Archaeology in the Archives

Part One

We are going to start with a quick look at two different documents – what clues can you spot to the country we are visiting today? Our Mystery document today requires some very close inspection, what will you find?

Part Two

Let’s see what features you have spotted that help us come to a conclusion about what this document is? What does it show us about a famous excavation…?

Part Three

Join me with your imagine switched on and all your senses ready to see, feel, taste, smell and hear your way on a journey back in time!

Additional documents to investigate

1) OS 1/384 (23) and OS 1/384 (5)

2) COPY 1/427 (1)

Further activities

You could recreate the tomb of Tutankhamun out of an old cardboard shoe box. Use the colour photographs from the Griffith Institute from the video (or find more online) to recreate the inside.

If you like making models you could recreate the Pyramid scene from the OS 1/384 documents, including the Sphinx.

You could even create your own dig journal about the excavations as if you were Howard Carter. Or pretend you were Ramsey Macdonald and design a postcard to send home about your exciting holiday in the Valley of the Kings.

There are lots of great colouring sheets and Hieroglyph alphabets online for you to try. Or you could visit the British Museum’s website to see more Egyptian artefacts.

Do some research about Tutankhamun and create a fact file about him or the job of an Archaeologist.