Eyewitness News
Ask your students to write eyewitness accounts of the Hall of Judgment scene in Section from a Book of the Dead. What is Nany thinking?
What are Osiris and Anubis going to say? Will Isis get involved? The students may write
their accounts as if they are observers of the scene, or they may write from the point of
view of one of the characters. As a dramatic activity, students could take the parts of
the figures, write dialogue, and act out what is happening. Some groups might want to
imagine what happened following the illustrated scene and describe the action when Nany
gave her answers before the forty-two judges. Use typical Egyptian gestures and poses to
help explain each character's actions. If you can, record or photograph the activity so
you have a class record.
This eyewitness account of events in the Hall of Judgment could be a lead story in an
Egyptian newspaper created by groups of students writing about other important issues,
such as medical news (the magic cure of Horus in Magical stela);
international news (Fragment of a battle scene); royal
activities (Akhenaten sacrificing a duck, Tutankhamun being
sanctioned in Tutankhamun wearing the blue crown, and Sety
honoring his father in West wall from a chapel built by Sety I
for his father, Ramesses I); literary news (Haremhab in Haremhab
as a scribe); sports (Ivory hunting dog and Menna and his family fishing and fowling); travel (a visit to Temple of Dendur, View of Luxor looking west
across the Nile, and Riverboat); family activities (Nikare and his family and Menna and his
family fishing and fowling); fashion (Statuette of an offering
bearer,
