The course will explore a broad range of archaeological source material, so that students will learn to recognise and understand ancient Egyptian material culture as well as discern the diverse natural, cultural, religious and economic phenomena that have shaped ancient Egyptian society. By focusing on the critical analysis of the production, transformation, uses and roles of material culture and grounded in case studies, students will be able to examine broader questions of cultural heritage, materiality, agency and identity.
Prerequisiti
Senza
Metodi didattici
Overview lectures at Pavia University
Visits to Museo Egizio, Turin, with classes and discussion in front of the objects
Students presentations on specific topics and objects at Museo Egizio
Verifica Apprendimento
Active participation
Critical discussions during the classes
Oral presentation of a specific topic or object at Museo Egizio
Written scholarly essay
Testi
Barry J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt. Anatomy of a Civilization (all three eds. 1989, 2006, 2018), London: Routledge.
Willeke Wendrich (ed.) 2010, Egyptian Archeology, Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Shaw, Ian (ed.) 2000. The Oxford history of ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
These texts will for the most part be digitally available for the students.
Additional relevant literature will be mentioned during the classes.
Contenuti
By focusing on the dynamic histories of objects, new research reveals their pivotal role in shaping a wide range of social relations. Over time and across space, the interactions between artefacts and people living in the Nile valley have created complex networks of material and social agency. In a broad and diachronic approach, students will study the transformation, uses and roles of material culture focusing on some critical structures (text culture and writing, visual culture and iconography, territoriality and state formation, religion and funerary beliefs, economic and bureaucratic systems) that shaped ancient Egyptian society. Artefacts displayed in the Museo Egizio, Turin, will be in the centre of the on site discussion and studies.
