Vocabulary: ancient egypt
Know and use the key vocabulary of ancient Egypt — pharaoh, pyramid, tomb, mummy/mummification, hieroglyphs, papyrus, sarcophagus, canopic jar, natron, archaeologist, artefact, Nile, delta, irrigation, shaduf, scribe, vizier, obelisk, sphinx, cartouche — and apply these terms accurately when describing Egyptian society, religion, and material culture
What a learner can do afterwards
- Use 'pharaoh', 'pyramid', and 'hieroglyphs' correctly and naturally in a spoken or written account of ancient Egypt
- Explain what mummification is and why the Egyptians did it, using 'sarcophagus', 'canopic jar', and 'natron'
- Use 'archaeologist' and 'artefact' correctly when discussing how we know about ancient Egypt
1 · Read
We use special words to talk about ancient Egypt. A pharaoh was a ruler. A vizier helped the pharaoh rule. Scribes wrote on papyrus. Hieroglyphs are picture symbols for writing words and sounds. A ruler's name went inside an oval called a cartouche.
Mummification preserved bodies for an afterlife. Natron, a mix of salts, dried a body to stop decay. It was wrapped in linen cloth and placed in a coffin, sometimes inside a stone sarcophagus. Canopic jars held organs such as the liver.
Farmers used Nile water for irrigation, watering their crops. A shaduf lifted water. The Nile delta had rich soil near the sea. Obelisks were tall stone pillars. The Great Sphinx has a lion's body and a human head. Archaeologists study the past through old remains. Objects made or changed by people are called artefacts.
Archaeologists study old remains to learn about people. An old tool is an artefact because people made it. A natural stone is not.
Pharaohs, pyramids, and hieroglyphs are your keys to ancient Egypt.
The rewritten readings were written for this dataset.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
Nothing; this is a starting point.
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.