I'm doing this again at Killingholme next week.
