CK5 Art of Ancient Kemet

In the second trimester, fifth-grade students engage in an integrated case study of Ancient Egypt, which is often referred to in the unit as Kemet, as that is one of the names that the people of the time period would have used (spelled without vowels as ‘kmt’). The word Kemet was a reference to the fertile soil deposited on the Nile River banks after the annual flood. This nutrient-rich soil made it possible to farm. The name “Egypt” comes from a Greek pronunciation, and the name comes more from outside the country than from within. We have chosen to use the name more common to the people of the land and the time than the one given later.

In art and humanities classes, students studied various topics such as the impact of geographical features like The Nile, job specialization, social stratification, religion, and the afterlife. The following art projects emerged out of these explorations.

Hieroglyphics and Cartouches: Students spent time looking at the visual language of hieroglyphics and hieratic, and they drew/painted a cartouche, or name plate, of their own name. This project served as an introduction to the culture of the era.

Shaduf Models: Students studied early examples of irrigation systems and other agricultural innovations on the Nile River, including the shaduf. Students approached this project as a building challenge. They were provided with some simple materials (dowels, string, modeling clay, and some fabric) and sketched designs with the goal of creating a free-standing and demonstrationally functioning model, which they then worked to build.

Figure Representation and Jobs Within Society:  The biggest undertaking of the Kemet study was a two-part project in which the students looked carefully at how the people of the era represented themselves in paintings and sculpture. They extracted key characteristics of the style, and they used these observations to build theories about their cultural values. In humanities, each student researched a specific job within the society, and they used that knowledge to draw and paint a figure performing that job in the style of the time period. This figure was then incorporated onto a background depicting the setting where that job would have been performed.