Kipper Family Archaeology Discovery Center Program

Stacey Murrell, a first-year graduate student at the University of Chicago and an Educational Programs Facilitator of the Oriental Institute’s Kipper Family Archaeology Discovery Center (KADC) Program, shares her experience teaching middle- and high-school students in the program.

“Whoa cool! Are these things real?”

–T.S., fifth grader

The Kipper Family Archaeology Discovery Center Program is an interactive hands-on program that teaches students the process of archaeology through a simulated excavation and artifact facsimiles. It allows students of multiple ages (specifically middle- to high-school grade levels) to engage in learning about ancient Near Eastern civilizations, as well as modern archaeological practices. In addition to the hands-on component, the program includes a guided tour through the galleries to further reinforce the message that ancient people had real lives and participated in the same activities we do today: worship, work, writing, cooking and eating, trading (and use of receipts), art, and many others. Part of the program is also geared at challenging the common assumptions about lives of ancient people, such as the application of makeup for women AND powerful men in ancient Egypt.

Teaching with Museum Collection: Ancient Egyptian Language, Culture, and History

In this post, our guest, Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer, PhD candidate in Egyptology, shared her recent teaching experience with the Oriental Institute Museum's collection for her summer intensive high school course "Ancient Egyptian Language, Culture, and History" offered by the University of Chicago Graham School of General Studies.

Photo credit: Tom Maday

As a PhD candidate in Egyptology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, I have had the opportunity these past four years to teach a summer course for the Graham School of General Studies entitled “Ancient Egyptian Language, Culture, and History.” This course is designed to introduce junior and senior high-school students to these aspects of ancient Egyptian society.

This year, I experimented with a new addition by incorporating the permanent exhibition in the Oriental Institute Museum into my core curriculum. Working with the Institute’s Public Education and Outreach Department, I developed a museum-inspired journaling project. It is my hope that writing about objects they encounter in the museum will help my students connect to what they have learned about ancient Egypt on a deeper and more personal level.

Women & Girls in the Ancient World/ PART 4: Cartouche of Hatshepsut

Kingship is one of the important subjects of study about ancient Egypt. In a patriarchal society like ancient Egypt, were women able to “play” in the royal realm? If so, how would they be represented? In this post, continued from the Women and Girls in the Ancient World Series, Megaera Lorenz, a PhD candidate in Egyptology at the University of Chicago, shares with us the story of Hatshepsut – one of the few female pharaohs known to the history of Egypt – and the brief history of how she rose to power. We will also explore the visual iconography that was used for legitimizing her kingship and divinity.
 
Cartouche of Hatshepsut
The Joseph and Mary Grimshaw Egyptian Gallery, the Oriental Institute Museum

Quartzite Cartouche of Hatshepsut (Ma’atkare)
New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Hatshepsut, ca. 1503-1483 BCE
Luxor, Medinet Habu, Excavated by the Oriental Institute, 1927
OIM 14384A

Women & Girls in the Ancient World/ PART 3: The Diyala Statues

The Diyala statues
The Edgar and Deborah Jannotta Mesopotamian Gallery, the Oriental Institute Museum 

How did the ancient Mesopotamians worship their gods? What do excavated artifacts tell us about religion in ancient Mesopotamia? What roles did women play in Mesopotamian religious life?
Dr. Kate Grossman, one of the presenters in the Women & Girls in the Ancient World: Their History, Our History May event, is taking us to ancient Mesopotamia. In this post, we will look at the Diyala statues, which are displayed in the Edgar and Deborah Jannotta Mesopotamian Gallery at the Oriental Institute Museum. Dr. Grossman shares her insights into the relationships between these artifacts and ancient religious life (especially that of women) in Mesopotamia.

Male and Female Statues. Gypsum. Early Dynastic period (ca. 2750-2500 B.C.). Iraq, Diyala Region.
Excavated by the Oriental Institute.

Women & Girls in the Ancient World/ PART 2: Cosmetic Containers in Ancient Anatolia

Women and Girls in the Ancient World: Their History, Our History returns! In this post, we are excited to present ancient Anatolian cosmetic containers, exhibited in the Henrietta Herbolsheimer, M.D. Syro-Anatolian Gallery at the Oriental Institute Museum.


Cosmetic Containers
Henrietta Herbolsheimer, M.D. Syro-Anatolian Gallery, Oriental Institute Museum 

Beauty and fashion were significant for women and men in the ancient Near East. High-ranking women in particular did their best to preserve and valorize their beauty. The high quality of clothing and jewelry being worn can be seen in surviving artistic representations. Hairstyle and makeup also played an important role in the lives of ancient Anatolian women. Evidence for hairstyles is found in the archaeological record, but information about makeup is difficult to decipher from artifacts. What can we infer about ancient cosmetics?

The pictures below are ancient cosmetic boxes.

OIM A26986 – Chatal Höyük, 1^st millennium BCE

 

OIM A12634 – Tell Judaidah, 1^st millennium BCE

Women & Girls in the Ancient World/ PART 1: Spindle Whorls in Ancient Anatonlia

Women & Girls in the Ancient World: Their History, Our History is a celebration of women and girls in the ancient world at the Oriental Institute on May 5, 2013. Four female archaeologists – Megaera Lorenz, Debora Heard, Kate Grossman, and Benedetta Bellucci–brought their expertise and knowledge by showing the visitors artifacts and presented the stories of mothers, daugthers, queens, and common women of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia (Turkey), and Nubia (northern Sudan and southern Egypt) in the galleries of the Oriental Institute Museum. This post and the upcoming posts will recap a few of the objects selected by the four archaeologist speakers in this family program. The posts also include additional student and classroom activity suggestions for your teaching.

Spindle Whorls
Henrietta Herbolsheimer, M.D. Syro-Anatolian Gallery, Oriental Institute Museum

  

What is a spindle whorl?
 
A spindle whorl is a pierced object, circular in section, used on a spindle to weigh it down and help the spinning process. In the ancient world in general, spinning was done by hand, with a spindle that was nothing more than a rod with a spindle whorl.

Spindles were usually made of wood. The spindle whorl, though, was often made of harder, heavier material, such as ceramic, stone, or bone. Since the wood has deteriorated and disappeared, this is what we find in excavations: little discoid objects called spindle whorls.

A spindle whorl can have different shapes, as you see in the photograph. Eight spindle whorls dating to the first millennium B.C.E.

Walking through the Syro-Anatolian gallery, you can also see a beautiful little spindle whorl bearing an inscription in Phoenician script:  

"This produces spun (?)yarn."

On Teaching the Art of Predynastic Egyptian Pottery

A three-part demonstration of how to make a predynastic Egyptian style pot presented by Brian Zimerle, Preparator of the Oriental Institute Museum.

On Teaching Scribes in Mesopotamia

Professor of Hittite and Anatolian Languages Theo van den Hout at the University of Chicago tells us about who scribes in Mesopotamia and Anatolia were.

This video was made for the Oriental Institute Museum special exhibit "Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East" (September 28, 2010 through March 6, 2011). Visit our website for more videos and download the exhibit catalog.