Online ESOL Resources at the UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

UCL News

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology has worked with four ‘English for Speakers of Other Languages’ (ESOL) tutors to write resources for self-directed visits to the museum aimed at Entry 3 and Level One ESOL learners and their tutors. The information packs are designed for use in the museum, as well as include tutors’ notes, and worksheets with material divided into sections to be used before, during, and after the visit respectively. There are currently packs on three topics available for downloading from their web site: ‘Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt’, ‘Cultural Diversity’ and ‘Islamic Art and Culture’. The ESOL packs are a new addition to the Museum’s existing set of resources for school and university teaching.

The Petrie Museum is a world-class collection of over 80,000 objects from prehistoric to Islamic Egypt and Sudan, making it one of the greatest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology in the world. Among the unique elements of the collection are items used by ancient Egyptians in four millennia of daily life, such as tools, calendars, toys made from the mud of the Nile, rat traps, clothing, jewellery, hairpins, kohl pots, and rush sandals. Much of it comes from documented excavations, and the extensive typological series of objects provide an excellent insight into how people have lived and died in the Nile Valley. The collection also includes a number of significant costumes, and outstanding works of art from Akhenaten’s city at Amarna, and from many other important Egyptian and Nubian settlements and burial sites. The museum houses the world’s largest collection of Roman period mummy portraits (first to second centuries AD).