This course offers rotating topics in the advanced study of the history and cultures of the Ancient Near East, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Levant. The choice of primary topic in each iteration of the course is made by the instructor. This course offers students an opportunity to conduct and examine research on the Ancient Near East in a theoretically informed and cross-disciplinary manner. Course topics may be organized around specific places or periods, for example: the Assyrian or Babylonian Empires, the Hittites in Anatolia, ancient Syria and Israel, the Amarna period, the Old, Middle, or New Kingdoms in Egypt, and so forth. Course topics may also be thematic, revolving around specific subject matters, such as early state formation, international relations, material culture of a particular region and/or period, religious texts and rituals of a specific region and/or period, literary texts of a particular genre or corpus, and so on. The aim of the course is to provide students with critical exposure to aspects of the history and culture of the ancient Near East as a well as a solid grounding in scholarly research methods.
Topic for Spring 2026: Ancient Egyptian Religion and Cosmology
Description: This seminar will explore the ancient Egyptians’ beliefs and practices concerning their relationships to the gods, the dead, and the king, which we may group together loosely under the term ‘religion.’ In addition, we shall examine in detail the perceived structure and function of the cosmos, or created world, in which the human and the divine played vital roles for the perpetuation of order against the endless tide of entropy. Through readings and discussions of primary sources in translation, including Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, and the Books of the Dead, we will see how Egyptians’ views on death and the
afterlife changed over time. In addition, we will learn how to ‘read’ complex works of cosmological art like the Amduat, Book of Gates, and Book of Caverns, which offered fantastically detailed depictions of the localities and inhabitants of the divine world.
Instructor:
