Egyptian Heiroglyphics - Making a Cartouche

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Learn about ancient Egyptian writing system by creating a Cartouche with students' names spelled out phonetically. Interlocking tiles allow character set to be printed individually or combined and printed as a single unit. Download the Egyptian Alphabet Translation Table PDF in downloads to get the Letter to Hieroglyphic translation. Print Settings: Printer Brand: MakerBot Printer: MakerBot Replicator 2 Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: Standard Infill: 10% How I Designed This The 3D printed parts were designed in Tinkercad. Hieroglyphs were downloaded from Google images and converted to svg format using an online converter, then imported into Tinkercad and placed on the interlocking tile pieces. If two colors are used, pause print at approximately 84% to 85% and switch filaments. Overview and Background Students will gain knowledge of ancient Egyptian writing system's importance through translating their own names into hieroglyphics and embedding them in a Cartouche, which was reserved for people of importance in ancient society. Ancient Egyptian appeared over 5,000 years ago, making it one of the earliest recorded written languages. It was used from about 3200 BC until the late 4th century AD and remained largely unchanged. Ancient Egyptian was a picture language with some pictures representing letters, others representing objects, and still others representing ideas. Through the ages, however, the meanings of hieroglyphs became lost. When archaeologists discovered hieroglyphic writing on tomb walls, they couldn't read it. They knew the pictures had meaning but could only guess what those pictures meant. It wasn't until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone that all this changed. The Rosetta Stone is a stone carved in three languages: Egyptian, Demotic, and Ancient Greek. Inscribed on it was a short story, written in Greek, Demotic script, and hieroglyphics. Scientists could read Greek, so using this, Jean-Francois Champollion performed the translation and they could now read hieroglyphics. His job was made easier because ancient Egyptians surrounded royal names with an oval called a cartouche. There were several royal names in hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone, so he was able to decipher them. Objectives * Students will learn about ancient Egyptian writing system and its importance. * Students will create a Cartouche using interlocking tiles. * Students will understand how to translate their own name into hieroglyphics. Materials * Printed copies of the Egyptian Hieroglyphic Alphabet table * Interlocking tiles * MakerBot Replicator 2 printer * Handout indicating which letter/sound combination goes with which hieroglyph Lesson Plan and Activity Print copies of the Egyptian Hieroglyphic Alphabet table, one for each child. Transform a few names into hieroglyphics to see how it works. Introduce the topic of hieroglyphics by asking children if they know what hieroglyphics are and where they came from. Discuss aspects of ancient Egyptian life that the children may know about such as pyramids and mummies. Then help children locate modern Egypt using an atlas or map. Distribute the copies of the hieroglyphic table. Have them look at their hieroglyphics table to find the English letter equivalents of their names. At this point, you have three options on how you want to proceed depending on time and/or access to a 3D printer: Option 1: Create a rubbing using minimal amount of blocks. Option 2: Individual tiles can be downloaded and interlocked. Option 3: In Makerbot Desktop tiles can be joined and printed as a single Cartouche. Skills Learned * Art History * Foreign Language * Visual Arts * World History * Anthropology Duration of Lesson If choosing Option 1 or 2, the lesson should take approximately 1.5 hours. If Option 3 is chosen, it takes approximately 15 minutes per tile to print. Preparation * 2 to 3 sets of printed tiles and cartouche end caps top and bottoms. * Handout indicating which letter/sound combination goes with which hieroglyph. Rubric and Assessment Have students randomly trade Cartouches and using the hieroglyphic alphabet table, translate and match back to the original student.