EGYPT & THE CLASSICS CURRICULUM: MILLER & HADAVAS (con't.)

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Robert Partridge concludes his book, Fighting Pharaohs: Weapons and Warfare in Ancient Egypt, with the following comments: “Egypt’s direct contact with so many of the world’s emerging cultures around the Mediterranean, and her influence on them, means that there is an almost-unbroken link from the ancient world, through the Classical world and right up to the present day...” (p. 306). Egyptology, therefore, is not the isolated study of a distant and esoteric culture relative to the “West”, but a discipline which is fundamentally related to Classical Studies.

It is clear from the previous paragraphs that Egyptian language and civilization are an integral part of our minor at Beloit College. Egyptian Civilization, Egyptian Art and Archaeology, and Egyptian language courses at the introductory and intermediate levels, have allowed us to expand and develop our Ancient Mediterranean Studies minor into one that not only extends the chronological limits of the ancient Mediterranean world but also provides interesting new perspectives for Classics students (and faculty!), especially with regard to the Hellenistic and Greco-Roman worlds (in which Egypt played such a prominent role). Listed below are the Egyptian language and civilization courses currently taught at Beloit College:

II. Ancient Egyptian Civilization (14-15 Weeks)
This course gives the student an overview of life in the Nile Valley from approximately 5000 B.C.E. to the Greco-Roman Period. It examines several topics central to the study of ancient Egypt, emphasizing elements of Predynastic Egypt, the Archaic Period, and the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms (ca 5000 - 1200 B.C.E.). The course consists of two major series of lectures: (1) ‘Relevant Background Information’ which includes geography and climate, a general time line of the predynastic, dynastic, and post dynastic periods, the system of writing, various genres of ancient Egyptian literature, and major aspects of the religion; and (2) ‘Dynastic Studies’, which develops a more detailed time line by discussing archaeological data, art, architecture, and “historical” writings by the ancient Egyptians themselves.

Beloit College offers this class biennially with attendance averaging 20-25 students. Majors from most departments are represented.

III. Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture (14-15 Weeks)
This course examines the art and architecture of ancient Egypt within the context of several widely held art-historic views concerning the ancient Egyptians in particular and other ancient cultures in general. By reading texts and scholarly articles specific to ancient Egypt the students study many individual works of ancient Egyptian art and architecture ranging from Predynastic Egypt to the Greco-Roman Period. They do so within the framework of the following assertions: (1) Egyptian art was functional -- there was no notion of “art for art’s sake”; (2) Egyptian art was “unchanging” (i.e. it is recognizable as Egyptian throughout the 3000+ years of ancient Egyptian history), and the “Principle of Maat” and “Principle of Substitution” governed this apparent permanence; (3) There was no ancient Egyptian word for ‘art’, ‘artist’, or ‘painter’ -- the important words were ‘craft’ and ‘scribe’. The students also read several art-historical articles concerned with the art of several non-Egyptian ancient cultures.

Based upon the above background information the students participate in panel discussions and write essays concerning questions like the following: (1) What do we mean when we claim that art is functional? (2) If the function changes, does the art change and if so, what aspects of the art actually change? (3) Is ancient Egyptian art really static? (4) What do we mean by terms like “perspective” and “characteristic aspect”? (5) What is the relationship of the art and architecture of ancient Egypt to its hieroglyphic writing system? (6) Does Alwyn Burridge’s biological explanation make sense as an explanation of Amarna art? (7) Does John Malcolm Russell’s analysis of Sennacherib’s Lachish narratives help us in analyzing the reliefs in the 5th Dynasty tomb of Ti or the reliefs in the 19th Dynasty tomb of Nefertari? (8) Can the analysis presented by Christopher Hallett in his paper, “The Origins of the Classical Style in Sculpture”, or Sheldon Nodelman’s argument in his article, “How to Read a Roman Portrait”, help us to understand the art of the Amarna Period?

Beloit College offers this class biennially with attendance averaging 10-20 students. Majors from most departments are represented.

IV. Egyptian Hieroglyphs I and II (Each Course, 14-15 Weeks)
This course teaches students the basic vocabulary and grammar of Middle Kingdom (classical) ancient Egyptian writing, and also familiarizes them with the standard offering formulae, the basic five-fold titulary, and the various methods of dating which allow one to quickly read texts commonly found in museums around the world and at many monumental sites in Egypt. During the course we discuss several important concepts relative to the study of writing in general. We also examine the five stages of ancient Egyptian writing (Old, Middle & Late Egyptian, Demotic, Coptic) in addition to the four kinds of ancient Egyptian scripts (Hieroglyphic, Hieratic, Demotic, Coptic). The course also provides a historical background for the decipherment of the hieroglyphs, and briefly examines the history of modern methodologies for teaching ancient Egyptian grammar by comparing Sir Alan Gardiner’s somewhat “Indo-European” Egyptian Grammar with the more “Semitic” approach of H. J. Polotsky and James Hoch.

Upon successful completion of the two-semester course the student will be able to competently translate various literary genres dating from the later Old Kingdom period to the earlier New Kingdom period. The ability to translate several genres of classical Middle Egyptian texts is the major goal of this course sequence.

Beloit College offers these classes annually and the first semester usually attracts about twenty students. The number of students continuing through second semester ranges from one to five. Majors from most departments are represented in both of these semesters. Students interested in continuing the study of the hieroglyphs may do so through the College’s Independent Study courses. Most students who have done this are Classics majors, although Mathematics and Anthropology majors have been known to take at least three semesters of hieroglyphs.

V. Conclusion
All of the courses in the study of ancient Egypt attract students from many different departments. Furthermore two students who have completed several courses in Egyptology at Beloit College are presently continuing graduate school studies in that field.

As discussed above, Egyptology is fundamentally related to Classics. It may be successfully integrated into an interdisciplinary minor as we have done with our Ancient Mediterranean Studies Minor at Beloit College. Consequently, cross-listings with several other departments such as Anthropology, Art History, History, International Studies, Museum Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religious Studies is quite “natural”. This, we believe, is extremely relevant to the goals of a liberal arts college.