Today we welcomed in our first school class of the new school year! Primary 2/3 from Rathen Primary School came to the University for a full Ancient Egyptian Experience Day. They visited King’s Museum in the morning to find out about Death on the Nile and came to the Special Collections Centre after lunch to discover how the original Egyptologists recorded their findings in the field.
They saw a Victorian “squeeze” (3-D imprint taken from a engraved stone monument) and a watercolour sketch of an Ancient Egyptian coffin lid. The children then applied their own drawing skills to record the images in the sketch.
Detail of the jackals sitting at the bottom of the coffin lid, at the foot of the deceased. The Ancient Egyptians believed that jackals watched over the dead and protected them. Check out the fantastic sketch of the jackals below that one of the pupils made.
The class also saw a Victorian lady traveller’s jotter in which she translated hieroglyphic recipes for medicines. Some of the ingredients were quite horrific, including lizard’s dung and ox blood!
If you would like to bring your class to the Special Collections Centre for a school workshop, email scc.learning@abdn.ac.uk or phone (01224) 273047 or (01224) 273048.
Posted by: Sarah
UoA Collections 