Ancient Cosmetic Set Discussion

Essay 3

History from Artifacts

The final “essay” of the semester will be a fun assignment that allows you to create your own historical narrative basedon an archaeological object. This may seem an unusual task, but manyhistorians utilize a wide range of primary sources, which includes “material objects” or artifacts. Every historical object can be studied and interpreted to add to our understanding of human history. For this assignment, you willchoose one of the five objects below. The link will direct you to themuseum where the object is held and give you some basic informationabout its date, purpose, and manufacture place. You will then read the associated article for your object and use both the object and reading to answer the questions below. Finally, you will produce a fictional narrative that shows the proper use of your chosen object. You should consider the questions below and use them as a guide to writing your essay. Essentially, tell us about a day in the life of the object or the person using the object. How would an ancient Egyptian use it? Why (think what are the shared myths around the object according to your reading)?

You will be graded on whether you have fully addressed all the questions of the assignment and using the reading and object to create an accurate picture of how and why the object was being used. Finally, you will be graded on formatting, grammar, and spelling. Thefictional narrative should be double-spaced, 12 pt. font, and with 1”margins all around. Your “essay” portion should be approximately 500 words in length. Otherwise, how you tell your narrative is up to you. It can be from any perspective or point of view, and as long as your object is being used properly (including time and place –i.e. generally remain in ancient Egypt), you can have any characters or context for the story. If you have questions, see your GAs.

Your grade will be determined in the following ways:

Your guiding questions and essay are due April 22nd by 5 PM in the essay 3 Dropbox on Canvas.

Choose one of the following objects and then find the companion reading on Canvas under Week 13:

Name:

DUE APRIL 22nd BY 5 PM

Which object you have chosen? Why?

Describe the object? What does it look like? What is on it? How big is it?

According to your reading, what is the purpose of the object?

According to your reading, who used the object and how was this object used? For example, did the king use it? A priest? Was it accessible to anyone?

According to your reading, why was the significance to ancient Egyptian culture?