Most of the well-known pharoahs are from the New Kingdom of Egypt. We explored hieroglyphs, made a clay pot, and had a book party!
A Closer Look at Hieroglyphs
I mentioned this in The Old Kingdom of Egypt: the kids enjoyed working through “Secrets Of The Pyramids: National Geographic Maze Adventures,” especially decoding the secret message in hieroglyphs at the end!
Here are a few other resources about the unlocking of the Rosetta Stone in 1822.
- Picture Book: Seeker of Knowledge
- Youtube video: Why was the Rosetta Stone so Important?
Make a Cartouche
When looking at hieroglyphs, the names of royalty stand out because each is inscribed within a cartouche. A cartouche is either oriented as a vertical oval with a line below it, or a horizontal oval with a line to the side. We used the hieroglyph alphabet to write our names in cartouches.
Make a Clay Pot
We used this idea from “Make It Work! Ancient Egypt.” Using air-dry clay, first shape a circle for the bottom. Then roll out long, snake-like pieces of clay. Make the sides of the pot by coiling the long pieces of clay around. Smooth out the inside and outsides as well as you can. Let dry, and you’re finished!
The Female Pharoah, New Kingdom of Egypt
Hatshepsut is a fascinating character, the only female pharoah! Here’s what we read:
- Picture Book: How the Sphinx Got to the Museum
- Picture Book: Hatshepsut of Egypt
- Wordy Picture Book: Hatshepsut, His Majesty, Herself
- Chapter Book: Mara of the Nile*
- Reference Book: Story of the World, Volume 1, Chapter 13: The General and the Woman Pharaoh
*Mara of the Nile vilifies Hatshepsut. I had assigned the book to my older kids as independent reading and they kept telling me that Hatshepsut was a bad pharoah because that is how she is portrayed in the book. I looked into it and could find no evidence of it. Historians seem to agree that many good things happened during her reign.
The Heretic Pharoah
Ahkenaten decided to change the religion of Egypt from polytheism, the worship of many gods, to monotheism, or the worship of one god. Born as Amenhotep IV, he changed his name to have the -aten ending in worship of the sun disk god, Aten.
The main book that made his life come alive for us was Casting the Gods Adrift. This is a short chapter book that I read aloud. We enjoyed the detailed black and white drawings.
Ahkenaten is also mentioned at the beginnings of each of the Tutankhamun books mentioned in the next section.
The second half of Chapter 13 in the Story of the World, Volume 1 is about Ahkenaten and Tutankhamun: Amenhotep and King Tut.
The Boy Pharoah, New Kingdom of Egypt
Ahkenaten’s son, Tutankh-aten, changed his name to Tutankh-amun. This removal of the -aten suffix reflected the shift back to polytheism and acknowledgment of Amun-ra as the main god.
Here are the books we read:
- Picture Book: Tutankhamen’s Gift
- Wordy Picture Book: The Secrets of Tutankhamun
- Reference Book: Story of the World, Volume 1, Chapter 13: Amenhotep and King Tut
After our we read Ra the Mighty: Cat Detective for our book club party, my younger kids wanted me to read the sequel aloud: Ra the Mighty: The Great Tomb Robbery. It turned out that it was perfect to read in conjunction with learning about the excavation of King Tut’s tomb. It takes place in the Valley of the Kings.