Information about next year's courses available November 2010
Summer School Archive (courses July 2010)
Photos by James Kellie
Summer School 2010 - programme in detail
5 – 9 July 2010
LIVING IN LAHUN: Private life in ancient Egypt
Course Director: Kasia Szpakowska
The more public lives of the Pharaohs and royalty in Ancient Egypt may be well documented, but what do we really know about those who were ruled by them? How did they live? How can we discover more about them? This course will introduce you to the daily life of the Ancient Egyptians, from one place, and one particular slice of time—Middle Kingdom Lahun. We will explore artefacts and texts, to catch glimpses of the life cycle: from the pain and joy of childbirth, through work and play, sex and relationships, food and drink, and the sorrow of death, to the start of new life. The course will give you the opportunity to explore the lesser-known aspects of life 4,000 years ago, and will include a special-access session in the Petrie Museum. Kasia Szpakowska is author of Daily Life in Ancient Egypt: Recreating Lahun and we are delighted that she will be sharing the fruits of her research with us in 2010.
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HIEROGLYPHS: The next step
Course Director: José-Ramon Pérez-Accino
In response to popular demand we are including a Hieroglyphs course in our 2010 programme, and we are extremely pleased that José Pérez-Accino has agreed to return to BSS to teach it. This course builds on the knowledge and experience you might have acquired on the Hieroglyphs for Beginners course run by BSS in 2009. You will now practice reading original Egyptian monuments and more complex aspects of the Egyptian language and hieroglyphic writing. You will start to understand phrases of more elaborate structure paving the way to reading fragments of literary texts in the future. Attendance at a previous BSS Hieroglyphs for Beginners course will prove beneficial but not essential, as there will be time for supervised personal work and study during the course. As in 2009, the course finale will be a session reading inscriptions in the British Museum.
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ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION: Myths, beliefs and rituals
Course Director: George Hart
Explore the fascinating cults and temples of the gods and goddesses of the Egyptian pantheon. Follow the religious rituals and festivals involving Pharaohs and Queens, High Priests and God’s Wives and the roles played by the household deities Taweret and Bes in the lives of ordinary families. Evaluate the traumatic years inflicted on Egypt through the fervour of Akhenaten and Nefertiti for Aten, the god in the sun disk. Accompany, via images and inscriptions, royalty and courtiers on their journeys from embalmment, through the perils in the Underworld, to the blissful rewards of the Afterlife. This course offers you the opportunity to unfurl and enjoy the rich tapestry of Egyptian Religion from 3000 BC to the final closure of the temple of Isis on the island of Philae in the sixth century AD. George Hart, author of Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses and Egyptian Myths will be the perfect course director for this subject.
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ANCIENT EGYPTIAN LITERATURE: Expressing an ordered world
Course Director: José-Ramon Pérez-Accino
The structure of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system is complex and unique. It helps to see the world as a place in which order is expressed against a background of primeval chaos. This eternal conflict shaped many aspects of Egyptian culture, and literature expresses it in ways that still could be applied to our own world in need of order. We will explore literary works and the ways in which beauty and order are presented. This course will take the form of a series of seminars in which you will read and discuss different pieces of literature including hymns and poetry. Following on from the success of last year’s course Beyond Words and Images: Reading and Writing Egyptian Literature, we welcome José Pérez-Accino back to teach another innovative course for BSS. No prior experience is required.
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EXPLORING THE PETRIE MUSEUM III: Technology and the presentation of the individual in ancient Egypt
Course Directors: Jan Picton & Janet Johnstone
In this course we will explore how individuals in Ancient Egypt presented themselves through the lens of artistic representation, ideology, and the technology of items of personal adornment and presentation housed in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at UCL. The course will be taught through lectures, practical sessions, daily object handling sessions and gallery work in the museum, as we assess how valid Petrie's own perspective of 'daily life in ancient Egypt' still is. This course builds on the two previous BSS courses Exploring the Petrie Museum I and II, but it also stands alone, and attendance at these previous courses is by no means necessary. Jan Picton and Janet Johnstone both have longstanding associations with the Petrie Museum and they are able to deliver a course offering unrivalled access to the museum's collection.
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DIGGING UP EGYPT’S PAST: Archaeologists and our understanding of ancient Egypt
Course Director: Chris Naunton
This course explores the digs (and diggers) that have influenced our understanding of ancient Egypt, using sites including Tanis, Saqqara, Tell El Amarna, Deir El Bahri and the Valley of the Kings as case studies. We will examine the affect of changing circumstances, politics and attitudes (and chance) on archaeology. We will focus on current fieldwork and research, demystifying the processes by which our knowledge of ancient Egypt is improved with each passing field season, and showing what digging life is like in the Twenty-First Century. Extensive use will be made of the archives of the Egypt Exploration Society (EED) over its 127 years of fieldwork in Egypt. The course will include a half-day at the Society and a session in the Egyptian galleries of the British Museum, focussing on sites and objects discussed during the classes. Chris Naunton is Deputy Director of the EES.
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26 – 30 July 2010
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN ANCIENT EGYPT
Course Director: Karen Exell
Ancient Egypt is often viewed as a utopian society where people lived in harmony with each other. However, literary texts, formal representations and documentary records often tell a different story, of a society where crime certainly existed, and punishment could be severe. This course will examine the concept of law; the nature of different crimes; the process of judgement; and the punishments enacted upon law-breakers, from adulterers to assassins, robbers to runaways. We will discuss the role of the local courts, the oracle, the vizier and the king as judges of right and wrong. We will focus on the primary sources, including translations of literary and documentary papyri, royal and private monumental inscriptions, and temple reliefs. We will certainly examine the infamous New Kingdom tomb robberies and the ‘Harim Conspiracy’, the attempted assassination of Ramesses III.
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26 – 30 July 2010
ENTREPRENEURS AND EMPIRES: Cyprus in the late Bronze Age
Course Director: Thomas Kiely
The Late Bronze Age (ca.1650BC - 1050BC) on Cyprus was a period of extraordinary economic growth, political change and cultural vitality, during which a collection of small-scale and relatively isolated communities emerged to occupy a central place in Eastern Mediterranean society. This course explores the key themes of the archaeology of Cyprus during this exciting period including: the emergence of towns; the economic and social function of the copper industry; the relationship of the island with the Great Powers of the period, such as Egypt, Hatti and Babylon, and the ‘Alashiya Question’; the development of writing; and the arrival of the Sea Peoples and the first Greek settlers on Cyprus. The course will include gallery talks in the British Museum and handling sessions of Late Bronze Age artefacts. Thomas Kiely is the curator of Cypriot antiquities in the Department of Greece and Rome at the British Museum.
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