Egyptology BA (Hons)

ALGY109 is designed as an introductory, level one module aiming to provide students with an overview of Ancient Egyptian history from prehistory to AD 395 both in its chronological development and in its environmental and geographical setting, including the fundamentals of the chronology of Ancient Egypt (including the limitations of available evidence), and a good awareness of how major archaeological sites and other forms of primary evidence fit within this framework.

This module provides first-year undergraduates with an understanding of the material culture of pharaonic Egypt, and the ways in which natural resources were utilised in a variety of types of craftwork, art and other aspects of material culture. The emphasis will be on the use of primary data (archaeological, visual and textual) to gain a better understanding of a range of classes of object produced by the Egyptians and the ways in which they inform us of the ways in which they regarded material culture. It will also give students a good awareness of the major types of ancient Egyptian object likely to be encountered in museums and archaeological sites. Each set of objects will be introduced by a lecture, providing students with an evidence-based overview. Practical museum classes will use objects in the Garstang Museum to allow students to identify specific materials and examine technological and artistic techniques.

What did it feel like to be an Ancient Egyptian? What did they think? How did they feel? What was important to them? It is often difficult to answer these questions from archaeology alone, and to really gain a deeper insight in Egyptian culture we also need to look at what they wrote, and how they wrote it. This course is an introduction to reading the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script and language, in the stage of the language called ‘Middle Egyptian’, which the Egyptians considered the ‘classic’ form of their language. It begins with teaching how to read the hieroglyphic script itself (e.g. sign values) before moving on reading whole words, and then on to cover basic Egyptian sentence structures (e.g. syntax). Students are taught to read certain selected inscription types (e.g. the offering formula), of the sort that are found on inscribed Egyptian objects in all major museums.

ALGY116 is designed as a year one module which aims to provide students with an overview of Ancient Egyptian culture. In particular it has as its core aim the development of students’ understanding of the broader thematic aspects of Egyptian society, such as writing, religion, art and social structure. The emphasis will be on the use of primary data (written and material culture), and on awareness of how major archaeological sites fit within this framework.

This module is the second semester continuation of our introduction to reading Ancient Egyptian (following on from ALGY128), focusing both on the hieroglyphic writing system and the Middle Egyptian phase of the Ancient Egyptian language. The student extends core vocabulary, and familiarity with a range of constructions in use, and completing survey of the tense system, and starts to develop a fluency in reading and translation through working with original hieroglyphic texts.

This module introduces students to the range of uses of writing in Ancient Egypt, considering monumental, literary, religious, and documentary (i.e. legal and administrative) genres of text. The module assumes a basic acquaintance with the Egyptian language, but the texts will be studied in English translation. The module will consist of lectures, and student-led seminars examining specific issues in the Egyptian written world.

ALGY101 introduces students to the concepts, methods and evidence that archaeologists use to study and interpret the past. Students gain core skills essential to building and evaluating knowledge about human material remains of the past.

This module introduces the history and society of the ancient Greek world, from the liberation of Athens from tyranny in the late sixth century BC through to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. The module offers students a foundation of knowledge in the history of events, as well as exploring a range of aspects of Greek society and culture, including the Greek ‘way of war’, sexuality and religion. It also introduces a range of sources for the study of ancient history, especially the two great Greek historywriters, Herodotus and Thucydides.

This module explores ancient Greek myth in its social, political, and religious contexts, focusing primarily on the Archaic and Classical periods (7th – 4th C BC). It thereby investigates the nature of myth and its role within Greek society, whilst providing insights into that society too. In the course of the module, students are introduced to a broad range of literary, artistic, and archaeological sources including epic poetry, tragedy, philosophy, sculpture, vase painting, coins and sanctuaries, and learn to use them as evidence for social history. The module closes with an examination of the importance of Greek myths other societies, including our own.

This module introduces students to the design and implementation of archaeological projects (and thereby research design more generally). It is concerned with how archaeological questions are addressed through projects, the practices involved in the various stages of archaeological projects, including desk-based assessment, mapping, data collection and analysis, field recording, excavation strategy, interpretation and site/heritage management planning. There is a strong practical element to the module which focusses on the planning and execution of a project relating to a cemetery in Liverpool.

This module deals with the history and society of Rome and the Roman world from the foundation of Rome to the end of the second century AD, i.e. the periods of the ‘Roman Republic’ and the ‘Principate’ (named after the princeps, a title of the Roman emperor). The aims are to provide (1) an introductory survey of the political and military history of Rome and the Roman empire; (2) to build a sound
chronological, geographical and conceptual framework for understanding the ancient Roman world; (3) to introduce students to reading primary sources in translation and evaluating their historical significance; (4) to introduce students to a limited range of scholarly views on ancient Roman history; and (5) to teach fundamental research skills.

The Epic poetry of Virgil and its literary, historical, and social contexts.

This course builds on the field experience you have gained as your end of Year 1 training, as we explore the process that follows activity in the field. We will examine the stages of post-excavation, and the creation of published and grey literature – that generated for archiving by many field archaeology professionals. The two assignments consider first your experiences on the fieldwork and what you have learnt, presented as a reflexive essay and other smaller components. The second assignment is where you use the skills gained during the teaching this semester to produce a grey literature style report on selected sets of deposits from the fieldwork.

This module builds on students’ knowledge of Middle Egyptian gained in the first year, and continues their instruction in Egyptian grammar. A range of texts are studied in the original, including funerary texts, literature and documentary texts.

How did the world begin? Who controls our universe – one god or many? What is the purpose of our being here in the world? Are the gods good? Are humans good? Why does evil exist? What happens after we die?

This module explores the fundamental ideas found in Egyptian religious belief, and studies their impact on Egyptian social structure. With an eye to broader anthropological theory, this module provides an in-depth look at textual, archaeological, and artefactual evidence to build up a rich portrait of the Egyptian intellectual universe – and sketches out their answers to the questions quoted above.

We cover gods, mythology, temples, rituals and priesthood, private expressions of religion, magic, concepts of death the soul and the afterlife, Egyptian religion and the influence of Greece and Rome, and the religion of the Amarna Period.

Teaching is lecture based, with tutorials covering specific questions.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS MODULE ASSUMES STUDENTS HAVE ALREADY STUDIED AT LEAST ONE EGYPTOLOGY MODULE IN YEAR 1 (either ALGY 109 or ALGY 116).

ALGY244 is designed to explore themes of how the ancient Egyptians viewed the world around them. In particular, it will look at the ways in which the Egyptians saw the presence and operation of the divine within the natural environment, and how they built structures (especially temples and tombs) which allowed contact between the living and other
spiritual entities (the gods, the dead). The module will especially emphasise the ways in which the Egyptians integrated notions of ‘sacred landscape’ into their everyday lives.

The module is organised around the reading of set texts which have been carefully selected to offer a representative sampling of texts in Middle Egyptian suitable for reading at intermediate level, which will widen student experience of text genres. The text reading will be interspersed with classes focussing on grammatical constructions and linguistic issues, to reinforce formal linguistic competence built in preceding elementary language modules.

This module explores the funerary environment of private tombs in Pharaonic Egypt through the comparative study of the three main groups of evidence: Architecture / archaeological material, iconography and texts.

ALGY253 aims to introduce students to Coptic, the last phase of the Ancient Egyptian language and the only one to be recorded in an alphabetic script showing vowels. This module is designed to promote the acquisition of key skills for the understanding of the Coptic language, texts and culture. Students will also develop an awareness of the continuity of the Egyptian language, from hieroglyphs into Coptic. In terms of text read, a central cultural topic is the study of early monasticism in Coptic Egypt.

War was a regrettable yet ubiquitous fact of ancient civilisation. This module provides a diachronic and cross-cultural comparative study of warfare as practiced in Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe and the Near East, including Classical Greece and the East Mediterranean. The study addresses six cross-cultural themes: Technology and Sources, Tactics, Society, Infrastructure, Death and Commemoration, and Religion and Ethics. These themes are then applied to the examination of three case study cultures (Archaic and Classical Greece, Iron Age Europe and the Bronze Age Near East).

This module provides students with an introduction to the principles and practical applications of archaeobotany, the study of ancient plant remains retrieved from archaeological sites. Students will have the opportunity to learn hands-on how plant remains (wood and seeds) are analysed (including botanical identification and data analysis methods), what sort of information can be gained for reconstructing past plant food use, economies, landscapes and people-environment interactions, and how archaeobotanical research is integrated to fieldwork projects and post-excavation analysis. The module is delivered through a series of lectures and laboratory-based practical sessions. Assessment is through one essay (topic to choose from a range of subjects made available to students in advance), a portfolio of laboratory work, and one laboratory-based assignment (practical test).

The module addresses the overarching and multifaceted importance of love and friendship in Greek and Roman culture and society. From classical Greece to the Roman empire, relationships that revolve around the idea of mutual attraction between people (such as: happy or unrequited love, elegant flirting, jealousy, exemplary loyalty to one’s friends, cliquey networking) formed a major part of social aesthetics, gender policies and intellectual history. By engaging with a spectrum of textual and visual evidence, the students explore the views on amatory and friendly relationships, both ideal and problematic, as found in the ancient poetry, philosophy, and art.

This module considers the institutions of government in the Roman Empire, the differing social groups within the empire, and the financial, agricultural and economic life of the Roman world.

This module considers display and public interpretation in museums and galleries on the one hand and publicly accessible sites and monuments on the other. This module examines current UK interpretation theories, policies and practices in an international comparative perspective. Heritage interpretation and display brings understanding of the past to peoples in the present, though what aspects of the past to reveal and emphasise can be highly political and controversial. The module concentrates on current practice, but it also reflects on the selectivity of heritage interpretation decisions, and the ways interpretation can exclude as well as include various sectors of society.

This module introduces students to Herodotus’ Histories, the first piece of historiographical prose to survive from Greek antiquity, and to some of the other evidence (especially Persian and Egyptian) that is needed for a proper contextualisation of Herodotus’ historical and literary enterprise. It examines a series of key themes in the study of Herodotus: for example, his representation of foreign peoples, or of Persian or Athenian imperialism, the role of religion in the Histories, and the causes of the Persian wars.

This module is about politics, about policies, political institutions, and the political culture of Rome in the Late Republic. It does not only trace the deterioration of political consensus amongst the senate aristocracy and the rise of powerful individuals like Marius, Sulla, Pompey, or Caesar
put also aims to explore the wider cultural context within which politics unfolds.

The module addresses both the intrinsic and explicitly theorised moral frameworks of Greco-Roman antiquity, by looking at select sources ranging from the Homeric epic to Hellenistic and Roman philosophy. The issues examined during the module include: reciprocity as ethical model (revenge, justice, solidarity), the goods of the self vs the "external" goods, happiness and morality, valuing other people as part of one’s own moral well-being.

This module provides an introduction to the Akkadian language and literature

This module provides an introduction to the study of archaeological artefacts and the types of information which they can contribute to our understanding of the past. It will introduce you to a wide range of basic natural materials and the technologies by which they can be worked, shaped and transformed.

With its significant practical component, you will be able to gain valuable experience in object handling and develop your skills in identification, description, analysis and interpretation of both assemblages and artefacts; you will consider how far it is possible to reconstruct the technologies by which different materials were processed, to determine their origins, and to infer details about the
functions of the artefacts they were used to make.

Throughout the course, you will be encouraged to recognise the complex relationships between technology and society and to appreciate the importance of asking meaningful research questions about archaeological artefacts which acknowledge this social context.

ALGY250 is essential for anyone interested in ancient material culture and provides the foundation for further specialisation in archaeological materials research in your final year through ALGY397 and ALGY314.

In this module students are introduced to the use of human skeletal assemblages as archaeology and material culture. Students will handle human remains and gain an understanding of how basic identification, ageing and sexing is done. This module also looks at current techniques such as stable isotope and DNA analysis and ethical regulations.

This module investigates the nature of the society of third millennium southern Mesopotamia, the first urban society.

Death and ritual treatment of the dead are a constant for our species. This module is for anyone interested in approaches to understanding how past societies dealt with death and the dead. It provides an introduction to methods and approaches to understanding past mortuary practices from a range of periods and areas. The course will examine different approaches to death and mortuary practice, and the role of the deceased in the lives of the living. Key themes to be discussed include: treatment of the dead, mortuary architecture, food and animals, skull cults, secondary burial, cremations and inhumations, and the use of grave goods.

The module CLAH222 provides an opportunity for students to undertake a placement in a setting which matches their academic and possible career / industry interests to develop materials and / or undertake tasks within a practical or vocational context, to apply academic knowledge from their degree and to develop personal and employability skills within a working environment.
Following an application process for work placements, this 15 credit module runs in semester two with a minimum of 24 hours of placement, plus supporting workshops and independent study. There is an element of flexibility in how the placement is scheduled based on the needs of the organisation and taking into consideration individual timetables. This could be half a day for six weeks or two half days for three weeks, for example. Application for the module is via a competitive process, which usually takes the following form: students express interest in the module and preferred sectors of employment; details of the available placements are circulated towards the end of Year One; students submit applications and Curriculum Vitae (CVs) for the employers to consider; the employers invite students to interview and they select the successful candidate(s). The Careers and Employability Service supports students during the application and interview process. Once a student has been successful in the application process, a learning agreement will need to be drafted, Health and Safety pro-forma completed and, where applicable, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and other checks made on behalf of the student.

The popular image of the landscape of ancient Egypt is one filled with impressive stones monuments such as royal pyramids, colossal statues, and massive stone temples.
The amount of effort put into creating temples in which the gods lived and tombs in which the dead lived for eternity is one of the most remarkable features of ancient Egyptian culture. But what about the places where ordinary Egyptians lived? Because of their geography (in the flood plain of the Nile rather than on the desert) and the materials used to build them (mud-brick rather than stone) the houses, palaces, towns and cities of ancient Egypt are much less easy to find and to study. However, good sources of evidence do exist which can help us understand the built environment inhabited by the Egyptians, from the villages which housed the workers on the royal tomb projects to the ‘lost’ cities of ancient Egypt which were some of the largest in the ancient world, but which are only now beginning to be properly understood by modern archaeologists.

ALGY373 introduces students to some of the more demanding but rewarding and intriguing texts to have survived from Ancient Egypt, yielding important information about Ancient Egyptian society and culture.

The module examines the socio-economic behaviour of the Egyptians, primarily through the evidence of texts (literary and documentary). Social organisation is examined, at the personal family level and in the political context, and related to economic behaviour and economic organisation. The integration between social custom and law provides a focus for developing an independent appreciation of the social realities of an ancient society.

This module introduces students to Late Egyptian and to the important body of source material written in this phase of the Ancient Egyptian language. Late Egyptian is the phase of Ancient Egyptian in which were written primary sources such as the tomb robbery papyri, the vast wealth of textual documentation from Deir el-Medina (which provides an unparalleled insight into the social and religious life of an Ancient Egyptian community) as well as late New Kingdom literary stories and miscellanies from the Ramesside era.

A 10,000 – word dissertation on an original archaeological/Egyptological research topic which is able to demonstrate that the student can: identify a research question, design and conduct a work plan to explore this question, assemble and analyse academic literature (bibliography) and primary evidence (original sources, datasets), and present a coherent set of data and theoretical arguments in order to analyse and interpret the question in hand.

This module examines Egypt and the Near East during the Late Bronze Age as part of the world’s earliest well-documented international system. Students are introduced to the key events and political actors of this period, as well as the critical analysis of relevant primary sources. Key issues in International Relations theory are introduced through their application to the Late Bronze Age.  

This module considers the history and culture of Egypt in the Graeco-Roman Period (323BC-AD600). Its focus is the longue durée, how Egyptian culture responded to control by outside powers, how these approached the particular and peculiar culture they found. Looking at the papyrological evidence preserved in a range of languages (Demotic, Greek, Latin, and Coptic), it offers a bottom-view of a multi-cultural society.

Past, Present and Future will develop your understanding of some of the major societal questions that face us, to reflect on the role our specialisms play in wider contemporary society, and to enhance your ability to think and communicate your ideas about these questions. The expertise needed to participate in the debate about these
questions is an incredibly important attribute for the rest of your lives and an essential part of postgraduate academic research. This module is taught through a series of workshops (mixed format presentations by staff, class discussion and group work). We will start by thinking about the role of academic researchers (all of us who have been to university) as `public intellectuals’, and over the following weeks examine some of the major challenges and societal questions to which our subjects can contribute.

This module examines the archaeology of the southern Levant in the Iron Age as the context within which the Hebrew Bible took shape.  Lectures, readings and seminars address current issues of debate within the field, as well as emerging methodologies and recent evidence.