Cuneiforms and Mummified Dolls

This past week was a fun week, one I think the kids will remember. We made Egyptian cuneiforms (first writings), the kids rolled out their clay and use either cuneiform writing or hieroglyphic letters to make out their names.

Steven working hard!

Austin's Cuneiform

We also mummified a Barbie doll and 2 G.I. Joe dolls. I got this great idea from another blogger http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/319302/ who showed how they mummified their dolls.

We went to Value Village and just got a some cheap dolls paid about $4 for all of them. When we started we talked about how they take out all the organs except the heart. They leave the heart because the Egyptians believe that the gods weighed a person's heart when they entered the Next Life. The weight of the heart tells the gods if the person had lived a good life on earth. Since they left only the heart we used a shapie pen and drew red hearts on the dolls.

Next we washed the body with wine (rubbing alcohol) and said a prayer, then rubbed oil and spices over the bodies (dolls). Then we sprinkled with salt (Natron) to dry out the body. We waited 40 minutes to represent the 40 days they left the bodies to dry out. While we waited the kids made their tombs/coffins for their bodies.

After our bodies had dried out for 40 days we then wrapped them in cloth that was soaked in flour and water. There you have it our mummified dolls!

The kids had a great time making their mummies. Austin didn't like the messy part of wrapping them so I helped him out a little.