Egyptology BA (Hons) and Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies BA (Hons)

An undergraduate Egyptian class at the Ashmolean Museum

The ancient civilizations of Egypt and of the Near East – Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia – are foundations of the modern world. Understanding these unique cultures is an exciting and rewarding intellectual challenge. In these degrees, deciphering original sources in the ancient languages and writing systems is integrated with the study of archaeological and artistic materials.

The BA in Egyptology and the BA in Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies are two related three-year degree courses offering a wide range of options in the civilizations, history, and literatures of Egypt and/or the Ancient Near East. These degrees encompass two related but distinct routes of study. The Egyptology route concentrates on Egyptology and the Egyptian language. The Ancient Near Eastern Studies route concentrates on Ancient Near Eastern Studies and the Akkadian language of Babylonia and Assyria. Students also choose a subsidiary language or subject that is studied alongside Egyptology or Ancient Near Eastern Studies during the last two years of their course. The Ancient Near Eastern Studies route is currently within the BA in Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies but it is expected that this degree title will change to BA in Assyriology. There will be no change in course content.

At undergraduate level, Egyptian or Akkadian can also be taken as a subsidiary language with Arabic or Hebrew as a main subject. The joint degree of Classics and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies offers opportunities to combine courses across two Faculties. Egyptology or Ancient Near Eastern Studies can be studied as a main subject alongside Latin or Greek as a subsidiary language. Alternatively, Classics can be studied as a main subject, alongside Egyptian or Akkadian as a subsidiary language.

Graduate degrees in the field of Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies offer varied paths to advanced research.

The core of the teaching is in the Egyptian and Akkadian languages and ancient written sources. The objective is to illuminate Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern civilizations as a whole and to use texts as the point of departure for studying a wide range of phenomena, such as history, religion, law, economy, and archaeology, in addition to language itself. The skills involved are comparable with those needed for other courses in the humanities based on non-spoken languages. No prior knowledge of the languages is expected at undergraduate level. The MPhil degrees are open both to newcomers to the field and to those with undergraduate experience.

Oxford has unrivalled library resources for Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern literature, languages, history and archaeology in the Art, Archaeology, and Ancient World Library. These encompass Akkadian, Egyptian, Coptic, Sumerian, Hittite, Elamite, Old Persian, Hurrian, Ugaritic, and other fields. The Ashmolean Museum has an extensive collection of Ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian antiquities and is a key resource for research and teaching. The Griffith Institute (opened in 1939 and now housed in a wing of the Art, Archaeology, and Ancient World Library complex) houses the world’s most extensive archive of Egyptological papers and records, including the excavation records from Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, as well as a range of Assyriological papers. It is also the home for two primary research tools in Egyptology: the Topographical Bibliography, a research conspectus of Egyptian artefacts and archaeological sites, and the Online Egyptological Bibliography. The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, under Professor J. L. Dahl as Co-Principal Investigator, aims to make available through the internet the form and content of cuneiform inscriptions dating from the beginning of writing until the end of the pre-Christian era.

For further information about the BA in Egyptology and the BA in Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies please download a copy of the Undergraduate 2023-24 Handbook.

 

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