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Egittologia e civiltà copta
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI "L'ORIENTALE"
Dati Generali
Periodo di attività
Syllabus
Obiettivi Formativi
EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the course, the student will have acquired the tools to identify and describe:
a) Theme I: the salient features of an Egyptian tomb and its changes over time, also in consideration of the different socio-cultural contexts;
b) Theme II: the categories of written documents and figurative documentation relating to the land of Punt, in order to understand its role in the Egyptian economy and culture, but also in the royal ideology;
c) Theme III: The theological evolution and socio-economic dynamics linked to the spread of Isis in the ancient Mediterranean.
ABILITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
The knowledge and methodological tools acquired must enable students to tackle the analysis of the different languages underlying the creation of private or royal documents, in the centers of political power as well as in marginal areas, but also to observe the emergence, over the centuries, of a personal religiosity that transforms and multiplies the roles of the divinities originally connected with the legitimation and transmission of royal power.
FURTHER EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
A-Autonomy of judgment:
Methodologies and knowledge acquired will allow students to critically analyze the evidence of commercial exchanges, social relationships and cultural interactions between Ancient Egypt and Nubia in their regional network but also in the broader context of relations with the rest of the Mediterranean basin.
B-Communication skills:
The student will also be able to communicate fully and with adequate terminology - both orally and in written form - the knowledge acquired on the contents of the course and disseminate them at different levels and with different tools.
C-Learning skills:
Knowledge, evaluation and communication skills will also allow the student to update the skills acquired and follow scientific progress in their area of interest, providing them with the opportunity to undertake and conduct their own research and independently process the results.
Prerequisiti
The course includes a small amount of reading of short texts in hieroglyphics, so a basic knowledge of the writing system and ancient Egyptian language would be useful. In any case, the teacher will provide the content of the texts also in translation.
Metodi didattici
The course will be divided into two parts: lectures by the teacher, which will cover 4/5 of the course, and a series of seminars organised by the students.
The lectures aim to:
a) accompany students through the learning process, using a rich array of illustrations on all the topics covered in the course, combining thematic lectures with moments of reflection on methodological aspects of research;
b) explore topics only partially addressed in the reference texts, stimulating students' interest in recent Egyptological and archaeological topics;
c) stimulate and guide students in their choice of topics for further study, including specific articles, to be conducted individually or in groups, the results of which will be presented in seminars held at the end of the course;
d) In addition to lectures, study visits will be organised, depending on student availability, to the Egyptian collection and the Pompeii and Herculaneum section of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and to other “Egyptological” sites and museums in Campania.
Verifica Apprendimento
Exams will be oral and will cover the entire programme; the seminar lesson given by the student will also be taken into account for the assessment.
Generally, students will be asked three questions:
a) a topic of their choice, from which to start the discussion:
b) a question on one of the topics covered in the course;
c) description, recognition and chronological and cultural placement of a find, a funerary monument or a site discussed by the teacher in the course or in a textbook from a photograph.
Other questions may be asked if necessary, to clarify uncertain points or correct inaccuracies.
The exam will normally be held in English, but, in case of special needs of the student, it may also be held in Italian.
Testi
Topic I:
Buzon, M.R., S.T. Smith, Tumuli at Tombos: Innovation, Tradition, and Variability in Nubia during the Early Napatan Period, African Archaeological Review 40, 2023, pp.:621–646
Dodson, R., S. Ikram, The Tomb in Ancient Egypt. Royal and Private Sepulchres from the Early Dynastic Period to the Romans, AUC Press, 2008, Introduction, chapters III and V.
Lemos, R., Egyptian Art in Colonized Nubia: Representing Power and Social Structure in the New Kingdom Tombs of Djehutyhotep, Hekanefer and Pennut, Arts 13, 2024, https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040118
Smith, S.T., M.R. Buzon, Colonial encounters at New Kingdom Tombos: Cultural entanglements and hybrid identity, in N. Spencer, M. Binder, A. Stevens (eds.), Nubia in the New Kingdom: Lived experience, pharaonic control and local traditions, Peeters, Leuven, 615-630.
Topic II:
Bard, K.A., Fattovich, R., Seafaring Expeditions to Punt in the Middle Kingdom. Excavations at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, Egypt, Leiden - Boston: Brill.
Manzo, A. Punt in Egypt and Beyond. Comments on the impact of maritime activities of the 12th Dynasty in the Red Sea on Egyptian crafts with some historical and ideological thoughts, Ägypten und Levante 21, 2011, 71-85.
Manzo, A., Bi3w Pwnt in the archaeological record. Preliminary results and perspective of research. In I. Micheli (ed.), Cultural and Linguistic Transition explored Proceedings of the ATrA closing workshop Trieste, May 25-26, 2016, Trieste: EUT, Edizioni Università di Trieste 2017, 87-108.
Manzo, A., Back to Mahal Teglinos: New Pharaonic Evidence from Eastern Sudan, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 106, 2020, 89-104.
Manzo, A., Exotic ceramics: Nubian, Eritrean and South Arabian ceramics, in K.A. Bard, R. Fattovich, A. Manzo, Harbor of the Pharaohs to the Land of Punt II: Archaeological Investigations at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, Egypt, 2006-2011, Napoli: UniOr Press 2021, 233-243.
Manzo, A., Between exchanges, interactions, and entanglements. The Egyptians and the others at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, in G. Miniaci, C. Greco, P. Del Vesco, M. Mancini, C. Alù (eds.), Ancient Egypt and the surrounding world: contact, trade and influence: studies presented to Marilina Betrò, Pisa: Pisa University Press 2024, 23-32.
Pirelli, R., Two new stelae from Mersa Gawasis, Revue d'Egyptologie 58, 2007, 59-81.
Pirelli, R., Attività commerciali e momenti del culto a Mersa Gawasis”. In: (a cura di): Pernigotti S. - Zecchi M. (a cura di), Atti del Terzo Colloquio di Egittologia e di Antichità Copte, Imola, 2008, 9-25.
Pirelli, R., Epigraphic Documents from Mersa Gawasis: a Reassessment. In: (a cura di): F. Raffaele, M. Nuzzolo, I. Incordino (eds) , Proceedings of the First Neapolitan Congress of Egyptology. (Napoli, 18-20 giugno 2008), Wiesbaden Harrassowitz 2010, 237-244.
Pirelli, R., Sahura's and Hatshepsut's Punt Reliefs in Comparison, in M. Nuzzolo, J. Crejci (eds.), The rise and development of solar cult and architecture in Ancien Egypt, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2021,181-197.
Topic III:
De Caro, S., La scoperta, il santuario, la fortuna, in S. De Caro (ed.), Alla ricerca di Iside. Analisi, studi e restauri dell'iseo pompeiano nel Museo di Napoli, Arti S.p.A. 1992, 3-21.
Manzo, A. 2006. Apedemak and Dionysos. Further remarks on the "cult of wine" in Kush, Sudan & Nubia. 10, 82-94.
Onderka, P., The Isis Temple at Wad Ben Naga (WBN 300), Sudan & Nubia 27, 2023, 188-206.
Pirelli, R., Iside verso l’Impero: metamorfosi di una dea, in N. Borrelli (ed.), Ana Sulmani. Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of Simonetta Graziani, UniorPress - Series Minor XCIX, 2022, 337-350.
Pirelli, R:, The Imperial Iseum in Benevento and its Zoomorphic Gods, in R. Pirelli, D. Pubblico, S. Ikram (eds.), Animals in Religion, Economy and Daily Life of Ancient Egypt and beyond, Proceedings of the International Conference (Naples 15-17 June 2022), Serie Egittologica 4, UNIOR, 2023, 311-330.
Pirelli, R., Priests carrying ‘Osiris-Canopus/Hydreios’: from Alexandria to the Imperial Isea outside Egypt: Preliminary considerations, in G. Miniaci, C. Greco, P. Del Vesco, M. Mancini, C. Alù (eds), Egypt in Ancient and Modern Tales, Travels and Explorations. Studies presented to Marilina Betrò, Pisa: Pisa University Press 2024, 79-87.
Yellin, J.W., Nubian Religion, in M.M. Fisher, P. Lacovara, S. Ikram, S. D’Auria (eds.), Ancient Nubia. African Kingdoms on the Nile, Cairo: AUC Press 2012, 125-144.
Contenuti
The course aims to introduce the study of three topics of Egyptological research which, in line with what is stated in the title, have the objective of providing the geographical and historical coordinates to place Egypt in the broader cultural context of ancient Africa and the Mediterranean.
The topics are:
a) funerary uses,
b) the evidence of cultural and commercial exchanges along the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean,
c) Egyptian deities and the spread of their cults outside Egypt.
They will be dealt with in parallel and in an integrated manner by the two teachers, in order to provide a broad picture of the plurality and complexity of the cultural contexts involved in the dynamics and phenomena.
As for the first topic, the focus will be on the private tombs and their evolution over time. Particular emphasis will be given to the methodology of iconological analysis of the complex figurative system of a non-royal Egyptian burial. At the same time, the complexity of the funerary evidence in Nubia during the 2nd millennium BCE will be highlighted, in the attempt of reading it in the light of the dynamics of cultural hybridization typical of that context.
The second topic will focus on sites, monuments and documents related to the trade expeditions that the Egyptians conducted since the mid-3rd millennium BC towards Punt on the Red Sea, a land not yet identified, but whose importance for the Egyptian economy is made evident by numerous documents of various nature, found for the most part at the sites of Mersa Gawasis and Wadi Gasus on the Red Sea (investigated since 2001 by a mission of the Orientale University) and by a monumental representation of the mid-2nd millennium BCE. Archaeological evidence from the regions south of Egypt will also be examined, with particular reference to the identification of the exchanged materials and the study of their circulation.
The third topic will address the analysis of the evolution of a goddess, Isis, who became a fundamental figure of the Pantheon over the three millennia of Egyptian history: her cult experienced a great diffusion across the Mediterranean starting from the Ptolemaic period and then especially during the Roman Empire. The study of the Nubian Isis will allow us to follow the goddess's footsteps to sub-Saharan Africa. Her role in the Meroitic Pantheon will be pointed out alongside other deities also characterized by syncretistic processes that will bring us back to the Mediterranean, such as Apedemak.
Topic I:
1. Introduction to funerary ideology and the nature of tombs;
2. The figurative and textual programme of New Kingdom tombs;
3. New Kingdom tombs in Nubia as places of identity negotiation;
4. The end of the New Kingdom in Nubia, between continuity and innovation ... or restoration?
Topic II:
1. Introduction to the studies in Punt and to the site of Mersa/Wadi Gawasis;
2. Stelae, seals and other written documents from Mersa/Wadi Gawasis
3. A journey from the port inland in search of water and minerals through texts and depictions between Mersa/Wadi Gawasis and Wadi Gasus;
4. Sailing to Punt to the quest for its wonderful things .. from the Puntites;.
5. The depiction of the portico of Punt in the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahari.
Topic III:
1. Pharaonic Isis: roles, epithets and places of worship;
2. Ptolemaic Isis and the new forms of Hellenistic Isis;
3. Isis in the temples of Campania during the Imperial period;
4. Nubian Isis before Meroe. A first syncretism?
5. Isis, the great goddess of the Meroitic pantheon.
Lingua Insegnamento
English
Altre informazioni
Three theoretical-practical workshops, to be held between the first and second semesters, have already been planned to supplement and consolidate the knowledge and skills that students will acquire during the course:
a) Workshop on Myths of the Afterlife: images, places and symbols, which will allow students to explore the complex themes of magical and funerary texts and the myths underlying them: First semester: January-February 2027;
b) Middle Egyptian Workshop, which will provide an opportunity for practical exercises in reading, transliteration and translation of short texts in Middle Egyptian: Second semester: April-May 2027 ;
c) Workshop on cataloguing Egyptian artefacts from the collection of the Archaeological Museum of Naples: Second semester: April-May 2027.