King Cluck: an interdisciplinary undertaking.

The Egyptian belief in life after death fascinated our sixth grade. They wanted to learn more about this ancient culture and specifically about the ancient Egyptian practice of mummification. Classroom teachers teamed up with the art teacher to create an Egyptian unit that combined social studies, writing, science, and art. Students were divided into three groups: The Embalmers, The Historians, and The Artisans. Each job description focused around ancient Egyptian funerary beliefs and practices, and had many varied tasks.

Recreating the Rituals

The Embalmers were assigned tile task of preparing and embalming a specimen, using ancient Egyptian methods of salt and drying. The task of The Historian Group was to record, through writing and photography, all the step-by-step procedures and observations of the mummification process. The Historian Group would also be responsible for writing and illustrating a "Book of the Dead" and selecting items that would be included in the sarcophagus for the journey into the afterlife.

The Artisan Group was assigned the task of designing, constructing, and decorating an appropriate sarcophagus to house the completed mummy. Students researched their job descriptions thoroughly, gathering information necessary to adequately fulfill their tasks according to Egyptian tradition.

The Embalming Group

The selected mummy was a frozen three-pound chicken (fryer) purchased at a local grocer. The students began the mummification process by first thawing the chicken, followed by washing the inside and outside of the body and cavity with water. (Students took care during the handling of the mummy to wear plastic disposable gloves for health and hygiene purposes.) Upon completion of the cleansing, the fryer was then patted dry with paper towels. The next step was then to fill the body cavity of the chicken with about one pound of salt. The salt-filled chicken was then placed in a one gallon plastic bag and then completely covered in salt. The bag was then sealed and stored air tight inside a plastic lidded container for ten days.

After ten days, The Embalmers opened the sealed container and plastic bag. They removed the salt from the bag and the cavity of the chicken. Students observed the changes in the chicken's size, color, as well as the lack of odor. The drying process had begun!

The Drying Process

The Embalmers immediately refilled the chicken with salt, placed it in the same gallon plastic bag, and covered it again with salt. They resealed the bag tightly for a second time. They repeated the same steps, for a third time, ten days later, therefore, the process of mummification took a total of thirty days. At the end of the thirty days, they emptied all the salt from the chicken cavity and wiped the salt from the body of the chicken. The embalming process had produced a smaller, shrunken specimen that had absolutely no odor!

To continue with the traditional Egyptian practice, they rubbed the body with oil (vegetable) and the internal body cavity was filled with spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and rose petals. A carved scarab, representing the dung beetle sacred to ancient Egyptians, was made from ceramic clay, fired, and placed inside the body cavity.

Next, students cut unbleached muslin into 1" (2.5 em)strips and used them to wrap the body tightly. Students donated jewels, glitter, and sequins, representing protective amulets, to be placed within the layers of muslin. The cloth layers were wrapped repeatedly until the oil was completely covered by dry muslin. The last end of muslin stripping was then tucked tightly into the wrappings and glued. They sealed the final muslin-wrapped body with a brushed coating of polyurethane (to simulate resin) and allowed it to air dry. Additional glitter, sequins, and jewels were glued on the muslin - wrapped cartonnage for adornment.

The Historian Group

During the mummification procedure, The Historians recorded, through writing and photography, the date, time, and step-by-step process of mummification. Also recorded were observations of changes in the mummy; size, color, texture, odor, etc. In addition, The Historian Group was responsible for creating a "Book of the Dead," complete with illustrated maps of Egypt and the Nile River, historical information that might be needed to travel to the Egyptian afterlife, and a description of "Opening of the Mouth Ceremony." They also collected items befitting a royal fowl that might be needed in the afterlife, such as feathers, nesting materials, plastic eggs, and kernels of corn. These items were kept, along with the mummy and the "Book of the Dead," in order to be placed in the sarcophagus. The Historian's job continued past the mummification process in order to document and record the procedure of creating the sarcophagus and laying the royal fowl to rest.

The Artisan Group

The group of Artisans took measurements of the mummy and the royal treasures so that an appropriate sarcophagus could be designed. A shape typical of ancient Egyptian mummies was used and then cut from cardboard. They cut two matching pieces for the top and bottom of the coffin. They carefully planned out the top with pencil first, using appropriate Egyptian motifs, Egyptian gods, and hieroglyphs. The Artisans considered a beaked face for the portrait mask. To add dimension to the flat surface, they made the portrait mask out of papier-mache to create a more lifelike facial portrait. While the portrait mask was drying, students cut the sides of the coffin using a lightweight poster board and attached it to the bottom section of the coffin with glue.

Displaying the Royal Sarcophagus

Upon structural completion of the sarcophagus, the entire box was painted using tempera and a water* based metallic gold paint simulating the look of a gilded sarcophagus. The top lid to the sarcophagus was not sealed shut, but remained separate, so the lid could be easily moved, allowing the mummy and contents to be viewed.

Splendid indeed was the final culmination of efforts! King Cluck, as we titled our fine mummified Pharaoh, now lies in our school library in his royal sarcophagus, surrounded by his royal treasures. All the documentation and photos recorded by The Historians were neatly organized, prepared, and displayed in our school library, for all visitors to share in this marvelous integration of core subjects and the arts!

Liesa Schroeder is an art teacher at Santa Fe Trail Elementary School in Independence, Missouri. The photographs are by Tony LaTona.