Late Egyptian Language and Texts

This module introduces students to Late Egyptian language and texts, both in hieroglyphic and hieratic script.

Historically, Late Egyptian is used in the New Kingdom, ca. 1500 to 1000 BCE, when Egypt transpired into a cosmopolitan global player in the Ancient Near East. Linguistically, it is the basis of the later phases of Egyptian language and develops into Demotic and Coptic used in the First millennium BCE and post-Pharaonic Egypt. The texts read in class will typically include historical inscriptions, administrative, religious, and literary texts. The transliteration and translation are set against interpretative discussions, including of the implications arising from archaeological context. Depending on class size and accessibility, some sessions will be taught in the Petrie and/or the British Museum in order to provide training in reading documents in the original.