Overview

Lesson Procedure

60-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Start with a school event students know, then name the two kinds of source.

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Two sources describe last spring's field day. One is a text message a classmate sent from the field that afternoon: 'Blue team won the relay, Maya fell but got up.' The other is a paragraph in this year's yearbook, written by a student who was not at school that day. Which one comes from the time of the event? If the two disagree about who won, which would you trust more, and what exact words would you point to?"

   Take a few answers. Then define the terms on the board. A primary source is made at the time of an event by someone who took part in it or saw it, or it is an object from that time: a letter, a diary, a photograph, a tool. A secondary source is made later by someone who was not there and who studied primary sources or other accounts: a textbook, an encyclopedia, a history book. The text message is primary; the yearbook paragraph is secondary. Textual evidence is the exact words of a source, and to cite evidence is to quote those words (or restate them closely, which is called paraphrasing) and say where they are.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Part 1: Two writers, two kinds of source. Herodotus was a Greek writer who traveled in Egypt in the fifth century BC, about 450 BC, and wrote a long history of the peoples he met. People in his time still made mummies, so when he describes embalming, the preparing of a dead body to keep it from decaying, he is writing about the Egypt of his own day. Van Loon was a historian born in the Netherlands who lived in the United States. He wrote Ancient Man in 1920 for his two young sons, using earlier writers and the discoveries of archaeologists, the scientists who study the objects and buildings people left behind. Show Diagram 1.

   Is it a primary or a secondary source?

   Question to ask	Primary source	Secondary source
   When was it made?	At the time of the event	Later, often much later
   How did the author know?	Took part, saw it, or was told by people of that time	Studied other sources
   Example on this page	Herodotus on embalming in his own day (Source 1)	Van Loon on embalming, written in 1920 (Source 2)

   Part 2: A cited point has three parts. Show Diagram 2. A claim is a sentence that says what you think the source shows. The evidence is the source's exact words, in quotation marks, with the source and paragraph in parentheses. The explanation says how those words prove the claim. Evidence is specific when it is the exact words that prove this claim, not just words on the same topic. An analysis is a set of claims like these that together explain what a source shows. Before reading, tell students that Source 1 describes the treatment of a dead body and that Herodotus's description of the costliest method is detailed and a little gruesome. Then read Source 1 aloud, pausing to gloss "natron" (a natural salt that dries out the body), "myrrh" and "cassia" (sweet-smelling plant spices), and "sepulchral chamber" (a burial room).

   1In this occupation certain persons employ themselves regularly and inherit this as a craft. These, whenever a corpse is conveyed to them, show to those who brought it wooden models of corpses made like reality by painting, and the best of the ways of embalming they say is that of him whose name I think it impiety to mention when speaking of a matter of such a kind; the second which they show is less good than this and also less expensive; and the third is the least expensive of all. Having told them about this, they inquire of them in which way they desire the corpse of their friend to be prepared.

   2Then they after they have agreed for a certain price depart out of the way, and the others being left behind in the buildings embalm according to the best of these ways thus:—First with a crooked iron tool they draw out the brain through the nostrils, extracting it partly thus and partly by pouring in drugs; and after this with a sharp stone of Ethiopia they make a cut along the side and take out the whole contents of the belly, and when they have cleared out the cavity and cleansed it with palm-wine they cleanse it again with spices pounded up: then they fill the belly with pure myrrh pounded up and with cassia and other spices except frankincense, and sew it together again.

   3Having so done they keep it for embalming covered up in natron for seventy days, but for a longer time than this it is not permitted to embalm it; and when the seventy days are past, they wash the corpse and roll its whole body up in fine linen cut into bands, smearing these beneath with gum, which the Egyptians use generally instead of glue. Then the kinsfolk receive it from them and have a wooden figure made in the shape of a man, and when they have had this made they enclose the corpse, and having shut it up within, they store it then in a sepulchral chamber, setting it to stand upright against the wall.

   Now read Source 2, van Loon's account of the same practice, written about 2,370 years after Herodotus.

   1In the first place, the Egyptians came to believe that no soul could enter into the realm of Osiris without the possession of the body which had been its place of residence in this world.

   2Whatever happened, the body must be preserved after death, and it must be given a permanent and suitable home. Therefore as soon as a man had died, his corpse was embalmed. This was a difficult and complicated operation which was performed by an official who was half doctor and half priest, with the help of an assistant whose duty it was to make the incision through which the chest could be filled with cedar-tree pitch and myrrh and cassia. This assistant belonged to a special class of people who were counted among the most despised of men. The Egyptians thought it a terrible thing to commit acts of violence upon a human being, whether dead or living, and only the lowest of the low could be hired to perform this unpopular task.

   3Afterwards the priest took the body again and for a period of ten weeks he allowed it to be soaked in a solution of natron which was brought for this purpose from the distant desert of Libya. Then the body had become a "mummy" because it was filled with "Mumiai" or pitch. It was wrapped in yards and yards of specially prepared linen and it was placed in a beautifully decorated wooden coffin, ready to be removed to its final home in the western desert.

   4The grave itself was a little stone room in the sand of the desert or a cave in a hill-side.

   5After the coffin had been placed in the center the little room was well supplied with cooking utensils and weapons and statues (of clay or wood) representing bakers and butchers who were expected to wait upon their dead master in case he needed anything. Flutes and fiddles were added to give the occupant of the grave a chance to while away the long hours which he must spend in this "house of eternity."

   • One claim, one specific quotation (Source 1, paragraph 1)

     Claim: In Herodotus's time, embalming was a trade passed down in families.

     Result: Evidence: Herodotus writes that "certain persons employ themselves regularly and inherit this as a craft" (Source 1, paragraph 1). Explanation: to "inherit" is to receive something from your parents, and "regularly" shows that this was their steady work. The quotation is specific: it is the exact sentence that proves the claim, and the citation says where to find it.

   • General evidence against specific evidence (Source 1, paragraph 1)

     Claim: Families could choose how much to spend. Weak support: "Herodotus talks about different kinds of embalming." Why is it weak, and what is stronger?

     Result: The weak version names no words and no paragraph, so a reader cannot check it. Stronger: the embalmers show the family "wooden models," describe a second way that is "less good than this and also less expensive" and a third that is "the least expensive of all," and then ask "in which way they desire the corpse of their friend to be prepared" (Source 1, paragraph 1). Each quotation matches one part of the claim: choices, prices and the family's decision.

   • Checking a secondary source against a primary source (Sources 1 and 2, paragraph 3)

     Claim: Van Loon's time for soaking the body in natron agrees with Herodotus.

     Result: Herodotus: the body is "covered up in natron for seventy days" (Source 1, paragraph 3). Van Loon: "for a period of ten weeks" (Source 2, paragraph 3). A week has 7 days, and 70 ÷ 7 = 10, so the two sources agree. Citing both sources, each with its paragraph, is what makes the comparison checkable.

   • A model analysis of Sources 1 and 2 (80 words)

     Task: in 80 words or fewer, analyze how far van Loon's secondary account of embalming can be checked against Herodotus.

     Result: Van Loon's account of embalming, a secondary source, can be checked against Herodotus in some places but not in others. His "ten weeks" in natron (Source 2, paragraph 3) matches Herodotus's "seventy days" (Source 1, paragraph 3), and both name myrrh and cassia. But van Loon's reason for embalming, that no soul could reach "the realm of Osiris" without its body (Source 2, paragraph 1), is not in Herodotus's excerpt, and van Loon does not say where he learned it.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs make a two-column chart, Herodotus (Source 1) on the left and van Loon (Source 2) on the right. For each of three questions they copy the exact words from each source, with the paragraph number, or write "not in this source": Who does the work? Where is the cut made? What happens to the body after it is wrapped?

   Teacher model for the chart: On who does the work, Herodotus names "certain persons" who "inherit this as a craft" (Source 1, paragraph 1), while van Loon names "an official who was half doctor and half priest" and an "assistant" (Source 2, paragraph 2). On the cut, Herodotus says "they make a cut along the side" and fill "the belly" (Source 1, paragraph 2), while van Loon says "the chest could be filled" (Source 2, paragraph 2), so the two sources do not agree on this detail. On the wrapped body, Herodotus's family puts it in "a wooden figure made in the shape of a man" and stands it "upright against the wall" of a burial room (Source 1, paragraph 3); van Loon puts it in "a beautifully decorated wooden coffin" (Source 2, paragraph 3) and a stone room or cave (paragraph 4). Ask: when the sources disagree, which one comes from the time? Which one tells us where its information came from?

   Practice analysis for Activity 2. The paragraph below was written for this page. It contains five deliberate citation errors. Pairs will test it against Sources 1 and 2.

   Herodotus shows that the best kind of embalming was done carefully, step by step. He says that the embalmers "draw out the brain through the nostrils" with "a sharp stone of Ethiopia" (Source 1, paragraph 2). He also explains why the Egyptians preserved bodies: the soul needed its body to enter the realm of Osiris (Source 1, paragraph 3).

   Van Loon agrees with Herodotus about how long the body was kept in natron, because the text says so. Van Loon writes that the cut was made by an assistant who was "counted among the most despised of men" (Source 2, paragraph 2), which proves that everyone in Egypt hated embalmers. Both writers say the wrapped body was placed "in a beautifully decorated wooden coffin" (Source 1, paragraph 3).

4. Independent Practice15-20 minutes

   Students read how each writer describes the building of the Great Pyramid at Giza, the tomb of the king the Greeks called Cheops (the Egyptians called him Khufu). Herodotus wrote about 2,100 years after it was built. As they read, students mark each sentence of Source 3 with T where Herodotus reports what he was told and M where he gives his own measurement, opinion or guess, and they circle every number in Sources 3 and 4. Then they answer the quiz, which uses these two passages. Gloss "causeway" (a raised road), "talents" (a large unit of silver used as money), "serfs" (workers bound to a landowner) and "edifice" (a large building).

   1Down to the time when Rhampsinitos was king, they told me there was in Egypt nothing but orderly rule, and Egypt prospered greatly; but after him Cheops became king over them and brought them to every kind of evil: for he shut up all the temples, and having first kept them from sacrificing there, he then bade all the Egyptians work for him. So some were appointed to draw stones from the stone-quarries in the Arabian mountains to the Nile, and others he ordered to receive the stones after they had been carried over the river in boats, and to draw them to those which are called the Libyan mountains; and they worked by a hundred thousand men at a time, for each three months continually.

   2Of this oppression there passed ten years while the causeway was made by which they drew the stones, which causeway they built, and it is a work not much less, as it appears to me, than the pyramid; [...] For the making of the pyramid itself there passed a period of twenty years; and the pyramid is square, each side measuring eight hundred feet, and the height of it is the same. It is built of stone smoothed and fitted together in the most perfect manner, not one of the stones being less than thirty feet in length.

   [...]

   3On the pyramid it is declared in Egyptian writing how much was spent on radishes and onions and leeks for the workmen, and if I rightly remember that which the interpreter said in reading to me this inscription, a sum of one thousand six hundred talents of silver was spent; and if this is so, how much besides is likely to have been expended upon the iron with which they worked, and upon bread and clothing for the workmen, seeing that they were building the works for the time which has been mentioned and were occupied for no small time besides, as I suppose, in the cutting and bringing of the stones and in working at the excavation under the ground?

   1Then one day, an Egyptian who had just buried his Mother, of whom he had been particularly fond, decided to give her a monument that should surpass anything that had ever been built in the valley of the Nile.

   2He gathered his serfs and made them build an artificial mountain that could be seen for miles around. The sides of this hill he covered with a layer of bricks that the sand might not be blown away.

   3People liked the novelty of the idea.

   4Soon they were trying to outdo each other and the graves rose twenty and thirty and forty feet above the ground.

   5At last a rich nobleman ordered a burial chamber made of solid stone.

   6On top of the actual grave where the mummy rested, he constructed a pile of bricks which rose several hundred feet into the air. A small passage-way gave entrance to the vault and when this passage was closed with a heavy slab of granite the mummy was safe from all intrusion.

   7The King of course could not allow one of his subjects to outdo him in such a matter. He was the most powerful man of all Egypt who lived in the biggest house and therefore he was entitled to the best grave.

   8What others had done in brick he could do with the help of more costly materials.

   9Pharaoh sent his officers far and wide to gather workmen. He constructed roads. He built barracks in which the workmen could live and sleep (you may see those barracks this very day). Then he set to work and made himself a grave which was to endure for all time.

   10We call this great pile of masonry a "pyramid."

   [...]

   11The biggest of these many pyramids, which was built fifty centuries ago, was five hundred feet high.

   12At the base it was seven hundred and fifty-five feet wide.

   13It covered more than thirteen acres of desert, which is three times as much space as that occupied by the church of Saint Peter, the largest edifice of the Christian world.

   14During twenty years, over a hundred thousand men were used to carry the stones from the distant peninsula of Sinai--to ferry them across the Nile (how they ever managed to do this we do not understand)--to drag them halfway across the desert and finally hoist them into their correct position.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: On an index card, write one claim about Source 1 or Source 2 and support it with a quotation, the source and the paragraph number. Then write one sentence saying whether that source is primary or secondary for your claim, and why.

   Teacher note on the sources and their language: The passages are quoted exactly as published in translation or in the 1922 printing, including older words such as "kinsfolk" (relatives) and "sepulchral." In Source 1, "him whose name I think it impiety to mention" is Herodotus's respectful way of referring to a god, usually understood to be Osiris; "Ethiopia" is the Greek name for the lands south of Egypt. In Source 3, the "Arabian mountains" and the "Libyan mountains" are the desert hills east and west of the Nile. Van Loon writes in the manner of 1920: he calls the workers "serfs," calls the embalmer's assistants "the lowest of the low," and imagines the first pyramid as one man's gift to his mother. Some details in both writers are out of date: modern estimates put the workforce at about 20,000 to 30,000 people rather than a hundred thousand, and most of the pyramid's blocks are far shorter than thirty feet. Questions 8, 9, 18 and 19 give students the modern facts they need, and their answer explanations give the corrections. None of the passages contains a slur. Source 1 describes the treatment of a dead body in some detail; this is standard content in grade 6 studies of ancient Egypt, but warn students before reading it (see Direct Instruction).

   Homework passages. Herodotus's description of the crocodile (Source 5) and a short modern text about the same animal, written for this page (Source 6).

   1Of the crocodile the nature is as follows:—during the four most wintry months this creature eats nothing: she has four feet and is an animal belonging to the land and the water both; for she produces and hatches eggs on the land, and the most part of the day she remains upon dry land, but the whole of the night in the river, for the water in truth is warmer than the unclouded open air and the dew. Of all the mortal creatures of which we have knowledge this grows to the greatest bulk from the smallest beginning; for the eggs which she produces are not much larger than those of geese and the newly-hatched young one is in proportion to the egg, but as he grows he becomes as much as seventeen cubits long and sometimes yet larger.

   2He has eyes like those of a pig and teeth large and tusky, in proportion to the size of his body; but unlike all other beasts he grows no tongue, neither does he move his lower jaw, but brings the upper jaw towards the lower, being in this too unlike all other beasts. He has moreover strong claws and a scaly hide upon his back which cannot be pierced; and he is blind in the water, but in the air he is of very keen sight. [...]

   3Now for some of the Egyptians the crocodiles are sacred animals, and for others not so, but they treat them on the contrary as enemies: those however who dwell about Thebes and about the lake of Moiris hold them to be most sacred, and each of these two peoples keeps one crocodile selected from the whole number, which has been trained to tameness, and they put hanging ornaments of molten stone and of gold into the ears of these and anklets round the front feet, and they give them food appointed and victims of sacrifices and treat them as well as possible while they live, and after they are dead they bury them in sacred tombs, embalming them: but those who dwell about the city of Elephantine even eat them, not holding them to be sacred. [...]

   1The Nile crocodile lives in rivers, lakes and marshes across much of Africa, and in ancient times it was common along the Egyptian Nile. It is a reptile, so its body temperature rises and falls with its surroundings. On many days crocodiles bask on sandbanks in the sun, and at night they often move into the water, which cools more slowly than the air.

   2A female lays her eggs in a nest she digs in a sandy bank, and she guards the nest until the young hatch. Each egg is about the size of a goose egg, and a newly hatched crocodile is about 30 centimeters (1 foot) long. Large males usually grow to 4 or 5 meters (13 to 16 feet), and very few reliable measurements are longer than about 6 meters (20 feet).

   3A crocodile does have a tongue. It is held down to the floor of the mouth, so the animal cannot stick it out, and a person looking into the open mouth may not notice it. A crocodile opens its mouth by dropping its lower jaw; the upper jaw is joined firmly to the skull.

   4Archaeologists have found thousands of crocodile mummies in Egypt, at places such as Kom Ombo and the Faiyum, the region around the lake that Herodotus calls Moiris. Many were buried near temples of Sobek, a god shown with a crocodile's head.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Near the start of Source 3, Herodotus writes "they told me." What do these words show about his account of Cheops?

   AHe learned it from people in Egypt, not by watching the work BHe watched the workers while the pyramid was being built CHe copied it from records that Cheops himself had kept DHe did not believe the story he was about to tell his readers

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which quotation from Source 3 best supports the claim that Herodotus was not sure his information was exact?

   A"It is built of stone smoothed and fitted together in the most perfect manner" B"for he shut up all the temples, and having first kept them from sacrificing there" C"if I rightly remember that which the interpreter said in reading to me this inscription" D"For the making of the pyramid itself there passed a period of twenty years"

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source 3, paragraph 1, how did the stones get from the Arabian mountains to the Libyan mountains?

   AThey were dragged the whole way over land BThey were carried over the river in boats, then drawn CThey were floated down the Nile on rafts DThey were rolled on logs by the king's soldiers across the desert

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source 3, paragraph 2, what took ten years?

   ACutting the underground chambers only BBuilding the pyramid itself CCarving the Egyptian writing on the outside of the pyramid DMaking the causeway on which the stones were drawn

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 3, paragraph 2, Herodotus compares the causeway with the pyramid. Which words show that this comparison is his own opinion?

   A"they told me there was in Egypt nothing but orderly rule" B"as it appears to me" C"the pyramid is square" D"Of this oppression there passed ten years"

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which claim in Source 4 does van Loon support with evidence that a reader could check?

   AAn Egyptian built the first great grave for his mother BA rich nobleman built a stone burial chamber CThe workmen lived in barracks that can still be seen DGraves rose to twenty, thirty and forty feet high

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which pair of numbers appears in both Source 3 and Source 4?

   ATwenty years and a hundred thousand men BSeven hundred and fifty-five feet and thirteen acres CFive hundred feet and fifty centuries DForty feet and several hundred feet

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Herodotus says the stones came "from the stone-quarries in the Arabian mountains" (Source 3, paragraph 1), the hills east of the Nile. Which words in Source 4 disagree with him about where the stones came from?

   A"to drag them halfway across the desert" B"He constructed roads" C"made of solid stone" D"from the distant peninsula of Sinai"

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Modern surveys measure each side of the Great Pyramid's base at about 756 feet (230 meters). Herodotus gives "eight hundred feet" (Source 3) and van Loon "seven hundred and fifty-five feet" (Source 4). Whose number is closer, and by how much?

   AHerodotus's, which is off by 44 feet BVan Loon's, which is off by about 1 foot CNeither: both are off by exactly 44 feet DVan Loon's, which is off by about 44 feet

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In the last paragraph of Source 4, van Loon writes "(how they ever managed to do this we do not understand)." What does this show?

    AHe knew exactly how the stones were moved BHe thought Herodotus had made the story up CHe admits that he cannot explain one step DHe believed the stones never crossed the Nile

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Herodotus reports how much was spent on "radishes and onions and leeks for the workmen" (Source 3, paragraph 3). What evidence does he say this figure came from?

    AA list kept by the king's treasurer BA story told by the workers' grandchildren CHis own count of the costs of the work DWriting on the pyramid, read to him by an interpreter

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Van Loon says the first great grave was built by an Egyptian "who had just buried his Mother" (Source 4, paragraph 1). Which statement best describes his evidence for this story?

    AHe gives no source, so the reader cannot check it BHe cites an inscription that names the man CHe cites Herodotus's account in Source 3 DHe quotes the words of the man himself

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which quotation from Source 3 best supports the claim that Herodotus's account presents the building work as hard on the Egyptian people?

    A"Egypt prospered greatly" B"brought them to every kind of evil" C"the pyramid is square" D"not one of the stones being less than thirty feet in length"

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    For which question would Source 4 be a primary source?

    AWhat people in 1920 believed about the pyramids BHow many men built the Great Pyramid, and for how long CWhere the builders of the pyramid found their stone DWhat Egyptians told Herodotus about King Cheops

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    In Source 3, paragraph 3, find one place where Herodotus is reasoning for himself instead of reporting what he was told. Quote it and explain how you know.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Van Loon writes that the Great Pyramid "was five hundred feet high" (Source 4, paragraph 11). What height does Herodotus give in Source 3? Quote his words, explain how you worked out the number, and say how far apart the two writers are.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    According to van Loon, why did the king build the biggest grave of all? Write a claim and support it with a quotation from Source 4, with the paragraph number. Then say whether van Loon gives any evidence for this reason.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Historians today know that the pyramid builders cut stone with copper and stone tools; iron tools came into use in Egypt much later. Herodotus writes about "the iron with which they worked" (Source 3, paragraph 3). What does this show about using Source 3 as evidence for how the pyramid was built?

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Van Loon writes that the Great Pyramid "covered more than thirteen acres of desert" (Source 4, paragraph 13). Each side of the square base is about 230 meters long, and one acre is about 4,047 square meters. Does the math support van Loon? Show your work.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Which source is more useful for learning how the Great Pyramid was built, Source 3 or Source 4? Write a paragraph of 60-100 words with a claim and at least one cited quotation from each source.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RH.6-8.1: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.