1. Visual Thinking Strategy:
- What do you see in the artworks?
- What do you see that makes you say so?
- What else do you notice?
2. This artwork is over 3000 years old. Just by looking at this artwork, which ancient culture do you think it is from?
- Egypt
3. Let’s take a closer look at the man on the left.
- What are some of the things you noticed about this man?
- How would you describe his outfit, hair, pose, and facial expression?
- What do these details suggest about him?
- This man is actually an Ancient Egyptian god. He is Kheperi, the god of the rising sun.
4. Can you try to make the pose he is making? This is a very typical pose in Egyptian art.
5. There’s something important on the man’s head, but only parts of it are visible. What do you think it is?
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It’s a scarab beetle, also known as the dung beetle!
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The Egyptians called the dung beetle “kheper,” and it became a symbol for Kheperi, the god of the rising sun.
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They believed that the god Kheperi rolled the sun across the sky. They thought the beetle rolling a ball of dung looked like the god Kheperi rolling the sun.
