Prep IV travelled back thousands of years ago to the Ancient Egyptians at Bolton Museum. The children learnt that the first person to bring Egyptian cotton to Bolton was a woman named Anne Barlow. She also brought back with her some Egyptian artefacts they still have on show today.
Children took part in a human timeline starting from 2550BC to the modern day. We could have gone back so much further but that would’ve taken too long and we were excited to experience the rest of the museum. Children dressed up in Egyptian clothing and touched a real artefact that came from the temple of King Ramesses II. We also found out that a Scarab beetle held a significant religious and symbolic importance in the Ancient Egyptian era as it represented the cycle of life, death and rebirth.
Before mummies were mummified, the bodies had to go through several things including organs being taken out of the bodies. Egyptians believed that the heart was the most important organ in the body as they thought that it was where your thoughts and feelings came from so the heart stayed inside the body. However, the Egyptians believed that the brain wasn’t very important and you did not need it in the afterlife and it was poked until it came out of your nose. There are four organs that were taken out and placed in jars representing gods. Your liver would go in the Imsety jar which had the head of a human. The lungs would go in the Hapi jar which had the head of a baboon. The stomach would go in the Duamutef jar which had the head of a jackal and the intestines would go in the Qebehsenuef jar which had the head of a hawk. The children had the option of looking at a real mummy of a three year old girl who was believed to have died after having appendicitis. No one knows her name. Athena did want to know whether she had brown or blond hair but unfortunately we do not know that too.
Toban had a chance to be prepared for mummification. His organs were all taken out by the children and placed in the correct jar. The children then had the tricky decision of whether Mrs. Booth was able to go into the afterlife or not. Her heart was placed on the scales and appeared to be heavier than a feather! Fortunately, Mrs. Booth had hold of her amulet of a scarab beetle as it protects the keeper, which then made the feather heavier than her heart. So to the afterlife she will go.
Next, the children again had the option to see another mummy, this time a thirty year old man. We know little about this man as he was found in the wrong coffin. The coffin he was in belonged to a woman. It is believed that people had gone to Egypt to buy cotton and liked to unwrap the whole body of mummies they found. This mummy though was only unwrapped down to his waist, this is believed it was because the people unwrapping it only wanted the amulet. It is thought to be the body of a priest as you can see where his head would have been shaved. It was common in those times for priests to shave their heads. It is believed to be the body of an Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II. Ramesses had 250 children in his lifetime and most of the family were priest.
A great morning was had by all. A big thank you to Millie at Bolton Museum for giving us the guided tour.
