Download Assyriology and Egyptology

Teaching staff
Dr A. McMahon (Mesopotamian Archaeology) Director
of the Tell Brak Project (Syria)
Research Interests: early urbanism and sustainability,
warfare and violent conflict, sensory archaeology,
settlement archaeology and political economy of late
prehistoric and historic Mesopotamia (Fifth through the
First millennia BC).
Key Facts
• Equally suited to students from Arts and
Science backgrounds.
• UCAS Code V400
• Typical offer: A*AA at A-Level,
40-41 IB points with 776 at Higher Level,
AAA at Scottish Advanced Higher Grade.
Egyptology &
Assyriology
Dr H. Papazian (Ancient Egyptian Language)
Research Interests: ancient Egyptian language, social,
political, and economic history and administration,
principally of the Third Millennium BC, historical
chronology, Old Kingdom epigraphy and palaeography.
Dr K. Spence (Egyptian Archaeology) Director of the
Sesebi Project (Sudan)
Research Interests: built environment, material
culture, art, religion and social context of ancient Egypt
and Nubia (Sudan).
Dr M. Worthington (Mesopotamian Languages)
Research Interests: Babylonian and Assyrian grammar,
Sumerian language, Mesopotamian literature,
Mesopotamian medicine, quantitative methods and the
study of ancient languages.
Contact Us
[email protected]
www.arch.cam.ac.uk
+44 (0)1223 339288
@UCamArchaeology
facebook.com/archaeologycambridge
www.arch.cam.ac.uk
Ancient Egyptian town of Sesebi
Course outline
UCAS Code: V400
Egyptian & Mesopotamian
Languages
At Cambridge, Egyptology and Assyriology are based
in the Division of Archaeology, where you can study
the archaeology, cultures and languages of Egypt and/
or Mesopotamia in all three years.
Teaching is through lectures, small group sessions and
museum practical classes. We use the extensive
collections of the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Museum
of Archaeology and Anthropology for gallery talks and
object-handling sessions. Most papers involve students
undertaking independent contextualised object studies.
In the third year you can pursue an independent
research project as a dissertation under the guidance of
an expert supervisor.
Whatever interests you pursue and develop, you will
refine your existing skills and build new ones, making
you an informed and intelligent analyst of past societies
and cultures, as well as a critical thinker, and an
articulate presenter and writer.
Cuneiform tablet and hieratic papyrus
Languages will be a key component of your
studies.
Akkadian (c. 2000 BC - 100 AD), written in
cuneiform script and related to Hebrew and
Arabic, is an umbrella-term for Babylonian and
Assyrian. You can study it in all three years.
Sumerian (c. 3200 BC - 100 AD) is unrelated to
any other known language. You can study it in
Year 3.
Egyptian Hieroglyphs: in Year 1 you learn
Middle Egyptian (c. 2000 BC and later), which is
the 'classical' stage of the ancient language. In
Year 2 you continue with more advanced
readings.
Hands-on sessions with original artefacts
Egyptian & Mesopotamian
Archaeology
QS World University Rankings 2016 ranked
Cambridge the top university in the world for
archaeology. This is a vibrant and exciting place to
study amongst researchers tackling issues as diverse
as climate change, sustainability, inequality, and
cultural heritage.
For Egypt and Mesopotamia we study the
emergence, development and transformation of the
world's first literate societies.
In first year, the cultures of Egypt and
Mesopotamia are introduced in a comparative paper
through area-specific historical and thematic
lectures, comparative seminars, and small group
teaching where essays and ideas are discussed with
a supervisor.
In second and third year more specialised papers are
offered
in
the
archaeology,
history,
literature, language and culture of Mesopotamia,
and the archaeology, religion, burial practices
and foreign relations of ancient Egypt.
Hieratic is a cursive ancient Egyptian script
used on papyri and ostraca. You start learning it
in Year 2.
Papers in both the theory and practice of
archaeology are available. Students are given
fieldwork training and take part in archaeological
field trips with students from across the Archaeology
programme.
Old Egyptian (c. 2800-2000 BC) and Late
Egyptian (c. 1300-1100 BC): you study these in
Year 3.
Our students undertake up to six weeks of fieldwork,
a study tour or a museum placement in the summer
following their second year.