HISTORY DETECTIVE: Death of Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut- Primary Source Analysis

Another installment of HISTORY DETECTIVE. This time, students will tackle the unexplained death and then social disappearance of Ancient Egypt's Queen Hatshepsut. After analyzing sources, annotating the documents, and weighing evidence, your detectives will make a claim and defend their claim regarding Queen Hatshepsut's death and legacy.


BACKGROUND: Hatshepsut was a royal princess, the eldest daughter of the great general Tuthmosis I and his consort Queen Ahmose. Pharaoh Hatshepsut enjoyed a peaceful and prosperous reign. She built magnificent temples, protected Egypt's borders and masterminded a highly profitable trading mission to the mysterious land of Punt. She should have been feted as one of the most successful of the 18th Dynasty kings. Not everyone, however, was impressed by her achievements. The female king vanished from Egyptian history.

Soon after her death in 1457 BC, Hatshepsut's monuments were attacked, her statues dragged down and smashed and her image and titles defaced. The female king vanished from Egyptian history. She would remain lost until, almost three thousand years later, modern Egyptologists reconstructed her damaged inscriptions and restored her to her rightful dynastic place.

The Egyptians believed that the spirit could live beyond the grave, but only if some remembrance - a body, a statue, or even a name - of the deceased remained in the land of the living. Hatshepsut had effectively been cursed with endless death. Who could have done such a terrible thing, and why?


PDF Document Packet Includes:
- EVIDENCE: Sources, accommodated and adjusted to be suitable for middle school reading level. All documents have been shortened, some language adjusted for Lexiles of 700-1100.
- DETECTIVE NOTEBOOK: Space on each page for your detectives to annotate the documents and take notes on each source.
- BRAINSTORM: Detectives will be prompted to pause and reflect after the first 4 sources so you, as the teacher, can track their thinking.
- BRIEFING ROOM PRESENTATION: After analyzing each source, Detectives will have to write a briefing room presentation, just like a real detective. In this presentation, students will have to make a claim, then defend their claim using evidence from the text. This Briefing Room Presentation is their extended response (essay response) and must include evidence from the documents to support their claim.
*All items above in one lesson packet for a seamless, smooth flow (PDF file).

My 7th and 8th graders love this take on the traditional DBQ! I'm sure yours will, too.

You may choose to add to the student engagement by:
1. Purchasing a roll of yellow "CAUTION" tape from Home Depot ($6-$10) and make your classroom look like an actual crime scene. Primary source analysis has never been so much fun!

2. Calling your students "Detective (last name)" during the class to make it seem like they are real detectives.

3. Purchasing magnifying glasses at Dollar Tree (3 to a pack) and hand those out as prizes for students who participate early in the lesson.

4. "Paying" the detectives with Hundred Grand bars as they share their Briefing Room Presentations with the class.



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