What does your mom say when you track dirt into the house after playing outside? She might say something like, “Hey! Wipe your feet! You’re bringing dirt into the house!” A long time ago, people brought dirt into their houses all the time. In fact, their houses were actually made of soil! This is still true in some parts of the world.
In ancient times, people didn’t have the same building materials we do today. They didn’t have machines to help them build their homes. They had to use what was available to them when building their shelters.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
How was soil important to people in the past?
Some ancient people lived in the area of the Nile River in Egypt. Every year, the Nile River would flood, bringing rich, black soil over the banks of the river. That’s what the people used to grow crops. But they also used that soil in the form of dried mud to build their homes.
WORDS to KNOW
crop: a plant grown for food and other uses.
Ancient Egyptian houses made of dried mud had flat roofs. Some of the homes were simple huts. Others were built in groups up to three stories tall. These were the first cities, all made out of mud! Small windows in the mud walls helped keep the homes cool.
To this day, in other parts of the world such as Afghanistan, some people build their houses made of dried mud.
Ancient people who lived thousands of years ago didn’t have computers. They didn’t even have paper for books. What did they use to record things? Soil, of course!
The area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers is called Mesopotamia. More than 5,000 years ago, the people living there created a form of writing. It didn’t look like the letters you know today. It was based on pictures, called pictograms. They wrote with these pictograms on slabs of clay called tablets.
They rolled the clay into a flat tablet, then used a sharp stick or stone to carve pictograms into the wet clay. When it dried, the clay hardened and the tablet could be saved and shared.
Through time, people gradually changed the pictures into a letter-based script called cuneiform. These letters were wedge-shaped and became the first written language.
WORDS to KNOW
Mesopotamia: an area of ancient civilization between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now called Iraq, Kuwait, and Syria.
civilization: a community of people that is advanced in art, science, and government.
pictograms: the symbols in the first written languages, based on pictures instead of letters.
cuneiform: a system of wedge-shaped letters created by ancient civilizations.
The clay tablets were so sturdy that many have survived more than 5,000 years. Scientists have even found some that they think were created as long ago as 3300 BCE! You can see cuneiform writing on these clay tablets.
WORDS to KNOW
BCE: put after a date, BCE stands for Before Common Era and counts years down to zero. CE stands for Common Era and counts years up from zero. The year this book was published is 2015 CE.
MIX IT UP
Ancient people did more with soil than build homes and use it to write on. They also used it to make pots, plates, and cups for their food.
Humans began making pottery out of clay as early as 6000 BCE. The first pots look like lumps of clay with big dents pushed into the tops. To make the pots last, they were heated over fire.
Through time, the pots got fancier and humans developed the potter’s wheel, which they could spin while they molded the shape. Before their pots dried, potters could carve patterns into the clay. Dried pottery was often painted with designs, too.
One really interesting thing that scientists do with soil is use it to solve crimes! This is called soil forensics. Special investigators use science to figure out what happened in a crime.
Because areas of soil are different, scientists can learn a lot just by examining it closely. You can, too. Try collecting bits of soil from different areas, such as the park, the beach, the forest, and your back yard. Look at the samples under a microscope or magnifying glass. Although the samples might look the same or similar when you’re looking at them with just your eyes, when they’re magnified they look very different.
That’s because of the different components that make up the soil. Different soils contain different minerals and bacteria. Soils are formed differently in different climates depending on the plants that grow there and the insects that live in it. With soil forensics, it’s as if investigators can see the soil’s “fingerprint.” Soil can give them clues about a crime. The bad guys can’t beat the soil scientists!
WORDS to KNOW
forensics: using scientific methods to investigate and solve a crime.
component: an important part of a system or mixture.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
Now it’s time to consider and discuss the Essential Question: How was soil important to people in the past?
CLAY POT
You can easily make a coil pot in the same way that ancient people did. Don’t put any food in yours, though. The clay you get at craft stores isn’t made to safely hold food for eating.
SUPPLIES
clay that can be air-dried or baked dry
plastic wrap or damp dishtowel
water mister filled with water
paints and paintbrush
1 Roll the clay around and squish it with your hands to soften it.
2 Break off a lump and make a flat circle about 3 inches in diameter. This is for the base of your pot. Wrap the base in plastic wrap or the damp dishtowel to keep it from drying out while you work on the rest of your pot.
3 Using a large piece of clay, roll it out into the shape of a long snake. Keep it about a half inch diameter or a little narrower.
4 Unwrap your base and lay the end of the snake around the outside of the circle. Wind the snake around and around, coiling it up on top of itself to build the sides of the pot. If you run out of snake and want your pot taller, make another snake and continue where you left off.
5 When your pot is the size you want, spray a little water on the sides and smooth the coils together to make the sides solid. You can do both the inside and the outside, or just one side of the pot, depending on how you want it to look. Be sure to seal the sides to the base.
6 To make a lid, make a circle the same size as the opening at the top of the pot. Make a handle for the lid if you’d like. Don’t attach the lid permanently to the pot while it’s drying, or else you’ll never be able to get it open!
7 Let the pot dry according to the directions on the package of clay. When it’s cool and dry, you can paint your pot.
TRY THIS! Can you think of a way to make clay pots other than making a “snake”? Ancient people kept changing and improving the ways they made things. Experiment with different methods of your own!
WHAT IS A MESOPOTAMIAN’S FAVORITE AFTER-SCHOOL SNACK?
Picto-Gram Crackers!
MUD BRICKS
It would take a lot of these little bricks to build a real house, but you could probably make a nice house for an action figure with this project!
SUPPLIES
soil
large bowl
water
food coloring
ice cube tray
1 Put a couple of cups of soil in the bowl and start adding water a little at a time. You’re making mud, but you don’t want it to be so wet that it won’t hold its shape. Add enough water so that it’s not crumbly, but will hold its shape if you pick some up and squeeze it in your fist.
2 If you want to add food coloring, do it now and mix it together. It won’t make bright colors, but it will look different from the regular soil.
3 Once you have the thickness you want, scoop the mud evenly into the ice cube tray compartments. Pack it down very tightly. If it’s too loose, it won’t hold its shape.
4 Let the mud dry for a few hours or overnight. Carefully flip the tray over to get your mud bricks out. Start building!
THINK ABOUT IT: Why did ancient people use mud to make their bricks? What other materials could they have used? If you were to build a home today, what materials would you use and how are they different from the ones used in the past? What natural materials could you use?
CUNEIFORM NAME
With this project, you can see what it was like for ancient people to carefully write their own names!
SUPPLIES
Internet access
clay that can be air-dried or baked
rolling pin
pencil or other pointed stick
paints and paintbrush
1 Roll out a piece of clay about an inch thick.
2 Search online for a cuneiform alphabet. With the pencil carve your name into the flattened clay using your alphabet as a guide. Traditionally ancient people wrote up and down instead of side to side the way we do today.
KEYWORD PROMPTS
cuneiform, alphabet, images 
3 Poke a hole in the top center of your tablet and let it dry according to the directions. Paint your tablet and hang your work for display!
TRY THIS! Can you come up with your own alphabet? Maybe you can use simple shapes for each letter. Come up with your own “code” and write your name. Then see if a friend or family member can use your alphabet to write their name!
Read a lesson description and see an actual school tablet at the British Museum’s website.
KEYWORD PROMPTS
cuneiform schoolwork