King Tutankhamun reigned Egypt as a pharaoh until his death at the age of 19 in the year 1324 B.C. Until 1922, when British archaeologist Howard Carter chiseled through a wall and entered the young pharaoh's tomb, which had been sealed for more than 3,200 years. He was hardly known to the modern world. The tomb's massive collection of artifacts and riches, which were meant to accompany the king into the afterlife, revealed a great deal about royal life in ancient Egypt and rapidly made King Tut the most renowned pharaoh in the world.

The tomb of Tutankhamun was constructed by the Year 11 Ancient History class consisting of key artefacts and an engaging tomb layout. The virtual tour that took place on 16 June had a considerable amount of both time and effort put into it which led to an educational and interactive tomb. The tomb perfectly depicted the religious beliefs that the Egyptians had in regards to the afterlife. To ensure immortality after death, they executed an elaborate set of funerary practices, to what they believed would be a necessity to them in the afterlife. The layout of the tomb closely replicated the real Tutankhamun tomb and allowed students to create their own opinion by walking through the tomb. Whilst doing this, they gathered and developed a more complex and deeper understanding of the tomb and what laid within it. The construction of the tomb incorporated notable artefacts upon each room. The several artifacts found in the tomb by Howard Carter included statues, gold jewelry, Tutankhamun’s mummified body, chariots, model boats, canopic jars, chairs, and paintings. In all, over 5,000 objects were inside the tomb. In saying this, Carter and his team took 10 years to catalog everything.

Constructing Tutankhamun’s Tomb was a unique learning experience for both Year 7 and Year 11. It enabled us to consolidate preliminary course content in preparation for our Term 2 Ancient History exam. It was also a form of active recall as we were able to develop strong links between content and source materials, in order to memorise the significance and function of key artefacts and thus develop our source analysis skills. Crafting, placing and organising the various artefacts was an engaging way to review information in preparation for the exam.

Similarly, the tomb was also a learning experience for the Year 7 HSIE classes, as they were able to view the tomb, and virtually scan artefacts using their phones in order to learn more information about each one. The Year 7 classes were also given a worksheet that they had to complete as they progressed through the tomb, the use of the virtual scanning as well as the worksheet resulted in an overall engaging and interesting experience. Students in year 7 shared that they found "it was very interesting and it was a fun experience" and that they “ liked how we could scan and interact".  

The reconstruction of Tutankhamun’s Tomb was a practical demonstration of the Year 11 class’ knowledge regarding the case study in the Ancient History course. The exhibition was an amalgamated learning experience for Year 7 as it provided them the opportunity to learn about the subject using both practical and theoretical applications simultaneously by engaging with the contents of the recreated tomb.

Year 11 AHI Authors: Lara Esaid, Gabriel Garcia, Madison Cameron, Clare Feiloakitohi, Shania Menezes, Sara Bhambak, Abbey Walker, Taylor Durnin, Jazlynn Klarich, Jack Latu.