54
Egyptian Studies and Coptic Civilisation
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI "L'ORIENTALE"
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
The course aims to introduce students to Egyptology as a discipline that deals with Ancient Egypt as a whole, from its earliest stages to the end of the Pharaonic period, providing them with the knowledge and methodological tools necessary to approach its study with a critical eye. A significant section will be devoted to ways of accessing the basic bibliography, as well as more specific works useful for dealing with a first level of individual and autonomous research and to facilitate the preparation of the three-year term paper.
Students will also be able to acquire the tools (grammars, vocabularies, writing program for hieroglyphics) to access the reading, transliteration and translation of short texts in hieroglyphic (Middle Egyptian).
FURTHER RESULTS
A-Autonomy of judgment:
Meodologies and acquired knowledge will enable students to critically apply tools of judgment to contexts, monuments and documents related to Ancient Egypt even outside the specific field of funerary archaeology.
B-Communicative skills:
The student will also be able to communicate fully and with appropriate terminology-both in oral and written form-the knowledge acquired about the course content and disseminate it at different levels and with different tools.
C-Learning skills:
Knowledge, evaluation and communication skills will also provide the student with the ability to enter higher levels of education, i.e., in master's degree programs in archaeology and other master's degrees, or to address the world of work - in professions related to the field of popularization and conservation of cultural heritage.
Course Prerequisites
For Egyptology students, it may be useful to include in the curriculum the course Archaeology of the Nile Valley in order to frame the history and cultures of ancient Egypt in the broader context of the African cultures of the Nile Valley. Taking this course is not a prerequisite nor is it mandatory, but it may be included in one of the student's three years of choice.
Teaching Methods
The teacher's lessons aim to:
(a) accompany the student through the learning stages, also using a rich set of illustrations on all course topics, combining thematic lectures with moments of reflection on methodological aspects of research;
b) delve into topics covered only partially in the textbook, stimulating students' interest in recent acquisitions in archaeological research in Egypt and suggesting readings to be done in class;
(c) stimulating interest in current issues in Egyptological research - including pointing out specific chapters in the textbook and a few dedicated articles - in order to facilitate the choice of possible individual insights, to be developed for the examination and/or for the bachelor's thesis.
Study visits to the Egyptian collection of the National Archaeological Museum in Naples and to other "Egyptological" sites and museums in Campania will be associated with the lectures and according to students' availability.
Assessment Methods
Examinations will be oral and will cover the entire program.
Generally, the student is offered three questions:
(a) topic of choice, from which to start the discussion:
(b) a question on one of the course topics;
(c) recognition, description and contextualisation of a find, monument or site from an image presented by the teacher during the course or included in the textbook.
Other questions may be asked as needed to define uncertain points or correct inaccuracies.
The examination will normally be held in Italian, but, in case of special needs of the student, it may also be held in English, French or Spanish.
Texts
- PDF of the lessons with notes and exercises (provided by the teacher)
- I. Shaw, The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, Oxford University Press 2000.
- J. P. Allen, Middle Egyptian : An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, Cambridge University Press 2010 (only chapters related to topics covered in the course).
NON-ATTENDANT students may substitute the notes and chapters of the grammar book with:
• E. Hornung, Gli dei dell'antico Egitto, Salerno Editrice 1992.
Contents
Introduction to the history and archaeology of ancient Egypt and the classical language of Pharaonic Egypt.
Students will acquire a basic knowledge of the history, archaeology and classical language of Pharaonic Egypt, as well as issues related to the study of ancient Egypt and the main tools for analysing it. To this end, the course is divided into three sections:
a) an introductory section illustrating the main historical, cultural and socio-economic aspects;
b) an in-depth section dedicated to monumental evidence and material culture;
c) a section dedicated to writing systems (hieroglyphic, hieratic, demotic, Coptic) and the study of the classical language of Pharaonic Egypt, Middle Egyptian.
Detailed program:
Part I:
1. Historical background and issues related to the study of Pharaonic Egypt.
2. The country, its resources, geography and geomorphology
3. Cosmogonies and cosmologies; royal ideology; funerary uses
Part II:
Introduction to Egyptian archaeology
- For each of the major periods of Egyptian history (1. Predynastic Period and Old Kingdom; 2. 1st Intermediate Period, Middle Kingdom, and 2nd Intermediate Period; 3. New Kingdom; 4. 3rd Intermediate Period and Late Epoch), after a historical and cultural background and the presentation of the major political and administrative centers distributed throughout the Egyptian territory, the following topics will be covered, which are intended to introduce the student to Egyptian archaeology:
o The elements of architecture
o The buildings of worship
o The necropolis, tombs; grave goods (funerary statuettes, stelae, objects of daily use, daily and ritual pottery; sarcophagi and mummies, amulets)
o Statuary in tombs and temples
Part III:
Introduction to Middle Egyptian:
- Elements of Grammar;
- Language exercises, with reading, transliteration and translation of short texts.
Course Language
Italian
More information
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: November-December 2025)
b) Middle Egyptian Workshop, which will provide an opportunity for practical exercises in reading, transliteration and translation of short texts in Middle Egyptian: First semester: December 2025-January 2026;
c) Workshop on cataloguing Egyptian artefacts from the collection of the Archaeological Museum of Naples (Master's degree - Second semester: April-May 2026)