Bloomsbury Summer School (text)

Bloomsbury Summer School

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Fascinated by ancient civilisations?

We offer anyone with any level of knowledge, inspiring short courses on ancient Egypt and other areas of the ancient world.

Summer School 2020 – recommended reading (archived)

Monday 13 April to Friday 17 April 2020

Coptic for Beginners

Cannuyer, C. (2001) Coptic Egypt: The Christians of the Nile. Thames and Hudson.

 

Monday 29 June to Friday 3 July 2020

Bread and Beans! The botany of ancient Egypt

Much of the course is based on chapters in: Nicholson, P. and Shaw, I. (2000) Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology. Cambridge University Press.

Additional reading: Hepper, F. N. (1990) Pharaoh’s Flower: The botanical treasures of Tutankhamun. HMSO.

 

Monday 29 June to Friday 3 July 2020

Reading Coptic: On the margins of Coptic culture

Cannuyer, C. (2001) Coptic Egypt: The Christians of the Nile. Thames and Hudson.

This course is based on handouts specially prepared for BSS. However, if you have this book, you might find it helpful to bring it along to classes with you:
Smith, R. (1993) A Concise Coptic-English Lexicon. Scholars Press.

 

Monday 6 July to Friday 10 July 2020

Reading Hieroglyphs: Khufu and the magicians

This course is based on handouts specially prepared for BSS. However, we recommend that you bring a copy of the following with you:
Collier, M. and Manley, B. (1998 or 2003) How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs. British Museum Press.

If you happen to have a copy of the following, you will find it useful at BSS or, indeed, whenever you read ancient Egyptian texts:
Faulkner, R. O. (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian. Griffith Institute.

 

Monday 6 July to Friday 10 July 2020

Art and Archaeology of Mesoamerica in 100 Objects

Berdan, F. F. (2014) Aztec Archaeology and Ethnohistory. Cambridge University Press.
Cowgill, G. (2015) Ancient Teotihuacan: Early urbanism in Central Mexico. Cambridge University Press.
Evans, S. T. (2013) Ancient Mexico and Central America. Thames and Hudson.

 

Monday 13 July to Friday 17 July 2020

Hieroglyphs for Beginners

Please note: It is essential that students attending this course bring along a copy of: Collier, M. and Manley, B. (ideally 2003 revised edition, but earlier edition fine) How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs. British Museum Press.

 

Tuesday 14 July 2020 (1-day course)

A Taste of Hieroglyphs (for beginners)

It would be a good idea on the day (but not essential) to have with you a copy of:

Collier, M. and Manley, B. (2003) How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs. British Museum Press (ideally 2003 revised edition, but earlier edition fine).

If you intend to take the full one-week course Hieroglyphs for Beginners with us another time, then you should be aware that this book is essential for that course.

 

Monday 13 July to Friday 17 July 2020

Hieratic: An introductory class to ancient Egypt's cursive script

This course is based on handouts specially prepared for BSS. The necessary teaching material will be provided by the Course Director.

Note that the standard reference for hieratic signs is:
Möller, G. (1909–1936) Hieratische Paläographie. Bd. I–IV. Osnabrück.

Online PDFs are available here

 

Monday 13 July to Friday 17 July 2020

Unlocking Late Egyptian: An Introductory Class to the Language of New Kingdom Egypt

The necessary teaching material will be provided by the Course Director. Students can familiarise themselves with the topic through the following titles (Winand is freely available online):

Lichtheim, M. (2006 or any other edition / reprint) Ancient Egyptian Literature. Volume 2: The New Kingdom. University of California Press.
Simpson, W. K. et al. (2003 or any other edition) The Literature of Ancient Egypt. Yale University Press.
Wilkinson, T. (2016) Writings from Ancient Egypt. Penguin Classics.
Winand, M. (2018) Late Egyptian. In UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles. http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz002kdgjj (click on “View Content”).

Students are not expected to purchase any books for this course. Should they choose, however, to do so, an English reference grammar for Late Egyptian is:

Neveu, F. (2015) The Language of Ramesses: Late Egyptian grammar. Oxbow Books.

 

Monday 20 July to Friday 24 July 2020

The Royal Tombs of Ancient Egypt

Dodson, A. (2016) The Royal Tombs of Ancient Egypt. Pen and Sword. It is recommended that all students obtain a copy of this book.
Dodson, A. M. and Ikram, S. (2004) The Tomb in Ancient Egypt. Thames and Hudson.
Hornung, E. (1999) The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife (translated by D. Lorton). Cornell University Press.
Reeves, C. N. and Wilkinson, R. H. (1996) The Complete Valley of the Kings. Thames and Hudson.
Wilkinson, R. H. and Weeks, K. R. (eds) (2016) The Oxford Handbook to the Valley of the Kings. Oxford University Press.

 

Monday 20 July to Friday 24 July 2020

Fifth Dynasty Solar Religion and the Sun Kings

Bárta, M. (2011) Journey to the West: The world of the Old Kingdom tombs in ancient Egypt. Charles University.
Nuzzolo, M. (2018) The Fifth Dynasty Sun Temples: Kingship, architecture and religion in third millennium BC Egypt. Charles University.
Quirke, S. (2001) The Cult of Ra: Sun-worship in ancient Egypt. Thames and Hudson.
Verner, M. (2014) Sons of the Sun: Rise and decline of the Fifth Dynasty. Charles University.

 

Monday 27 July to Friday 31 July 2020

Love Spells, Oracles, Amulets: Ancient Egyptian rituals of magic and divination

Raven, M. (2012) Egyptian Magic: The quest for Thoth’s Book of Secrets. American University of Cairo Press.
Naether, F. (2016) Magic in the Internet: Investigation by genre in Trismegistos. In Kousoulis, P. and Lazaridis, N. (eds), Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, 22–29 May 2008 (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 241). Leuven, 1485–1494. PDF: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-234583
Pinch (Harris), G. (2010) Magic in Ancient Egypt (revised edition). University of Texas Press.

Online resources: The Coptic Magical Papyri: Vernacular religion in Late Roman and Early Islamic Egypt

 

Monday 27 July to Friday 31 July 2020

An A–Z of Ancient Egyptian Statues

Berman, L. (2014) The Priest, the Prince and the Pasha: The life and afterlife of an ancient Egyptian sculpture. MFA Publications.
Price, C. (2018) Pocket Museum: Ancient Egypt. Thames and Hudson.
Riggs, C. (2017) Egypt: Lost civilizations. Reaktion.
Robins, G. (2001) Egyptian Statues. Shire Egyptology.
Tyldesley, J. (2018). Nefertiti’s Face: The creation of an icon. Profile.