Name:
Date:
Humanities
Homeroom:
Egyptian Pyramids
Directions: So far, we have learned many things about the geography and people in ancient Egypt. Below, draw a picture of what you imagine ancient Egypt looked like. Then write two to four sentences describing your picture. READ SILENTLY WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED.
Objectives: SWBATanalyze a complex text in order to craft their own topic sentencesabout ancient Egyptian pyramids.ELA / Social Studies
What am I learning?
Why is it important?
How does it connect to my own life?
Definition
Topic Sentence: /
- It’s the ______of the paragraph.
- It does not include ______or evidence.
- It is typically the ______sentence.
- It must be ______.
Turn and Talk
What is the best definition of a topic sentence?
Why is it important to have a strong topic sentence? Bonus: See if you can use one of our academic vocabulary words in your response. Be prepared to share out.
Let’s Try! Below are some examples of topics for essays and four options that COULD BE the topic sentence. Circle the one that you think fits the requirements of a topic sentence.
1. Topic: how to train a cat.
A.This paragraph is about how to train a cat.
B.Before a cat learns anything, it first teaches its owner a lesson in humility.
C.Everything you wouldn't have thought to ask about training a cat.
D.Animal training is a complicated subject.
2. Topic: Egyptian Pyramids
- There were a lot of pyramids in Egypt.
- Ancient pyramids are some of the most magnificent man-made structures in history.
- My topic is ancient Egyptian pyramids.
- If you go to Egypt, you have to see the pyramids.
3. Topic: Butterflies
- Butterflies are pretty.
- My topic in this paragraph is butterflies.
- All the types of butterflies.
- Butterflies are a diverse species of insect.
What did we learn from the WRONG answers?
Directions: In the charts below are pictures and facts pulled from different articles. Using this as evidence, craft a topic sentence for a paragraph using this information.
/ Facts from the article:- The shape of Egyptian pyramids is thought to represent the way the Egyptians believed the earth was created.
- Ancient pyramids were thought to be burial monuments.
- Pyramids were designed as a type of "resurrection machine."
- The shape of a pyramid is thought to be representative of the descending rays of the sun.
Topic Sentence:
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/ Facts from the article:
- There are about eighty pyramids known today from ancient Egypt.
- There have been 118 Egyptian pyramids ever identified
- In 1842,Karl Richard Lepsius produced the first modern list of pyramids in which he counted 67
- All pyramids, but one, are on the west bank of the Nile
Topic Sentence:
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/ Facts from the article:
- Constructed pyramids to use as tombs for the kings and queens
- Later expanded to include pyramids built for non-royal (yet wealthy) individuals
- Later changed to be resting places for the souls of the deceased
- These pyramids held the mummified bodies of the deceased pharaohs
Topic Sentence:
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More Notes – Why are topic sentences important?
5 paragraph essays
- 1 = ______
- 2, 3, & 4 = ______
- 5 = ______
Article One[S1]
Directions: As you read and use your strategies, circle key words to help your identify the 3 MAJOR topics of the text.
Tombs
The afterlife was a main focus of Egyptian civilization and ruled every aspect of the society. This is reflected in their architecture and most prominently by the enormous amounts of time, money, and manpower involved in the building of their tombs.Ancient Egyptians believed the soul could live only if the body was preserved from corruption and damage. Starting from the Predynastic Era and into the later dynasties, the ancient Egyptians developed increasingly complex and effective methods for preserving and protecting the bodies of the dead. The Ancient Egyptians initially began by burying their dead in pit graves dug out from the sand. The body of the deceased was buried inside the pit on a mat, usually along with some items believed to help them in the afterlife. The first tomb structure that the Egyptians built was the mastaba. Mastabas provided better protection from scavenging animals and grave robbers. However, the human remains were not in contact with the dry desert sand, so natural mummification could not take place. Use of the more secure mastabas required Ancient Egyptians to devise a system of artificial mummification.Until at least the Old Period or First Intermediate Period, only high officials and royalty would be buried in these mastabas. A mastaba (meaning "house for eternity" or "eternal house"), is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with outward sloping sides, constructed out of mud-bricks (from the Nile River) or stone. Mastabas marked the burial sites of many eminent Egyptians during Egypt's Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom. During the Old Kingdom, kings began to be buried in pyramids instead of mastabas, although non-royal use of mastabas continued for more than a thousand years. The word 'mastaba' comes from the Arabic word for a bench of mud,and when seen from a distance a mastaba does resemble a bench. Historians speculate that the Egyptians may have borrowed architectural ideas from Mesopotamia since at the time they were both building similar structures.The above-ground structure of a mastaba is rectangular in shape with inward-sloping sides and a flat roof. The exterior building materials were initially bricks made of sun dried mud, which was readily available from the Nile River. Even after more durable materials like stone came into use, all but the most important monumental structures were built from the easily available mud bricks.Mastabas were often about four times as long as they were wide, and many rose to at least 30 feet in height. The mastaba was built with a north-south orientation, which the Ancient Egyptians believed was essential for access to the afterlife. This above-ground structure had space for a small offering chapel equipped with a false door. Priests and family members brought food and other offerings for the soul (ba) of the deceased because Egyptians believed that the soul had to be maintained in order to continue to exist in the afterlife. Inside the mastaba, a deep chamber was dug into the ground and lined with stone and bricks. The burial chambers were cut deep, until they passed the bedrock, and were lined with wood.A second hidden chamber called a "serdab" (سرداب), from the Persian word for "cellar",was used to store anything that may have been considered essential for the comfort of the deceased in the afterlife, such as beer, cereal, grain, clothes, and precious items.The mastaba housed a statue of the deceased that was hidden within the masonry for its protection. High up the walls of the serdab were small openings that would allow the ba to leave and return to the body (represented by the statue); Ancient Egyptians believed the ba had to return to its body or it would die. These openings "were not meant for viewing the statue but rather for allowing the fragrance of burning incense, and possibly the spells spoken in rituals, to reach the statue".
Main Topic of the Article: ______Idea #1 / Idea #2 / Idea #3
Directions: Using these three main topics, craft a topic sentence for each body paragraph.
Outline of Article OneParagraph 2 - Topic Sentence:
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Paragraph 3 - Topic Sentence:
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Paragraph 4 - Topic Sentence:
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Partner Practice: Article Two
Directions: As you read and use your strategies, circle key words to help your identify the 3 MAJOR topics of the text.
Pyramids
Like the Sumerians at the same time, the Egyptians around 3000-2500 BC devoted a lot of energy to building big buildings. The Pyramids are one of the most impressive monuments of the ancient world, and you can still visit them today. The Pharaohs, the rulers of Egypt, built the pyramids as tombs for themselves. The Pharaohs built all the pyramids during the Old Kingdom, so that the greatest remains of Ancient Egypt are also some of the earliest to have been built! The first Pharaohs built simpler tombs, called mastabas. These mastabas were square buildings with a room inside for the coffin and the mummy and some things to take with you to the afterlife. Then the Egyptian pharaohs began to build mounds of earth on top of their mastabas, to make them grander. Ordinary princes and other aristocrats went on being buried in mastabas. The Step Pyramid is one of the first of these new fancy tombs. Soon the Egyptians decided to fill in the steps of the pyramid. The first really pointed pyramids were built at Giza. Khufu's Great Pyramid (shown here) was the tallest building on earth for almost five thousand years, until the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889. People often wonder how the Egyptians could build such huge buildings so long ago. But really a pyramid is not hard to build, if you have plenty of cheap workers available. They're just a big pile of cut stones with smoother stones over the top. First they built a small mastaba-style tomb on the ground, in the ordinary way. They moved many large stone blocks to the pyramid from the quarry, about 2 km away, probably on wooden rollers or on sleds. Then they probably they built long ramps of dirt and then rolled the stones up them. They kept making the ramps higher and longer. When the pyramid was done, they took the earth ramps away again. The people who built the Pyramids were not slaves, because who could afford to feed so many slaves? They were almost certainly farmers, who worked on the Pyramids during the winter, when there wasn't much to do on their farms, as a kind of tax. (And they certainly weren't the Jews, who aren't even supposed to have arrived in Egypt until the New Kingdom, a thousand years after the Pyramids were built.)
When did the Egyptians build the pyramids?What was the name of one of the first pyramids?
How do you build pyramids?
They don’t know for sure who built the pyramids. Who do they believe it could have been?
Main Topic of the Article: ______
Idea #1 / Idea #2 / Idea #3
Directions: Using these three main topics, craft a topic sentence for each body paragraph.
Outline of Article TwoParagraph 2 - Topic Sentence:
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Paragraph 3 - Topic Sentence:
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Paragraph 4 - Topic Sentence:
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Advanced Practice
1)Review your three topic sentences. Synthesize them to create the introductory paragraph for the entire essay.
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2)Write a brief, accurate, and succinct summary of the “Pyramids” passage. If you’re up for an extra challenge, see if you can use an appositive AND academic vocabulary from the word wall.
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Independent Practice: Article Three
Directions: As you read and use your strategies, circle key words to help your identify the 3 MAJOR topics of the text.
Who really built the pyramids?
Ever since the discovery of the first pyramid, scientists have pondered over how ancient Egyptians built these monumental structures that are visible even from space. Though there are some theories about the construction technique, the big question that was always left unanswered is how workers were able to lug the giant limestone bricks that weighed as much as 2.5 tons, from the quarry to the pyramid sites that were located hundreds of miles away.While dragging them over rudimentary sleds was the obvious answer, it would have required superhuman strength against the friction of the desert sand. Turns out that the workers did have some assistance . . . from ordinary water! What is even more amazing is that the answer to the puzzle has been right in front of Egyptologists for many years, thanks to a wall painting inside the tomb of ancient Egyptian nomarch, Djehutihotep.The artwork that depicts a Pharaoh being dragged by a large contingent of workers, has one significant detail that had so far been misinterpreted - A man pouring water in front of the sled the Pharaoh is being dragged upon.Egyptologists had always thought that the man was performing some kind of purification ritual. However, some scientists now believe that the water was being poured for a totally different reason - to help pull the sled across the sand.This revelation was made on April 29th in the journal Physical Review Letters, by researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter.The team led by Daniel Bonn from the University of Amsterdam arrived at this conclusion after conducting extensive testing in their laboratory, by sliding a weighted tray across both dry and damp sand mixed with varying amounts of water. In dry sand, heaps formed in front of the sled as it was dragged along, slowing it down dramatically.However as water was added, it made the sand more rigid, helping reduce both the force needed to pull the sled and the friction against it. That's because the water helps form capillary bridges between the sand particles, causing them to stick together like glue. What was interesting was that the force required to pull the sled reduced in proportion to the stiffness of the sand - And it was not a small amount either, but as much as 50% which meant that half-as many workers were needed to move the heavy bricks.But, there was a tipping point - After the moisture exceeded a certain amount, the stiffness started to decrease and the capillary bridges, melt away, causing the sand to clump up around the sled once again. According to researchers, the perfect balance appears to be when the volume of the water is between 2-5%, the volume of sand - a proportion ancient Egyptians seemed to have mastered perfectly. Now if we could only find a painting that would tell us how the smart workers constructed these impressive structures without access to modern mechanics, life would be perfect!
What is the “big question that remains unanswered” about how the pyramids were built?Why were researchers not sure about the use of the sleds to drag the stones across the desert?
What clue in the painting tipped off the scientists about how the Egyptians may have managed to overcome this obstable?
How does adding water to the sand help?
Main Topic of the Article: ______
Idea #1 / Idea #2 / Idea #3
Directions: Using these three main topics, craft a topic sentence for each body paragraph.
Outline of Article ThreeParagraph 2 - Topic Sentence:
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Paragraph 3 - Topic Sentence:
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Paragraph 4 - Topic Sentence:
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HW
Questions? Comments? Concerns?
Call Mrs. Collins BEFORE 8 pm.
(508) 612-8639
Name:
Date:
Humanities
Homeroom:
So impressive are the pyramids that it has caused many to wonder how they could possibly have been built some 4500 years ago. Some even go as far as to suggest that it is not possible for these structures to have been made by the labours of men, but were instead made by aliens.
Who built the pyramids, aliens or men?
The case for the Aliens:
The pyramids are so accurately aligned with the points of the compass that only aliens could have achieved this all those thousands of years ago. The angle of the slope of the sides is so precise only aliens could achieve this. The blocks are so heavy and the pyramid so tall only aliens could achieve this. In the period 2500 BC man did not have the tools or knowledge necessary to build the pyramids, so only aliens could have done it. How the aliens built the pyramids is not known, but they would have employed the use of advanced construction equipment.
The case for men:
Never underestimate the ingenuity of man. We are today so used to using machinery to carry out virtually all our major construction work that we sometimes forget that machinery, in terms of historical events, is a very new development, its only been around a couple of hundred years or so. Mankind managed very well without it for many thousands of years. We have long forgotten the techniques that were used in the building of the pyramids, but this doesn't mean that we are unable to work out how it was done.
In order to try and establish who built the pyramids we have to examine the evidence that we have. We have only the pyramids themselves, the excavation sites where the blocks were quarried from, and historical accounts.
Summarize the case for the MEN / Summarize the case for the ALIENSWho do YOU believe built the pyramids? Why? Write at least three sentences.
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1
[S1]How do we see that the Egyptian belief in the afterlife ruled their society?
What is a mastaba? What is it built out of?
In what years did they use a mastaba?
What was inside the mastaba? Why?