Hello again.

Welcome to another history lesson with me, Ms. Roberts.

I'm going to be guiding you through this lesson about Ancient Egypt today.

Together, we are going to investigate what stayed the same, as well as what changed during the time that the Ancient Egyptian civilization existed.

This lesson builds on knowledge that you already have about Ancient Egypt and helps you to apply it.

I'll be taking you through the lesson step by step, so don't worry if you are unsure of anything because I'm here to help and I'll be explaining things along the way.

By the end of the lesson today, you will be able to describe how much things stayed the same, as well as how much things changed across 3000 years of Ancient Egyptian history.

Wow.

Now we are starting with keywords, but there's just one keyword for today's lesson, and that's continuity.

Can you say continuity? Good job.

Continuity is when things stay the same over a long period of time.

And I think we can all agree that 3000 years is certainly a long period of time.

We're going to section this lesson into two parts, and the first part is all about continuity.

Because we are going to investigate all the things that continued to stay the same across 3000 years.

Later, we'll be considering the things that changed.

Are you ready to make a start? Let's go.

The idea of continuity is that over a long period of time, some things will remain the same.

For example, a language that is spoken, a belief that is held, or a method that is used to do something.

The Ancient Egyptian civilization lasted for around 3000 years.

And across its existence, there was much continuity as well as there was change.

As John says, "It is amazing that some things continue "to stay the same over such a long period of history." We can use a timeline to show what happened across long periods of history.

This timeline represents the Ancient Egyptian civilization.

To make it easier to talk about periods of time in Ancient Egypt, historians split time into three parts, the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom.

You can see from the timeline that the Old Kingdom started in the year 2686 BCE.

The Middle Kingdom started in the year 2055 BCE, and the New Kingdom started in the year 1550 BCE.

All in all, the time span of the Ancient Egyptian civilization was 3000 years.

Now let's start to look at what stayed the same in Ancient Egypt for that time, beginning with its location around the River Nile.

The River Nile was truly the heart of Ancient Egypt.

It runs all the way through the country and it meets the Mediterranean Sea in the north.

Thanks to the annual floods, the land surrounding the river was very fertile and ideal for growing crops.

This was because during the floods, thick black mud was deposited, which made the soil perfect for crops to grow.

Throughout the Ancient Egyptian civilization, the River Nile continued to be hugely important because it allowed the Ancient Egyptians to have farmland, to grow food, and make an income by selling crops.

In this illustration, an Egyptian farmer is using some cattle for ploughing.

Let's just have a quick stop and check on what we have now discovered about the River Nile.

Here is a multiple choice question.

I will read you three possible answers, and you decide which one you think is correct.

Ready? What made the River Nile continue to be so important for the Ancient Egyptians? Was it A, farmers used it to water the plants? B, the land around the river was very fertile? Or C, the river could be used to transport crops by boat? Hmm.

Have a think and make your choice.

Did you choose option B? Well done.

The River Nile continued to be of great importance because it provided such fertile land for farming.

If the Egyptians hadn't been able to farm, they wouldn't have been able to grow crops and then they wouldn't have been able to make money.

It is true that farmers could use the water for other things and that the river could be used to transport crops by boats, but the main reason for its great importance was that very fertile land.

Well done.

Across the 3000 years of the Ancient Egyptian civilization, there was always a ruler, and that ruler was called a pharaoh.

There were at least 170 different pharaohs in the history of Ancient Egypt.

Out of all of those pharaohs, only seven of them were ever female.

The rest were all male.

The youngest pharaoh ever to rule was Tutankhamun.

So although the person who was the pharaoh changed over 3000 years, the Ancient Egyptians continued to believe that the pharaohs were the human forms of their gods and goddesses.

Were you listening? Let's have a quick check.

Which statement is an example of continuity in Ancient Egypt? Here are three possible answers.

A, Egyptians continued to believe that pharaohs were the human forms of their gods and goddesses.

B, Egyptians stopped believing that pharaohs were the human forms of their gods and goddesses.

C, Egyptians never believed that pharaohs were the human forms of their gods and goddesses.

Which of those statements is an example of continuity? Did you choose statement A Good job.

That's the right statement, because continuity is to do with what stayed the same.

And in this case, in Ancient Egypt, the belief that the pharaohs were human forms of gods and goddesses stayed the same for the entire history of the Ancient Egyptian civilization.

Well done.

Throughout the 3000 year existence of this civilization, religion continued to be one of the most important parts of life.

People spent their entire lives trying to please their gods.

They did this because they believed that if they pleased the gods, then the god called Anubis would lead their soul to the afterlife when they died.

The Ancient Egyptians called the soul ba, and they represented it in hieroglyphic form as a bird with a human head.

Lucas and Alex are talking about religion in Ancient Egypt.

Lucas says, "Ancient Egyptians continue to believe "that the god Anubis would lead their ba to the afterlife." Alex says that "Ancient Egyptians continued to believe "that they needed to please the gods "to get their ba to the afterlife.

Who do you agree with? Pause the video while you decide who you think is correct.

You can discuss this with a learning partner if you want to.

Have you decided? Who did you pick? Did you pick Lucas or did you pick Alex? Did you pick both? In fact, they are both correct because Ancient Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife remained the same.

They continued to believe that the god Anubis would lead their soul or ba to the afterlife, and they continued that in order for Anubis to come and do that, they had to please him during their lifetime.

Well done.

Something else in Ancient Egypt that continued to be used for a long time was their writing system, called hieroglyphics.

Much of what we know about Ancient Egypt is based on hieroglyphs.

These are the pictures and symbols that were used to represent words and sounds.

People called scribes would spend years learning how to read and write in hieroglyphs, and some of the pictures they had to use were very detailed and artistic.

Across the whole Ancient Egyptian civilization, scribes continued to use those detailed hieroglyphs for the most important religious messages.

Hieroglyphic writing has been found in places like tombs of pharaohs, which is evidence of this.

Now let's use some of this new knowledge we have to do some activities.

Let's begin with this question, which is a true or false situation.

I'm going to read you a statement and I want you to decide if it is true or if it is false.

Listen carefully.

For 3000 years, hieroglyphs were continuously used for writing religious messages.

Is that true or is that false? Make your choice now.

Did you choose true? Well done.

This statement is definitely true.

For 3000 years, hieroglyphs were continuously used for writing religious messages.

Hmm.

There's just one thing though.

We can't just make statements and declare them to be true or false unless we can explain why or how we know.

So what we need to do now is provide some evidence or a fact to back up our choice.

I'm going to show you two more statements now, and I want you to decide which of those is best for justifying how we know that that statement is true.

Listen carefully.

Statement A says that hieroglyphic writing has been found in places like the tombs of pharaohs spanning the three kingdoms. Statement B says that only the scribes could write hieroglyphs, so the scribes made sure that they were always needed.

Which statement do you believe is the best to explain why we know that it is true that for 3000 years hieroglyphs were continuously used for writing religious messages? Have you chosen one? Did you choose statement A? Well done.

We're talking about religious messages here.

Religious messages were found in places like tombs where dead bodies were buried.

So to find hieroglyphics in tombs was evidence of them being used for writing religious messages.

It is true that only scribes could write in hieroglyphs, but that's not why they were used for writing religious messages.

Time for a writing activity now.

What you are going to do is write an account of Ancient Egyptian history yourself.

I'd like you to write two short paragraphs explaining what continued to stay the same across the Ancient Egyptian civilization.

Your answer could discuss things like the River Nile and why it was so important.

You could talk about the pharaohs and what they did and what people believed about them.

You could write about religion and religious beliefs, or you could write about communication and hieroglyphs.

It might also be a good idea to make a plan first or write some notes before writing up your paragraphs.

Aisha has decided that she is going to write about religion and pharaohs.

And she has chosen some important words that she can use in her paragraphs as evidence to support her answer.

What important words will you use as evidence in your paragraphs? Pause the video now while you complete the activity.

Are you finished? Great.

Well, some of the Oak Academy children are going to share their work with us now as examples.

Firstly, Aisha is here.

Remember, she said that she was going to write about religion and pharaohs.

She wrote that "For 3000 years, "important people called pharaohs "ruled over Ancient Egypt.

"Although who the pharaoh was changed, "Ancient Egyptians continue to believe that pharaohs "were the human form of their gods and goddesses.

"Throughout the 3000 year civilization, "religion continued to be one "of the most important parts of life in Ancient Egypt.

"Ancient Egyptians tried hard to please their gods "and goddesses so that their ba could get to the afterlife.

"This belief continued for 3000 years." I've made sure that in purple there we can see those important key words that Aisha decided to use as evidence.

We've also got an example here from Andeep.

And Andeep's paragraphs were as follows.

"For 3000 years, the Ancient Egyptian civilization "lived around the River Nile.

"And the river continued to be very important "for Ancient Egypt.

"Ancient Egyptians used the fertile land "caused by the yearly floods for farming, "which gave them food and money from selling crops.

"Throughout the 3000 year civilization, "scribes continued to use detailed hieroglyphs "for important religious messages.

"Hieroglyphic writing has been found "in places like the tombs of pharaohs, "which is evidence of this." Well done Aisha and Andeep.

I think both of their work was excellent.

And thank you very much for sharing it with us.

We're going to move along into the second part of our lesson today.

Now, we've already thought about continuity and everything that stayed the same.

But over such a long period of time, there was also a lot of change, and that's what we'll be investigating now.

The earliest Ancient Egyptians in the Old Kingdom were known for being pyramid builders, as they built the impressive Great Pyramid and the monument called the Great Sphinx at Giza.

The pyramids were built as tombs for the pharaohs when they died, and they were so big and so impressive because they wanted to show how important pharaohs were.

By the time of the Middle Kingdom, however, things had changed, as the Ancient Egyptians now built the pharaoh's tombs in a place called the Valley of the Kings.

Take a look at this timeline.

You can see the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom as before.

So where and what could you note about changes to how pharaohs were buried in Ancient Egypt? Pause the video and have a think about what you could write and where you would put it.

Have you finished? Well done.

I'm going to show you where I put the notes on my timeline.

In the Old Kingdom, pharaohs were buried in pyramids.

In the New Kingdom and Middle Kingdom, pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings.

Well done.

Good job, everyone.

Throughout the ancient civilization, preserving the bodies of their dead was always seen as important.

This was because they believed that each night, ba or the soul would return from the afterlife to its human body, and so the body needed to be kept in good condition.

As time passed through the civilization, Ancient Egyptians changed the processes they used to preserve their dead bodies.

In the Old Kingdom, the earliest Ancient Egyptians wrapped whole bodies in linen cloths and tried to dry them out with the hot desert sand.

But that didn't always work.

So later, by the end of the Middle Kingdom and in the New Kingdom, the Egyptians used a process called embalming, which worked much better.

They also removed the internal organs from bodies to delay decay, and they were kept in special jars called canopic jars.

Look again at this timeline.

Now, what notes could you put about methods of preserving deaf body or mummification methods? What notes could you put on the timeline about that? And where would you put them? Pause the video now to complete the activity.

Have you finished? Well done.

Let's have a look at the notes that I put on my timeline.

In the Old Kingdom, bodies were dried with sand and then wrapped in linen cloth.

In the Middle Kingdom, internal organs were removed and dead bodies were embalmed.

Good job everyone.

Well done.

Now, earlier we talked about how people communicated in Ancient Egyptian by writing in hieroglyphs.

And although hieroglyphs were continuously used across 3000 years, the Egyptian writing system did change in some ways as well.

Scribes began to use less detailed symbols and pictures because this made it quicker and easier for the scribes to write.

However, the original, most detailed hieroglyphs were still kept and used for the most important texts like religious messages.

It was everyday information that changed to using the simpler hieroglyphs.

If you look at this chart, you can see how hieroglyphs change over time.

Look closely at the second row and you will see how the hieroglyph which looks like a bird at first over time becomes just one simple curved line, which is believed to be the curved line of the wing of the bird.

Now, let's try the timeline activity again.

Where would you put notes about hieroglyphic writing? And what notes would you make? Pause the video now while you complete the activity.

All done? Brilliant.

Okay.

Here are the notes that I made on my timeline.

In the Old Kingdom, detailed hieroglyphs were used for recording all types of writing.

Later hieroglyphs became less detailed, and the most detailed symbols were used for religious messages only.

Well done.

Good job, everyone.

Now, earlier you wrote about how things stayed the same across Ancient Egyptian history.

Now I want you to write about how things changed across Ancient Egyptian history.

Again, I'd like you to write two short paragraphs.

This time, you could talk about things like where pharaohs were buried at different times in Ancient Egyptian history.

You could talk about how the mummification process was developed at different periods in Ancient Egyptian history.

Or you could talk about how hieroglyphs changed over time and why.

Remember, it can be useful to make a plan or some notes before you start and then write up your paragraphs after.

Sam has shared with us that she is going to write about hieroglyphs, and she's going to include the words detailed pictures and scribes in her paragraphs as evidence to support her answer.

You should use some important historical words as well.

Pause the video now while you write your paragraphs.

Great job.

Well done.

Now, some children from Oak Academy are going to share their work with us.

And we're starting with Sam, who told us earlier that she was going to be writing about hieroglyphs.

Her first paragraph says that "For 3000 years, "hieroglyphs were used for writing by the Ancient Egyptians.

"Scribes recorded all the information, "but the most important were religious messages.

"At first, "hieroglyphs were very detailed pictures and symbols.

"They were so artistic, "some were even pictures of animals like birds.

"Scribes took their time "to write slowly and beautifully, "but it took so long "that they needed to find a quicker way to write.

"Across 3000 years, the hieroglyphs slowly changed "so they became less artistic.

"They eventually became very basic lines and shapes." And you can see in green there are those important key words that Sam was using to support her answer.

Well done, Sam.

We've also got an example here from Jacob.

Jacob has written that "Across 3000 years, "the process of mummification changed.

"In the Old Kingdom, "the Ancient Egyptians preserved dead bodies "by drying them out with hot desert sand "and then wrapping them tightly with linen cloths.

"Over time, they used a process called embalming "and removed the internal organs.

"This improved the preservation of dead bodies.

"Where pharaohs were buried also changed across 3000 years "of Ancient Egyptian civilization.

"In the Old Kingdom, "pharaohs were buried in the pyramids in Giza.

"By the time of the Middle Kingdom, "the pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings." And again, Jacob's keywords are there in green.

He has used mummification and where the pharaohs were buried.

Two excellent pieces of work there.

Well done, Sam and Jacob.

And thank you both for sharing with us as well.

That brings us to the end of this lesson about change and continuity in Ancient Egypt.

So let's have a quick look back at everything we've covered today.

We know that across 3000 years of the Ancient Egyptian civilization, some things stayed the same whilst other things changed.

We know that there was continuity, because pharaohs were seen as gods and goddesses in human form.

Detailed hieroglyphs were used for religious messages, and religious beliefs about the afterlife remained strong.

We also know that there was change in the style of hieroglyphs, where the Ancient Egyptians buried their rulers, and in the process of mummification.

3000 years was such a long time, and it's amazing how some things stayed strong and the same whilst other things gradually changed.

I hope you found it as interesting to find out all about change and continuity as I did, and I look forward to seeing you again for another history lesson.

Bye for now.