HIST 279 - Deciphering Ancient Egypt, Part 2

Credits: (3)
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 343 or CLCV 209 or HIST 278 or RELG 278
College Curriculum: COLL 200
Domain (Anchored): CSI
Domain (Reaching Out): ALV

This spring-semester course continues the survey of ancient Egyptian cultural history that we began during the fall semester in COLL 200 “Deciphering Ancient Egypt” (Part 1); completion of that course is therefore a prerequisite for enrollment in this one. Whereas the fall-semester course focused upon the foundational aspects of Egyptian cultural history during the Old and Middle Kingdoms, this spring-semester course will instead challenge the popular view of Egyptian culture as static by highlighting the innovations of the New Kingdom through the Late Period, when Egypt underwent rapid theological, demographic, and economic transformations that resulted in an increasingly cosmopolitan society and a crisis of collective identity. Students will continue to develop their basic understanding of Egypt’s hieroglyphic writing system in order to access the many layers of meaning conveyed in the art and literature of this era. So radical were the changes to the human condition during the first millennium BCE that a leading Egyptologist has even referred to Egypt’s New Kingdom as the “threshold to the modern world!”
Cross-listed with: ANTH 344 and CLCV 210 and RELG 279