The following are
activities for children (ages 8-12) to do at home or in the
classroom. These can be used in preparation for a gallery
visit, after a visit, or even just for fun. Activities
labeled "visit activity" are best done during a gallery
visit. The activities are divided along the themes of the
exhibit.
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Geography
Locate the following modern territories
on a map of the eastern Mediterranean
area:
Jordan
| Israel | West Bank | Gaza
Strip |Syria | Lebanon
Saudi Arabia | Egypt | Cyprus
| Turkey | Sinai
Peninsula
Locate the
following excavated sites on a blank map of
the southern Levant:
Baq'ah
Valley | Gibeon | Sarepta
Tel Beth Shean | Tel Beth Shemesh | Tel es-
Sa'idiyeh
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Chronology
Create a chronological
chart of your own life, complete with a time
line. Can you divide your own life into
"eras" or "ages"?
Visit Activity: Make a chronological
chart or time line of the Bronze and Iron Ages
in Canaan and Ancient Israel. Search through the
gallery and find an object from each time
period.
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Politics and
Social Organization
The Early
Bronze Age
Canaanites in the Early Bronze Age lived both as
wandering nomads in the countryside and as
settled traders in walled cities. What would
have been the differences between these two
modes of life? Which lifestyle would you
prefer?
The Middle
Bronze Age
What do objects in a
Middle Bronze Age tomb reveal about the person
buried in it (age, sex, status, etc.)? How do
archaeologists interpret these finds?
What offerings have
archaeologists found in and around ancient
burials? What offerings do we place in and
around graves? Why? What do they symbolize, then
and now?
Visit Activity: Examine the objects from Warrior
Burials. Draw a reconstruction of how a
Canaanite warrior might have looked when he was
alive. Why were the other objects in the case
included in his tomb?
The Late Bronze
Age
The Canaanites traded with far off lands for
goods and luxury items. This included faience
and ivory from Egypt, ceramic and leather goods
from Greece, spices from Arabia, copper from
Cyprus and lapis lazuli and tin from beyond
Persia. Think about your own possessions and
where they may have come from originally. Make a
list of common household objects (i.e. clothes,
car, television, food) and find out from where
they originally came.
Towards the end of the
Late Bronze Age, the nature of warfare changed
from battles between organized chariot corps
with bowmen to battles between masses of
infantry troops with spears and swords. How has
modern warfare changed in the last
century?
Iron Age
I
Visit Activity: The
shapes and decoration of Philistine pottery from
Iron Age I has often been compared to Mycenaean
pottery, especially from Cyprus. Choose a
Philistine pot or sherd and create a drawing of
it. Now search out and find a Mycenaean pot in
this exhibit, or in The Ancient Greek World
exhibit (hint: Mycenaean pots can be found in
the Imitation and Emulation case). In what ways
are they the same? How are they different? Since
most of the history from this time period is
still unclear, archaeologists must rely on
comparisons such as this to determine the
origins of the early Iron Age peoples.
Iron Age
II
Visit Activity: Look at the lamelek jar handles
in the exhibit case. These handles are from clay
jars used for storing wine or olive oil and then
sealed for transportation and storage. The
handles were stamped with two types of royal
seals: one looked like a winged disc and the
other was a scarab, or beetle. Beneath the
symbol, each handle also contains the letters
"lmlk," which mean "to the king," reinforcing
the fact of royal ownership. In addition, four
different place names appear on the jar handles.
These place names may represent vineyards or
groves where the jars were sent to be filled.
The lamelek jars were the property of the Judean
government, ruled by King Hezekiah. They are
good representations of the centralization of
the nation state and the resulting bureaucracy.
Find some modern envelopes that have been
mailed. In the upper right hand corner you will
find red ink over a stamp. What are the signs
and symbols that you see? Which sign or symbol
represents our government best? How does the
control of letters and packages through the
federal mail system compare to the distribution
of King Hezekiah's wine jars in ancient
Judah?
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Home and
Family
How did the climate of the southern Levant
affect the design of houses?
How was the lack of modern comforts compensated
for in the design of Canaanite and Israelite
houses (e.g. lack of electricity for lighting,
heating, cooling, cooking,
entertainment)?
Bread: The Daily
Guide
Make bread from
scratch in your own school or home. Follow
this recipe to bake a bread similar in style to
that which Canaanite and Israelite families
would have eaten. Fresh
homemade whole wheat pitas, or those made with
half white, half whole wheat, are quick and
delicious. They are most easily made on quarry
tiles or baking sheets in the oven.
Ingredients:
2
teaspoons dry yeast
2 1/2 cups
lukewarm water
5 to 6
cups hard whole wheat flour, or 3 cups each
hard whole wheat flour and hard unbleached
white flour, or unbleached all purpose
flour
1
tablespoon salt
1
tablespoon olive oil
You will need
a large bread bowl, unglazed quarry tiles to fit
on a rack in your oven or several baking sheets,
and a rolling pin.
In a large
bread bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm
water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in 3 cups flour, a
cup at a time, and then stir 100 times, about 1
minute, in the same direction to activate the
gluten. Let this sponge rest for at least 10
minutes, or as long as 2 hours.
Sprinkle the
salt over the sponge and stir in the olive oil.
Mix well. Add more flour, a cup at a time, until
the dough is too stiff to stir. Turn it out onto
a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10
minutes, until smooth and elastic. Rinse out the
bowl, dry, and lightly oil. Return the dough to
the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise
until at least doubled in size, approximately 1
1/2 hours. The dough can be made ahead to this
point and stored, covered, in the refrigerator
for up to 7 days.
(To save the
dough in the refrigerator for baking later,
gently punch it down. Wrap it in a plastic bag
that is at least three times as large as the
dough, and secure it just at the opening of the
bag; this will give the dough room to expand
while it is in the refrigerator. Then, from day
to day, simply cut off the amount of dough you
need and keep the rest in the refrigerator.
After a few days, the dough will smell
increasingly fermented, but the fermentation
actually improves the taste of the bread,
especially if baked on quarry tiles. The dough
should always be brought to room temperature
before baking.)
Place
unglazed quarry tiles, or two small baking
sheets, on the bottom rack of your oven, leaving
a 1-inch gap all around between the tiles or
sheets and the oven walls to allow heat to
circulate. Preheat the oven to 450 F.
Gently punch
down the dough. Divide the dough in half, then
set half aside, covered, while you work with the
rest. Divide the other half into 8 equal pieces
and flatten each piece with lightly floured
hands. Roll out each piece to a circle 8 to 9
inches in diameter and less than 1/4 inch thick.
Keep the rolled-out breads covered until ready
to bake, but do not stack.
Place 2
breads, or more if your oven is large enough, on
the quarry tiles or baking sheets, and bake for
2 to 3 minutes, or until each bread has gone
into a full "balloon." If there are seams or dry
bits of dough, or for a variety of other
reasons&endash;e.g.., your quarry tiles are not
sufficiently preheated&endash;the breads may not
balloon properly. But don't worry, they will
still taste great. The more you bake pitas, the
more you will become familiar with all the
little tricks and possible pitfalls, and your
breads will more consistently balloon. Wrap the
baked breads together in a large kitchen towel
to keep them warm and soft while you bake the
remaining rolled out breads. Then repeat with
the rest of the dough.
Alternatives:
You can, of course, make smaller breads by
dividing the dough into smaller pieces. The
rolling out and cooking method and times remain
the same. Children particularly love smaller
pocket breads.
Makes
approximately 16 pocket breads, 8 to 9 inches in
diameter.
From
Flatbreads & Flavors by Jeffrey
Alford and Naomi Duguid (William Morrow &
Co; 1995. $30.00 hardcover) | Recipes for
other Middle
Eastern food
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Personal
Identity
Discuss the role of women
in Canaan and ancient Israel. What were
appropriate activities for women? Did women have
less freedom than men? Were women permitted to
do what they wanted?
In Canaan and ancient
Israel, most people were identified with a
single name, used in combination with a fathers
name when it was important to be specific. For
example, if your name was Larry and your
father's name was David, you could be called
Larry Davidson. Names could also include the
name of a god or goddess. If Larry's family
worshiped the god El, they could have named
their son Larryel. What does your name mean? Do
you know why your name was chosen? If you added
a parents name to yours, what would your name
be?
Imagine that you are one
of the following:
a) A Phoenician sea
merchant
b) An Israelite mother of five children
c) An Egyptian soldier stationed at Beth
Shean
d) A Philistine potter
e) A priestess of Astarte in the Canaanite city
Megiddo
Write a diary entry for a
typical day (or week). In what type of
activities do you participate? Describe where
you live and with whom you interact. Are you
satisfied with your place in life?
Canaanite artists fashioned face masks out of
clay, complete with nose, ears, eye-holes and
sometimes beards. It is speculated that these
masks were worn by priests in cultic ceremonies.
Create your own Canaanite cult
mask:
Materials
"Sculpey"
modeling clay (yellow, tan, orange, brown, or
white)
Pencil
Cardboard
Scissors
Water-based acrylic paints
Thin paint brush
Heavy string
Directions
1) Draw an
oval on the cardboard the size of your head.
Draw in the areas for your eyes and mouth. Cut
the oval face shape out with scissors from the
cardboard sheet. Cut eye and mouth holes out
with scissors. Put the cardboard mask to your
face and make sure you can see out of the eye
holes and breathe through the mouth
hole.
2) Soften the
clay between the palms of your hands and mold it
into the shape of a mask the size of the
cardboard shape you cut in Step 1. Add nose,
ears, cheeks and chin. Make sure all are firmly
secure. Make holes for the eyes and mouth. If
you like, create a beard by lightly poking small
dots into the surface with the point of a
pencil. Above each ear, one inch from either
side of the head, poke a small hole.
3) Bake in
oven on oven proof plate in 275 degree heat, 15
minutes per quarter inch of thickness, with good
ventilation. Avoid over baking.
4) Remove
from oven. Allow to cool.
5) Paint
extra features on the mask such as eyebrows,
lips, and nostrils with water-based acrylic
paints.
6) Loop a
string through each hole on either side of the
mask. Knot tightly around the first hole, place
face in mask and loop string around back of
head. Feed remaining string through second hole
and knot tightly.
Now you have
a mask that you can wear in a Canaanite
procession.
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Labor and
Crafts
Agriculture
Farmers in Canaan and ancient Israel were very
dependent on rain for their crops to grow. To
preserve this resource, they devised elaborate
systems of conduits and check-dams to capture
and redirect rainwater into fields. Deep
cisterns were also dug into the ground to catch
and store rainwater. In what ways do we try to
preserve natural resources today? Do you
consider water to be a scarce or abundant
resource? Do you think it will become more
scarce or more abundant? What steps can we take
today to preserve fresh water in the
future?
Jewelry
Jewelry was highly valued
in Canaan and Ancient Israel. It was worn as a
status symbol and also to enhance one's
appearance. Are there any distinguishing uses of
jewelry today? How does jewelry shape how others
perceive us?
Pottery
Visit Activity: Note the types of designs
and patterns which decorate the pottery in this
exhibit. Are there recurring motifs? Discuss the
significance of the vessels' shapes and motifs
as an indicator of cultural tastes. Have the
students draw or make their own pottery and
decorate using symbols that represent ideas
important to them.
Pottery was very useful to the Canaanites as a
type of transport container. Large pithoi were
loaded with foodstuffs, sealed, stamped and
marked by merchants as the equivalent of
quality-assurance seals. What materials are used
for modern storage and transport containers? Why
do we no longer use ceramics for these
purposes?
What are the basic steps
by which a pot is made? What do the size and
shape of a vessel indicate about the value of
its contents?
Why is pottery of the utmost importance to
archaeologists? Where and in what condition do
archaeologists typically find
pottery?
Archaeologists at a dig sometimes hire a
conservator, who must piece together broken
sherds of pottery to reconstruct the complete
vessel. Pretend you are a conservator and
piece together a broken pot. Here's
how:
Materials
Smooth-surfaced
ceramic flower pot
Acrylic paint
Plastic bag
Hammer
Elmer's glue
Directions
1) Create a
special pattern or scene that you wish to paint
on your pot. You may use designs on pottery from
the exhibit for inspiration. Paint the design on
the exterior of your flower pot with acrylic
paints. Allow to dry.
2) Place the
flower pot in a plastic bag and secure tightly.
Carefully hit the flower pot with the flat head
of the hammer until it has broken into several
smaller sherds. Do not pulverize into
dust.
4) Remove the
broken sherds from the plastic bag, being
careful to avoid sharp or jagged edges. Spread
the sherds before you.
5) Switch
places with a partner and attempt to put
together the pot he or she had painted. Add glue
to the edges of the broken sherds and carefully
hold them together until they dry. Glue together
the sherds until the whole pot has been
reconstructed. Allow to dry.
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Trade and
Commerce
Discussion topic: Today, virtually any
commodity can be had within a short period of
time. Overnight express brings packages from
thousands of miles away to our doorstep; fresh
produce is shipped by land, sea and air to our
grocery stores in any season of the year.
Imagine living in Canaan or ancient Israel when
only a few varieties of fruits and vegetables
would be available during a given season and it
would take weeks or months for shipments of
goods to arrive from places only a few hundred
miles away.
What dictated the routes and timing for ancient
shipping? What would be the advantages of
trading goods by sea? What would be the
disadvantages (or dangers)?
Commerce
Without Coinage
Consider what it would have been like to live
without money. Imagine you are the head of a
Canaanite household and need to go to the market
to buy a goat. What types of things do you have
that you can trade?
Visit Activity: The inhabitants of Canaan
and later Israel did not have banks where they
could store valuables. Often, precious metals
such as gold and silver were melted into ingot
bars and hidden. In the exhibit is a jar which
was discovered to contain gold ingots, bronze
and jewelry. Why would the owner choose to hide
away these items? Why do you think he did not
come back to claim them?
Imitation and
Emulation
What types of goods today
are considered popular and desirable? Are
cheaper imitations of these goods available? Is
there a different in status that comes from
possession of the "original" as opposed to the
"imitation"?
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Discuss other pantheons of deities in ancient
religion, such as that of Egypt and Greece. Useful
web sites are:
Canaanite
mythology
Greek
mythology
Egyptian
mythology
What features make pantheons
similar (i.e. patriarchal rule, goddesses of love,
creation myths, animals as symbols of deities)? How
do these pantheons differ? Discuss similarities and
differences with the Hebrew myths of the Old
Testament.
Research one of the Canaanite gods or goddesses in
the library or on the Internet. What were the
attributes of this deity? What was his/her special
animal or symbol? What are some myths that were
told about him/her? Was this deity compared or
equated to an Egyptian, Greek or Sumerian god or
goddess?
Compare the differences in
worship of some modern day religions. In what type
of buildings do Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus
worship? What types of rituals are performed in
religious ceremonies?
What are modern equivalents
of cult statues? Of votive offerings?
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Death and
Burial
What offerings have
archaeologists found in and around ancient
graves? What offerings do we place in and around
graves today? Why? What do they
symbolize?
What are two types of burial from Canaan and
Ancient Israel? What are two types of burial
today? Why are the deceased buried in these
particular fashions, both then and
now?
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