The goal is to write a group paragraph. Pick one of the artifacts below and find the answers to the following questions: 1. What civilization or person is it connected to? 2. When was it created? 3. Where was it found or who found it? 4. Why is this artifact important?
Each group member should pick a question to write a sentence on as his or her part of the paragraph. When you are finished the group may play the games to the right.
The Phaistos Disc was discovered by the Italian archeologist Luigi Pernier in 1908, near the Minoan palace of Phaistos. The disc is believed to have its origins from the late Minoan Bronze Age. It is 15 cm wide, and it has stamped symbols on both sides. Scientists are still arguing about its true purpose and its place of manufacture, making this artifact one of the most mysterious objects today. We can hope that they will find answers in days that come and that we will be able to understand this artifact to have better knowledge of the ancient civilizations. The Phaistos Disc is displayed at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum situated on Crete, where the disk was found initially.
Tutankhamen was a boy king, often described as weak but handsome. He reigned from 1332 to 1323 BC, and the time of his rule was one of the most troubled periods. Tutankhamen was the successor of Akhenaten, who was the first extremist in the known history. He married Akhenaten’s daughter and claimed the right to rule. On 26th of November in 1922, Howard Carter discovered this magnificent artifact that lay forgotten in Tutankhamen’s tomb. Tutankhamen’s eyes are made of white quartz with obsidian. His eyes are godlike and in the same time very calm and human alike. The mask represents the boy king at its prime and has similarities with the god of the dead, Osiris.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of ancient Hebrew manuscripts discovered at the shore of the Dead Sea. Somewhere around 825 to 870 scrolls were found between 1947 and 1956. The scrolls are a collection of texts from the Old Testament including rule books and war strategies. The collection is suspected to have origins from the Jewish sect named Essenes and hidden in the caves during the First Jewish Revolt around 66-70 AD.
The Dead Sea scrolls are presented at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Jordan Archaeological Museum, and their significance is priceless considering its historical, religious and linguistic value.
The mask of Agamemnon was discovered by an archeologist called Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 near Mycenae. The mask was made of gold, and it is a traditional funeral mask, suspected to be created for this Greek ruler. Schliemann named the mask after Agamemnon and along with the findings from the tomb, presented the evidence that the Trojan War was a historical event. Modern research proves that the mask predates Agamemnon, and scientists are still arguing about the relevance of the artifact.