Death and Burial: Roman Burial Practices (GCSE Classical Civilisation)

This lesson is designed with OCR’s GCSE Classical Civilisation unit: Myth and Religion

The lesson is comprehensive in its inclusion of everything the GCSE specification requires:

How wealth and status affected burial in Ancient Rome
Preparation of the body
Funerary procession
Burial of the body
Festivals for the dead and ancestors

Also, primary sources such as Pliny and Ovid are included and clearly signposted for students.

Thinking questions (to be answered verbally or in written form are included) as are exam questions at the end, in addition to a short video where Mary Beard looks at Roman tombs lining the road into Rome.

Everything my students needed to know is included and they seemed to really enjoy it and engage with it. It’s presented using the principles of dual coding to reduce cognitive load - ensuring that excess ‘noise’ on the PowerPoint does not prove a barrier to knowledge acquisition and retention.

Thanks for taking a look :)