After eight years of searching, Howard Carter uncovered King Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922.

Howard Carter grew up in England, receiving no formal education other than some training by his father in drawing and painting. In order to avoid having to go into the family business of painting portraits, Carter left England at 17 to travel to Alexandria, Egypt and work for the Egyptian Exploration Fund as a tracer, a person who copies drawings and inscriptions on paper for further studying.

In 1892, he joined the staff of Flinders Petrie, who was one of the most respected archaeologists of the time. Petrie was a demanding mentor, and Carter learned quickly, soon becoming a highly respected excavator, while simultaneously perfecting his drawing skills. After several career highs and lows, Carter paired up with the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, who had a strong interest in collecting Egyptian artifacts. Lord Carnarvon and Carter made a great team, and Carter explored the Valley of the Kings, excavating and collecting on behalf of Carnarvon for several years before setting his sights on finding the tomb of King Tutankhamen.

It took eight years to uncover, but once he found the tomb, the contents and wealth of the discovery made Carter one of the most famed archaeologists of all time and made "King Tut" a household name. The artifacts preserved in the tomb took ten years to catalogue and have contributed immeasurably to the study of ancient Egypt.  

Xpeditions
In Tut Technology (9-12), students explore what historical and recent research have revealed about King Tut in an effort to solve the mystery of how he died. They then learn more about how new technology is helping scientists clarify the circumstances surrounding Tut's death.

Students design a museum exhibit focusing on their own lives in Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of...You! (K-12). They explore the 2005-2007 King Tut exhibit titled "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" before designing their own exhibits.

In  Ancient Egypt: Stories and Myths (3-5), students examine stories and myths about ancient Egypt through time, first learning about the famous modern Egyptian myth about the "curse of the mummy."

Students explore what artifacts tell us about a culture in King Tut's Treasures(K-2).

In  The Mystery of the Scroll: Ancient Egyptian Culture and Geography (6-8), students explore how geographical features, both physical and cultural, of a place can give us insights into the lives of the people who have settled there, with Egypt as the primary example.

In the activity Unwrapping Mummies (K-12), students become famous archaeologists who specialize in ancient mummies. They are asked to study two very different mummies: one from an Egyptian tomb and another from the Andes Mountains in Peru. They then use the clues provided by each mummy to decipher who they were, how they died and what their cultures were like.  

Where Can You Find a Good Mummy? (9-12) introduces students to the places where mummies have been found and the reasons why some cultures mummified their dead. Students read an article and a Web page about mummies from Egypt and other parts of the world, and they answer questions about what they have read. They conclude by writing questions they might ask if they were archaeologists looking for additional mummies. 

Mummies and the Desert (3-5) relates the mummification process to climate. Students begin by finding out what Egypt's climate is like. They then get a glimpse of how Egyptians mummified their dead and see how mummies could be created naturally in the dry Egyptian climate. They conclude by writing paragraphs suggesting where they might look for mummies in other parts of the world, based on what they have learned about the role of climate in mummification. 

In Mummies: Honoring the Dead (K-2), students think about how their own cultures honor the dead and how some ancient cultures, including the Egyptians, honored their dead through mummification. Students look at pictures of mummies and write or draw pictures about an imaginary trip to the "mummy room" of a museum.

In Making a Mummy the Natural Way (6-8), students examine the relationship between climate and the mummification process in ancient Egypt and other parts of the world. Students conclude by writing paragraphs suggesting ways archaeologists and climatologists can work together to study mummies.

ARTSEDGE
In Interpreting Mythology Through Dance (5-8), students learn about ancient Egyptian rituals and attitudes about death and the afterlife. Students learn about the mythological 12-hour journey of the sun god Re, and they explore an online Smithsonian Museum exhibit on the subject. The students physically review locomotor and non-locomotor movements and the different qualities of movement. Working individually and in groups, the students choreograph a movement that represents one of the hours in Re's journey.

EDSITEment
The lesson unit Egyptian Symbols and Figures: Hieroglyphs (K-2) introduces students to the writing, art and religious beliefs of ancient Egypt through hieroglyphs, one of the oldest writing systems in the world, and through tomb paintings. In the lesson, the class creates a pictorial alphabet of its own and then learns and uses the symbols of the Egyptian hieroglyphic alphabet.

In a related lesson, Egyptian Symbols and Figures: Scroll Painting (K-2), students identify and represent in their own drawings figures from the Book of the Dead, a funeral text written on papyrus and carved on the walls of tombs to help guide the deceased through the afterlife.

Illuminations
One of the many items found in Tut's tomb was a set of dominoes—the oldest known! In the unit of instruction Do It with Dominoes (Pre-K-2), students explore the four models of addition (counting, sets, number line and balanced equations) using dominoes. They also learn about the order property, the relationship between addition and subtraction and the result of adding zero. Students write story problems in which the operation of addition is required and begin to memorize the addition facts.

Science NetLinks
In The Science of Mummies (9-12), students explore how technological advances can lead to advancements in scientific knowledge, and specifically how new technologies are advancing the study of mummies.

Egyptian mummies have given us great insight into a great ancient culture. They've also inspired a number of horror stories. For example, it's said that anyone who dared enter a mummy's tomb would die a horrible, premature death. In the Science Update Mummy's Curse (6-12), students hear about a scientific investigation that tested this legend.

ReadWriteThink
In Guided Comprehension: Monitoring Using the INSERT Technique (3-5), students are introduced to the comprehension strategy of monitoring as they learn about ancient Egypt.