Scythian History Co-op. Week 6: Burial Mounds

Week 6: We made Scythian burial mounds.

The Scythians believed in an afterlife and buried their dead in mounds with many objects they would need. Jewelry, clothes, combs, tools, horses, saddles, riding gear, tamgas, helmets, armor, weapons, shields, hammers, axes, bow, arrow, and spears have all been found in burial mounds. Statues of horses and other objects have been found on the tops of many mounds.

Frozen Scythian Burial Mounds

A burial mound was created placing various objects into a bowl with colored water. The bowl was then frozen since most Scythian burial mounds have been found frozen in Kazakhstan.

Pretending to be archaeologists, the kids had to figure out how to thaw out their mound without damaging the contents. Archaeologists pour water on the mounds and that is what the kids decided to do. Inside their mound they found tools, horses, jewels and arrows.

Scythian Burial Mounds
First, a paper mache dome was constructed using a ball to give the mound it's form.

The mounds were painted to look like earth.

And statues were created for the tops as these have typically been found on domes.


To read more about our history activities click on one of the cultures below.
Celts
Vikings
Scythians
Ancient China






This post is linked to:
Adventures in Mommydom
All Things Beautiful
We Made That Wednesday

12 comments:

  1. That is awesome!! So creative!!

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  2. What an interesting project, and how wonderful for your children to be spending their early years exploring Europe!

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  3. Thanks for linking up to the Afterschool Party. This is such a hands on experience, I love it and I'm sure your kids did too.

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  4. Wow, this is amazing. I am originally from Russia, so I had to translate Scythian back into Russian to understand who you are talking about :) I didn't know that their mounds are found frozen - I learned something new today reading Afterschool posts.

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  5. I had never learned of these, thanks for sharing your activity with us at tip toe thru tuesday!
    Kim

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  6. That looks like a fun and memorable project!

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  7. Amazing.. The kids must have had so much fun making them!
    Here from the Hop.

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  8. What an amazing unit study! Thanks so much for linking up with Montessori Monday. I pinned your post to my Kids' History Activities at http://pinterest.com/debchitwood/kids-history-activities/

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  9. This is an awesome set of projects. Thanks for linking up.

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  10. Now, I'm trying to place the Scythians in history, if I'm remembering correctly it's somewhere around Roman time, first century.

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    1. Oh, and I'm kind of amazed you haven't hit ancient Egypt yet, you've done almost EVERY other ancient group.

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    2. That's right. They were the horse people of central Asia. The Centaur is believed to be inspired by the Scythians (half man, half horse). I wrote a little more about them in our first Scythian post. Before studying them, I hadn't even heard of them. I love homeschooling! - http://highhillhomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/01/scythian-history-co-op-week-1-cookie.html

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