Hi!
Here I'm going to recommend some Egyptology books for people interested in starting to learn about ancient Egypt!
These books are for adults, children will find it hard to understand them sometimes because of the academic language.
They are the basic text-books any new Egyptology/Egyptian Archaeology student needs to read, and are also very good for amateur Egyptologists or people who are generally interested in ancient Egypt!
Egyptian history: The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. This is a brilliant book, with chapters written by excellent scholars, each on a particular period of Egyptian history. It was the main book used as the basis for our Egyptian History in university. So it is a brilliant book for both Egyptology students and interested amateurs!
Egyptian monuments, architecture, and archaeology: An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. This is a very good book, which tells very interesting information about specific sites and monuments which are key to the study of ancient Egypt, and ties in with Egyptian history and society etc.
Hieroglyphs: (that is, Middle Egyptian) How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs This is an excellent book to teach amateurs (and I do mean amateurs) how to read some hieroglyphs. I'm going to write a separate review of this book because there is just so much to talk about. But just for starters, if you want to learn hieroglyphs and have never learnt any of it before, definitely have a go at this book!
A narrative pulling together aspects of Egyptian history, society, architecture etc: Anatomy of a Civilization This is very good as it makes all the separate topics of ancient Egypt tie in together to try to recreate ancient Egypt on the whole.
Daily life: Village Life in Ancient Egypt This is a book of translations of many of the texts found at the famous village of Deir el-Medina (the village where the workmen who built the kings' tombs in the Valley of the Kings lived). It is very good, very funny at times and extremely interesting and insightful. It is starting to get more and more expensive, so if you want to read it and find a cheap copy (under £20), snap it up! You can always sell it for a lot more later!
I could recommend a lot more, but for now that is a good start. It covers many of the most important areas of Egyptology- history, archaeology, monuments, society, hieroglyphs etc, and is a brilliant starter for anyone starting in the Egyptology business, or interested amateurs. Some of these books can be bought very cheaply and are well worth a read! Anybody who is starting off on an Egyptology course will probably need to buy the first 4, they will be on your reading list and highly sought-after in the library, and even if they aren't on your reading list, if you read them you will be ahead of the class!
Happy reading!
Showing posts with label Egyptology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Egyptology. Show all posts
Monday, 20 June 2011
Friday, 3 June 2011
FINISHED!!!!!!!!!
I can't believe I have finished my undergraduate degree!!! Arghh!! It really hasn't sunk in yet! I had my last exam yesterday and will be receiving my results in a few weeks then graduating on 20th July!!
And yes, I did schedule "Collapse" into my filofax after my last exam :) I spent a lazy few hours in bed on the internet and watching TV, went to a friend's house and had lots of fun, and then went home and slept! That's all I wanted to do, so brilliant to actually have some time to do stuff!
So I suppose this should be my first proper post about being a student, seeing as how I'm the 'Perpetual Student' (and haven't written anything about my Life as a PS yet!!)
I study (or studied?) Egyptian Archaeology BA Hons at the University of Liverpool :)
I love it here, it's brilliant, I never want to leave!
We have a relatively small class of students, maybe 15 (tiny compared to some courses like Medicine, which has hundreds doing the same course in the same year!). We are divided into 2 separate courses, Egyptology and Egyptian Archaeology. The difference is that the Egyptologists are primarily dealing with textual evidence, that is reading the ancient Egyptian languages of Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian, Late Egyptian and Coptic, otherwise known as "hieroglyphs" (although hieroglyphs is a script not a language). They translate a lot of primary texts; whereas Egyptian Archaeologists deal with the more archaeological side of things, also doing more general stuff like the archaeology and history of the Ancient Near East/Western Asia, and Middle Egyptian (thankfully far less language work than the Egyptologists!)
I originally did Egyptology, but when I realised how much language work I would need to do I switched to Egyptian Archaeology as I'm not brilliant at language and text-based things.
I LOVE my course, I wouldn't swap it for the world!
We have studied the history of ancient Egypt, Middle Egyptian, the archaeology of ancient Egypt including monumental evidence and settlement archaeology, foreign relations between Egypt and other countries, the technology of ancient Egypt, ancient Egyptian religion and death and the afterlife :) I've also had to do other things like archaeology in general, studying Bronze and Iron Age Levant, and Ancient Warfare. I didn't enjoy those latter ones because I am definitely an Egypt-only girl!
Each module usually has a 2500-3000 word essay and an exam, but some modules especially Middle Egyptian have lots of work to do throughout the term (translating texts) and some are 100% coursework based so no exam :)
I love my course so much, and I am just about to apply to do my exam, actually I'm going to the library today to research and write the proposal! I'm a bit late to apply, but I have had so much work to do this last term that I haven't actually had time to do the research! But I am aiming to have the whole application form finished by Sunday night, and then I'll spend the whole of the next week packing to move back home!
During the summer I have lots of things planned to do, and unfortunately it looks like my employer won't need me to work during the summer :( So I'll do lots of work towards my MA instead!
I'm going to be setting up an MA planner filofax :) I just bought a raspberry Finsbury A5 filo from ebay :) very cheap, but it's slightly damaged, for example the rings don't close properly at the bottom :( But I'll cope! I'm looking forward to setting it up and using it :)
And yes, I did schedule "Collapse" into my filofax after my last exam :) I spent a lazy few hours in bed on the internet and watching TV, went to a friend's house and had lots of fun, and then went home and slept! That's all I wanted to do, so brilliant to actually have some time to do stuff!
So I suppose this should be my first proper post about being a student, seeing as how I'm the 'Perpetual Student' (and haven't written anything about my Life as a PS yet!!)
I study (or studied?) Egyptian Archaeology BA Hons at the University of Liverpool :)
I love it here, it's brilliant, I never want to leave!
We have a relatively small class of students, maybe 15 (tiny compared to some courses like Medicine, which has hundreds doing the same course in the same year!). We are divided into 2 separate courses, Egyptology and Egyptian Archaeology. The difference is that the Egyptologists are primarily dealing with textual evidence, that is reading the ancient Egyptian languages of Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian, Late Egyptian and Coptic, otherwise known as "hieroglyphs" (although hieroglyphs is a script not a language). They translate a lot of primary texts; whereas Egyptian Archaeologists deal with the more archaeological side of things, also doing more general stuff like the archaeology and history of the Ancient Near East/Western Asia, and Middle Egyptian (thankfully far less language work than the Egyptologists!)
I originally did Egyptology, but when I realised how much language work I would need to do I switched to Egyptian Archaeology as I'm not brilliant at language and text-based things.
I LOVE my course, I wouldn't swap it for the world!
We have studied the history of ancient Egypt, Middle Egyptian, the archaeology of ancient Egypt including monumental evidence and settlement archaeology, foreign relations between Egypt and other countries, the technology of ancient Egypt, ancient Egyptian religion and death and the afterlife :) I've also had to do other things like archaeology in general, studying Bronze and Iron Age Levant, and Ancient Warfare. I didn't enjoy those latter ones because I am definitely an Egypt-only girl!
Each module usually has a 2500-3000 word essay and an exam, but some modules especially Middle Egyptian have lots of work to do throughout the term (translating texts) and some are 100% coursework based so no exam :)
I love my course so much, and I am just about to apply to do my exam, actually I'm going to the library today to research and write the proposal! I'm a bit late to apply, but I have had so much work to do this last term that I haven't actually had time to do the research! But I am aiming to have the whole application form finished by Sunday night, and then I'll spend the whole of the next week packing to move back home!
During the summer I have lots of things planned to do, and unfortunately it looks like my employer won't need me to work during the summer :( So I'll do lots of work towards my MA instead!
I'm going to be setting up an MA planner filofax :) I just bought a raspberry Finsbury A5 filo from ebay :) very cheap, but it's slightly damaged, for example the rings don't close properly at the bottom :( But I'll cope! I'm looking forward to setting it up and using it :)
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