Egyptian (EGYPT)

Terms offered: Fall 2025, Fall 2024, Fall 2023
This course introduces the fundamentals of the language and hieroglyphic script of Middle Egyptian used to write stories, poems, biographies and letters, magical spells, and eye-witness accounts of historical events from thousands of years ago. The study of this ancient language enables students to read the classics of Egyptian literature and understand the emergence and development of one of the world’s oldest writing systems, and the laws, customs, social structures, and religious beliefs of the ancient people of the Nile Valley. Lectures present the grammar and writing; much of the in-class time is devoted to the translating and close reading of texts, with a discussion of their cultural and historical context and meaning.
Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course introduces the fundamentals of the language and hieroglyphic script of Middle Egyptian used to write stories and poems, biographies and letters, magical spells, and eye-witness accounts of historical events from thousands of years ago. The study of this ancient language enables students to read the classics of Egyptian literature and understand the emergence and development of one of the world’s oldest writing systems, and the laws, customs, social structures, and religious beliefs of the ancient people of the Nile Valley. Lectures present the grammar and writing; much of the in-class time is devoted to the translating and close reading of texts, with a discussion of their cultural and historical context and meaning.
Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2016, Fall 2014
Readings in Middle Egyptian hieroglyphic and hieratic texts.
Intermediate Egyptian: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2019, Spring 2017, Spring 2015
Readings in Middle Egyptian hieroglyphic and hieratic texts.
Intermediate Egyptian: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2002, Fall 2000, Spring 1997
Introduction to Sahidic dialect.
Elementary Coptic: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2003, Spring 2001
Readings in Sahidic, other dialects.
Elementary Coptic: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Directed study centered upon preparation of an honors thesis.
Senior Honors: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Instruction in areas not covered by regularly scheduled courses.
Directed Group Study for Upper Division Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Enrollment is restricted by regulations shown in the .
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2022, Spring 2021
The course will be based on the reading, translation, grammatical and philological analysis of Middle Egyptian literary and magical texts. Readings include spells of the ancient Egyptian funerary corpora of the Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead, texts from stelae of the Middle Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom story of Sinuhe.
Middle Egyptian Texts: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2007, Fall 2005, Spring 2000
The course is designed as a continuation of Egypt 201A and will be based on the same type of reading, translation, grammatical and philological analysis of the Middle Egyptian literary and magical texts of 201A but requiring a deeper knowledge of the grammar and translation techniques. Readings will include magical spells for daily and funerary use, texts from stelae, the story of the “Eloquent Peasant” and extracts from the ancient Egyptian “Wisdom Literature.”
Middle Egyptian Texts: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2021, Spring 2020
Hieratic is the cursive form of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script, which was mostly written on papyrus and ostraca (potsherds used as a writing surface) with a brush and ink. This course introduces the Hieratic writing system used in Middle and Late Egyptian texts. The course will include reading, transcription, and translation of selected texts written in Hieratic, dating from the Old Kingdom to the Ramesside Period.
Hieratic: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2019, Spring 2018, Spring 2017
Philological analysis of texts of a single genre and period.
Egyptian Texts: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2022
This course is designed to introduce students to the study of Late Egyptian, a later stage of the ancient Egyptian language used in the New Kingdom from ca 1500 to 1000 BCE. This course will cover Late Egyptian grammar through reading and translating literary texts written in both hieroglyphic and Hieratic scripts, in particular, the main literary tales of the “Two Brothers” and “Wenamun” will be examined.
Late Egyptian: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2020
Demotic (derived from the Greek word demos, meaning "people") is the spoken and written language used by the people of Egypt during the Saite, Persian, Ptolemaic, and Roman periods (664 BCE–452 CE). Knowledge of this stage and script of the ancient language is essential for a proper understanding of Egypt during the later periods. After an introduction to the script and grammar (including non-verbal sentences and simple verbal forms), we will read and translate texts chosen from a wide variety of sources: mummy labels, inscribed votive stelae, liturgical, funerary, and magical texts, and oracles.
Introduction to Demotic: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021
This course builds upon material introduced in Egyptian 204A, continuing the study of Demotic (derived from the Greek word demos, meaning “people”), the stage of the ancient Egyptian language used by the people of Egypt during the Saite, Persian, Ptolemaic, and Roman periods (664 BCE-452 CE). Knowledge of this stage and script of the ancient language is essential for a proper understanding of Egypt during the later periods. Grammar covered this semester includes all forms of verbal sentences and clauses. We will read from a variety of genres, including oaths, marriage contracts, and literary, funerary, magical, and mythological texts. Students will obtain skills to transliterate, translate, and grammatically analyze Demotic texts.
Demotic Texts: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course introduces the hieroglyphic texts of the temples of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods--a time when an increase in the number of signs, and the values that they could hold, widened the scribal playing field for creating expressions that function on multiple aural, visual, and thematic levels. In addition to studying the language, grammar, content, and purpose of the texts, we will examine individual scribal techniques used to foreground words and phrases singled out for emphasis, showing how they create interconnections between texts, reliefs, and architecture in the three-dimensional space of the temple.
Ptolemaic Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts: Read More [+]