American Centuries

Pocumtuck Valley
Memorial Association

American Centuries > Lessons > History Lessons By Teachers > Burial Customs: 19th Century Deerfield and Ancient Egypt

Burial Customs: 19th Century Deerfield and Ancient Egypt

Details

Author
Patricia Esposito
Topic/Subject Area
Customs, Holidays, Rituals; Death, Cemeteries, Monuments, Memorials
Historical Era
Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877, Rise of Industrial America, 1878–1899, Progressive Era, World War I, 1900–1928
Grade Level
Elementary (K–5), Middle School (6–8)
Creation Date
2010
Last Revision Date
2024

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About This Lesson

Summary and Objective

Students will understand that examining funerary customs can provide insight to the beliefs and cultures of historical time periods. While studying the ancient Egyptians and their techniques of body preservation and how beliefs about the afterlife influenced their daily lives, students can look at the beliefs and customs of people in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts in the 19th century. How do they compare? What underlying assumptions are common to both cultures? What do the artifacts tell you about the people of the time period?

Materials & Resources

Collection Items
Website

Teaching Plan

  1. Break students into small groups of 3 or so.
  2. Distribute select laminated pictures of the lesson items, as well as laminated pictures of funerary artifacts from ancient Egyptian times to each group.
  3. Ask students to examine the photographs carefully and to compare the post-mortem child with the image of the mummy. Compare stela with gravestone. Compare hieroglyphics on pyramid inner walls to the Phelps mourning embroidery. Compare “Communicating with the Spirit World” with Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife, etc.
  4. Have each group report their findings to the whole class.
  5. Students summarize their discoveries in writing.
  6. Extension activity: Now compare and contrast what you learned about these two cultures with our modern-day funeral customs. What might a future historian learn about us from these customs? What assumptions might he/she make?