Showing posts with label Women in History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Women in History. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Story of the World Ancient Times - Chap 13 - The General and the Woman Pharoah

This post contains some Amazon affiliate links through which I can earn commission.

The picture above shows Thutmose III and Hatshepsut.   Thutmose III was co-regent for a time with Hatshepsut (his stepmother and aunt).   I originally thought this was Thutmose I and Hatshepsut, but decided to leave it as the chapter intro anyways.  I'm not sure which one is which.

The first  section of this chapter in  Story of the World  is about two great Pharaohs:  Thutmose I, and his daughter, Hatshepsut, one of the few women Pharaohs in Egypt's history.   Whether you're using this curriculum or another, I hope you find these resources to supplement your history lessons useful (I have a lot more on Hatshepset below that could be used apart from SOTW)!


Thutmose I

From British Museum - Shared by Capmondo

Apart from looking at some pictures like the one above, we didn't do much the supplement the section on Thutmose I.  Below is a map which would also be useful...it shows Egyptian territory during his reign. 

Map of Egypt in 1450 BC 


Shared by Andrei nacu at English Wikipedia
Under  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike
 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic licenses 



Hatshepsut

 Shared by Postdlf under Creative Commons 

Hatshepsut is not just famous for being a women Pharoah...she is considered by many to be one of the greatest Pharaohs!  

I first learned about Hatshepsut reading The Egypt Game as a child, and have been fascinated with her ever since.   So, I was very excited to learn that she was covered in SOTW.  I thought they covered her well, but there was one oversight about Hatshepsut in this chapter (an understandable one since it's information that has only come out relatively recently).

This chapter in Story of the World said that Hatshepsut didn't fight any wars.  But she did.  According to the book 'Hatchepust, the Female Pharoah' by Joyce Tyldesley, which came out shortly after the first edition of Story of the World, there is growing evidence of Hatshepsut's "military prowess."   During her reign wars were fought against Nubia, the nations of the Upper Nile,  against the Ethiopians, and probably also against the Asiatics.  However, the book also did say that "Hatchepsut's military policy is perhaps best described as one of unobtrusive control; active defense rather than deliberate offense."  

(Foreign names tend to have various spellings in translation.  Hatchepsut is just another variation). 

Here's a few  random facts about Hatshepsut not included in the chapter that also might be fun to share....

  • Hatshepsut was actually not the first woman Pharaoh.   Sobekneferu ruled 3 centuries before her (though she had a short reign), and other earlier women pharaohs are rumored.
  • Hatshepsut had an interest in wild and exotic animals, and during her reign had a collection of live animals, perhaps somewhat like a zoo, that included apes, mon­keys, birds, grey­hounds, cat­tle, leop­ards, chee­tahs, rhi­noc­er­oses, and giraffes.

All text and works on About Zoos, unless stated otherwise are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
See also copyright notice. It will be much appreciated when you at least refer to >> Source:
About Zoos- http://aboutzoos.info

  • Hatshepsut died at the age of 50.   Scientists believe she may have been killed by gradual exposure to toxins in a cream she used for a skin condition.  


WOMEN IN EGYPT

In this chapter of SOTW it says that the only jobs women in Egypt were allowed to do was to be a wife and mother, priestess, or dancer.  This was somewhat true for upper class women (though they could also be musicians or professional mourners, and even being a wife involved managing the servants of the household, so it was more than just taking care of and teaching children).     But among the lower and middle classes there were many other jobs done by women.    Women could also be musicians, weavers, servants, cooks, perfumers, and even doctors.   Farmer's wives worked alongside their husbands in the fields, and women were sometimes known to manage farms or businesses in the absence of their husbands or sons.

This TedEd video is about an ancient Egyptian doctor (who just happens to be a woman).



ACTIVITIES

VIDEO
TedEd - The Hidden History of Hatshepsut
I love this short video by TedEd which tells more interesting details about this ruler.

TOUR HATSHEPSUT'S MORTUARY TEMPLE
The entrance to Hatshepsut's mortuary temple, one of her many building projects. (There used to be a whole tour through multiple buildings but that's been taken down, unfortunately) 

MAKE a PHARAOH COSTUME 
There are printable Pharoah Headress here that would make a fun craft for this unit.  If you also wanted to make a fake beard, there's a picture of a toilet paper roll one here that wouldn't be hard to follow (sorry, just a picture, not instructions).    (Alternate printable idea with mask and collar here, but using a shirt for the headdress, that also has a good printable beard)


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Shared on The Bookshelf and Throwback Thursday

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Story of the World Ancient Times - Chap 12 - Egypt and Nubia

  


This is part of a series where I share our lessons (and other related resources) for each chapter of Story of the World - Ancient Times.    Even if you're not using Story of the World, if you are studying ancient history, hopefully this will be helpful to you.  Today we get into some really interesting history that's too often overlooked, and why it's so important!

Though this section of Chapter is about Egypt, once again...it is also about Nubia...so I will be talking quite a bit about that today.   But first, a bit about Queen Tiye (who is presented in Story of the World as an Egyptian queen from Nubian  (but was she?).   Read on to learn more...


ABOUT QUEEN TIYE

 Photo By Rolf Dietrich Brecher from Germany (Teje)


Tiye is an amazingly interesting character...and after researching her I'm actually a little disappointed that so little about her is actually said in this chapter, because she is fascinating.

Married to pharaoh Amenhotep III, she wielded real power (moreso than  previous Egyptian queens).  She was the first Egyptian queen to have her name written on official acts, and was mentioned in foreign correspondence.     In statues of her and Amenhotep III, she was depicted as the same height as the Pharaoh  (in previous statuary, the Pharaoh had always been depicted as larger than his Queen, to emphasize his greater power and importance.).

From inscriptions and the letters found at Armarna, it is clear that Tiye was in every way the equal of her husband and presided at festivals, met with foreign dignitaries, and directed both domestic and foreign policies.
Ancient History Encyclopedia

The main point made about her in Story of the World is that she was Nubian, but as it turns out, that point is debatable.  Some historians say that her parents may have been Nubian or of Nubian decent, others disagree...but regardless of who is right in that debate, Tiye herself grew up in Egypt, in the Royal palace, not in Nubia.

I feel the need to take an aside here and note that whether she was Nubian is an entirely different question than whether she was black.       We look at Egyptian art and find a number of skin tones, which makes sense considering where Egypt is located, in the gateway between Europe, Asia and the rest of Africa.  But the whole question of what race the Egyptians were is steeped in controversy...and racism.    Europeans in the 19th century seeking to justify the subjugation of Africans categorized them as lesser and separate, and so felt the need to try to separate Egypt from the rest of Africa by categorizing them as a different race than the rest of Africa.    But ancient Egyptians didn't have the concept of race that developed during that later period of history, which has had such an impact on people since.  And, modern genetic scientists (as well as most anthropologists) have rejected the idea of different biologically separate races (even if race is still "culturally real"). 

"Any characterization of race of the ancient Egyptians depends on modern cultural definitions, not on scientific study. Thus, by modern American standards it is reasonable to characterize the Egyptians as 'black', while acknowledging the scientific evidence for the physical diversity of Africans."
~  Stuart Tyson Smith  ( The Oxford encyclopedia of ancient Egypt, Volume 3 - Located through Wikipdia: Ancient Egyptian Race Controversy)

And here is the reason I felt it was important to talk about this:    While searching for images for this chapter I accidentally stumbled on a very racist cartoon who's main message was that that African history shows the inferiority of black people.  It showed an ugly drawing of an idiotic looking tribal man with a bone through his nose, next to a hut, and said above it "Blacks like to talk about their rich African history.  Here's their rich African history."   It looked like something from an earlier generation, but sadly recent events in the news have shown me that ideology is not dead.  So, while I didn't choose to go as much into all this racial history with my eight year old as I just have here, we did take some time to learn more about Nubia and the Nubian Pharaohs than SOTW covered,  partially so that one day my son will have more ammunition to combat that kind of ignorance, if he ever comes across it.   Nubia and Egypt are not the only great African civilizations, so am glad to see that Story of the World covers some some of the others in later volumes as well.  

If you would like to also cover Nubia and the Nubian pharaohs in a little more detail than Story of the World does, there are some excellent resources below...



NUBIAN PHARAOHS - SUPPLEMENTARY VIDEO
The Nubian Pharaohs mentioned briefly in paragraph 8 actually reigned long after the Middle Kingdom.  To learn more about them, my son and I watched the section "Nubians Regain Rule/Tarharka Dynasty" from minute 29:20 to 34:40 of the video below (we watched the first part of this video to supplement Chapter 11).  The part about Egyptian Invasion (21:45 - 26:34) also related directly to the chapter as well, but since we already covered that in the reading I skipped over that.

Lost Kingdoms of Africa: Nubia (Covers Sahara civilization too).
I went ahead and charted out the minutes for your convenience below, in case you just wanted to use other parts of this.

0 - 4:28 - Intro
4:28 -  7:41 - Rock Gong, beginning of Nubian culture
7:42 - 10:56 - Rock Art and Climate Change (When the Sahara Was Green)
10:56 - 14:20 - Kerma (main city in Kush/Nubia) and Deffufa (huge brick structure)
14:20 - 16:48  - Kerma Pottery
16:49 - 21:41 - Kerma Burial Plot
21:42 - 21:45 - What Happened to Kerma (transition)
21:45 - 26:34 - Egyptian Invasion/Jebel Barkal
26:35 - 29:19 - Sufi Mystics Today at Jebel Barkal
29:20 - 34:40 - Nubians Regain Rule/Tarharka Dynasty
34:41 - 38:43 - Desert Encroaches/Meroe
38:44 - 40:56 - Iron
40:56 - 41:58 - Desert Encroaches Again
41:59 - 45:41 - Nomads
45:42 - End   - Central Sudan (Modern Times)






PICTURES TO SUPPLEMENT THIS CHAPTER
We used some pictures we found online to supplement this chapter...below are links and paragraph from this chapter the pictures relate to.

Paragraph 3
Amenemhet

Paragraph 6
Nubian Trade Goods intro image

Paragraph 7
Nubian Archers
Nubian Warrior

Paragraph 8 - 9
Tiye (the statue the picture in the book was based off of) (Par 8)
...and, if your child is interested in mummies,  you can also see a picture of Tiye's mummy here.
Nubian Pharaohs - scroll down, picture under map
Tarharqa (Nubian Pharoah)
Taharqa and Entourage 
Taharqa Statue



SUGGESTED BOOKS
                                                                                        
Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors
If you want your children to learn more about ancient Nubia and do some crafts or activities related to it, this is the best book I've found on the subject for children.  It  has a whole section on Nubia as well as sections on the Hittites, Mesopotamians, and Egyptians (a small section on the Nubian pharaohs is, if I remember right, in the section on Egypt).  The only thing I dislike about this book is that it's entirely in black and white (save for the cover).

DK Ancient Egypt Revealed
I only mention this book here because it is AMAZING for using with Chapter 13, and while it just has a few things related to Chap 12 (pictures of Nubians, a mention brief mention of the Hyksos discussed in the next subsection), it's worth picking up at your local library early if they have it, since you'll want to use it for next chapter too.












Graphic for Sharing

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Story of the World Ancient Times: Chap 10: Ancient China - Lei Zu and the Silkworm


Post contains some affiliate links, through which I can earn commission.

Below you will find our lesson and some helpful resources for the section in Story of the World Chapter 10 on Lei Zu, the women who discovered silk.  If you're not using that curriculum, just skip past the "While Reading" section below to find resources for learning about the discovery of silk, and silkworms. 

You can see all my lessons and Story of the World resources here.

STORY OF THE WORD - WHILE READING

Paragraph 1 - 4:  The Yellow River Valley
(Paragraphs based on Revised edition)

We used the world map from Map Trek - Ancient Times (part of their free sample pages) to find all the places mentioned in paragraph 1-3.  He remembered quite a bit...and  it's nice seeing some recall finally kicking in.  All the repetition really helps.

At paragraph 4 we also stopped to look at some pictures of Chinese boats in the "Great Waterways" section in DK Ancient China (a book we found at our library).

If you are breaking up the section into smaller parts for younger learners, this is a good place in the chapter to stop and take a break.

Paragraph 5 - End of Section
When we read paragraph 5 about Huang Di we also stopped and looked at the page in DK Ancient China on "Health and Medicine", since Huang Di is said in legends to have discovered medicine.

It's important to note that there was more than one Huang Di...another, Shi Huangdi is talked about in chapter 32 of SOTW...he was the Huang Di who conceived of the Great Wall of China and had the terra cotta soldier's built.  So if you are looking for info online about Huang Di, you may also find info on him.

BOOK SUGGESTION

In stead of reading the story in SOTW about Lei Zu we read Silk Princess by Charles Santore.   This was a fun story, which my son enjoyed, and I loved the illustrations, but it added magic elements and changed the tale in other ways, such as moving the discovery to the princess in stead of the queen (which I had a little less problem with, since in the last pages it explained that in some ancient tales the discovery was attributed to Huang Di's daughter, not wife).   I sort of wish I had stuck with the story as told in Story of the World, or taken the time to find another picture book that left out magic and just stuck with the plain story.   It's not that I mind magic in folk tales, but there's so few stories of ancient inventors, and even less so of FEMALE ancient inventors, that I would have liked to leave more of this in the rhelm of the conceivable, than make it into just another fable. 

MORE ABOUT SILKWORMS

Here is a time lapse video of a silkworm making a cocoon (I've started it at minute 2:10...you can go back and also watch them munching leaves and such, but that may take too much time for most kiddos).  




Here's a picture of silkworms....



Generally in the making of silk the silkworms are killed before emerging as moths to prevent them from chewing through the pod, thus damaging the silk strands.  But if they are allowed to emerge, the moth looks like this....


Pictures from Pixabay


ACTIVITIES

At our co-op we drank some Chinese tea together, and someone brought in actual silk worm pods for the kids to touch and play with.  Silk worm pods are used as a beauty product and as such can be ordered inexpensively online.



Depending on the season you can also sometimes actually buy silk worms online if you would like to watch the whole silk worm cocoon making process.   You can also buy just the eggs for a little less here.

ONLINE GAME
Color a silk worm and moth online.

FREE PRINTABLE
Life Cycle of a Silk Worm

LEI ZU DOLL
You can find a printable bracket paper doll in the free sample pages from this book on ancient paper dolls.   The link to the sample pages is under the picture of the book.  (They spell it Leizu, without a space). 



 





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