Department of History
318 Muller
274-3542 (voicemail pending)
cschroeder@ithaca.edu
Office hours: Thursday 1-3 pm
History 311-286: Egypt of the Pharaohs
Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:00-5:15 pm
Hill 57
America has had a fascination with all things ancient Egyptian.
From the popularity of the black and white film "The Mummy" to the traveling
art exhibit of the treasures of Tutankhamen's tomb to the Luxor Hotel
in Las Vegas, we have been obsessed with pharaonic culture. This
course will examine the history, literature, and religion of ancient Egypt
from prehistoric times to Cleopatra. This course will be interdisciplinary
in nature. Students will study the fiction, religious rituals, art,
architecture, and inscriptions of ancient Egypt. We will also
analyze the representations of ancient Egypt in contemporary American
culture, especially film. Specific topics to be studied include:
Egyptian royal and social history; Egyptian language and literature;
mythology and cosmology; death and the afterlife; temple rituals and
architecture; pyramids, tombs and other burial architecture; narratives
of the Hebrew Exodus; the Rosetta Stone and the modern “discovery” of ancient
Egypt; and ancient Egypt in film and popular culture.
