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Stone Age To Iron Age

Give Tutankhamun a rest... 3 more interesting Pharaohs to look at!

3/20/2024

 
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Sneferu - Old Kingdom
Both mine and the ancient Egyptians favourite...Sneferu!
Firstly, what a great name I've always thought he sounds like a cartoon cat!
What's he famous for? Pyramids!
After Djoser's first step pyramid, built by the great Imhotep. Sneferu had three cracks at it...the Meidum pyramid, the Bent Pyramid then the first true pyramid, the Red Pyramid. He's the daddy of the Great Pyramid builder Khufu!
He was remembered by later generations as a wise and kind ruler, often the central character in folk tales.

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Hatshepsut - New Kingdom
What she famous for? A successful female ruler (sort of)
Passed over for the job of pharaoh (Her dad was pharaoh, then her husband/brother then her step-son), she took the job as regent when her young step-son, Thutmose III became pharaoh. They co-ruled for 22 years.
She was a great builder, her mortuary temple at Deir El Bahri and obelisks at Karnak are a marvel to behold!
Her success came through the trade expeditions to the famous land of Punt.
Sadly, for various reasons her successors tried to wipe her name from Egyptian history.



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Ramesses II (the Great) - New Kingdom
Another pharaoh reverred by the ancient Egyptians. He was a prolific builder, the Ramesseum, the city of Per-Ramessu to name just two.

He was a great military leader, or so he would have us believe!
He was a great propagandist and despite the battle of Kadesh ending in one of the first treaties, Ramesses returned a hero.
To learn about more great Pharaohs of Egypt, book our KS2 ancient Egyptians visit.

Why did the Maya Civilisation End?

3/20/2024

 
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A more appropriate term for this would be a decline or collapse. This was a slow process over hundreds of years which affected different areas in many differing ways.

The Maya people haven't disappeared, it's their cities which declined. There are an estimated 8,000,000 people of Maya heritage living today (approximately the same amount of people who lived in the cities at their height).

There is now a great deal of evidence that between 850AD and 1000AD there were a series of droughts. Droughts are not unusual to the Maya but one of the contributing factors to their decline at this time may be overpopulation and possible over-farming of the land. Warring city states cannot be ruled out as another contributing factor.

The question is why did the dispersed Maya never fully return to their once thriving cities? Perhaps it's simply that, like many of us, we get used to our new ways of life and our old ways become more foreign to us as time moves on. Within a generation the old Maya city ways will have become a memory.

To book a KS2 Maya trip with a difference, follow the link...




Is it Maya or Mayan? ...

3/10/2024

 
To be clear, Maya is not a name the ancient people recognised for their culture/civilisation. They were distinct groups. As such, it is a name whose application has become a general but not complete concensus!

But let's keep this simple.

Maya is the singular and plural noun...
She is Maya, they are Maya.

Maya is also the adjective...
Maya culture, Maya temples, Maya calendar, Maya way of life, Maya farming.

Mayan is only used as an adjective when talking about grouping the thirty something languages into one...
The Mayan language.

However, when talking about the individual languages, it's back to Maya as the adjective...
The Yucatec Maya. (Although to complicate things, the Yucatec Maya simply refer to their language as Maya!)


Have a look at our KS2 Maya workshop...

Stone Age Cattle brought back to life!

3/6/2024

 
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Aurochs were extinct wild cattle living in Europe, from which cattle are probably descended. The aurochs survived in Poland until 1627. The aurochs were black, standing around 1.8 metres (6 feet) high at the shoulder, and had spreading, forward-curving horns.
However, it seems that Aurochs may be making a come back!

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0h8r8hc/the-tauros-a-prehistoric-bovine-brought-back-to-life
Learn more about the auroch in our Stone Age to Iron Age workshop

Why Book a Maya Workshop With Us?

3/6/2024

 
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We understand that the school trip can be the highlight of a child's academic year. The aim of our workshops is to offer the children an exciting and full on experience that they will remember forever!
The reason teachers love our workshops is that...
  • The children get to try their hand at Maya crafts and make something that they can take home.
  • We can hold the entire day in the classroom, yet take them places they've never been, using our Virtual Reality headsets.
  • The children will be doing hands-on activities all day long.
  • We can format the entire day around your school's schedule.
  • Our knowledge of the subject is great to draw on.

Children will be able to explore Maya artefacts, including studying the Dresden Codex.
The next best thing to visiting Central America on a school trip is to visit it with our virtual reality headsets. See the ruins of Tikal and Chichen Itza, swim in a cenote.
Learn about ancient skills and try their hand at making a worry doll and weaving a basket to take home.
Learn the Maya number system and use this to play a game and explore the calendar.
Understand the ancient Maya writing system and learn how to write your name in hierglyphs, using authentic feather quills and ink.
The children can tap into the knowledge of our Maya specialists.

Book us for your next Maya experience, you will not be disappointed!


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    Widget Workshops -History Workshops for primary schools

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  • Home
  • Topics
    • Stone Age to Iron Age
    • Ancient Egyptians
    • Maya
    • Romans
  • Useful Information
    • Meet the Team
    • FAQs
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Contact
  • What schools say about us
  • Blog