Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Institute of Ancient and Classical Studies
- Code
- MA-ERA-IACS-S-011
- Title
- Religion of the Nile Valley
- Usual semester
- Spring
- ECTS
- 8
- Language
- Learning outcomes
- Introductory course to ancient Egyptian mortuary religion and netherworld concepts as exemplified by the decorated royal tombs of the New Kingdom in the Valley of Kings (KV), but also by the text corpuses of the Pyramid Texts (PT) and Coffin Texts (CT).
- Course content
- Topics: 1. Ancient Egypt: chronology and geography (introduction) 2. Ancient Egyptian religion: general overview 3. Pyramid Texts: pyramids, layout, religious concepts in the PT 3. Coffin Texts: geographical distribution, innovative religious concepts in the CT 4. Early New Kingdom royal tombs 5. Prototypes of KV tombs (Abydos, AN-B, A-1) 6. Early KV tombs (KV 20, KV 34, KV 38, KV 42) 7. Mid-Eighteenth-Dynasty KV tombs (KV 35, KV 43, KV 22) 8. The Amduat 9. The mortuary concepts of the Amarna reform 10. The Amarna Royal Tomb (TA 26) 11. Return to KV (KV 55, KV 62, KV 23) 12. A new beginning at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (KV 57)
- Assessment method
- There are two options to obtain grades: A 90-minute written examination at the end of the semester Oral examination at the end of the semester
- Bibliography
- 1. Ancient Egyptian religion in general Hornung, Erik 1983. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt. The One and the Many. Transl. by John Baines. London etc.: Routledge & Kegan Paul Assmann, Jan 1996. The Mind of Egypt. Transl. by Andrew Jenkins. Cambridge, MA & London: Harvard UP. Assmann, Jan 2005. Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt. Transl. by David Lorton. Ithaca, NY & London: Cornell UP. 2. Pyramid Texts Allen, James P. 2005. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. (Writings from the Ancient World 23.) Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature Press. Hays, Harold M. 2012. The Organization of the Pryamid Texts. Typology and Disposition. (PdÄ 31.) I–II. Leiden & Boston, MA: Brill. Allen, James P. 1994. Reading a Pyramid. In: Hommages à Jean Leclant. 1: Études pharaoniques. (BdE 106/1.) Cairo: IFAO, 5–28. Hays, Harold M. 2009. Unreading the Pyramids. BIFAO 109 (2009) 195–220. Hays, Harold M. 2011. The Death of the Democratisation of the Afterlife. In: Strudwick, Nigel & Helen Strudwick (eds): Old Kingdom, New Perspectives. Egyptian Art and Archaeology 2750–2150 BC. Oxford & Oakville: Oxbow Books, 115–130. Allen, James P. 1988. Genesis in Egypt. The Philosophy of the Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts. (YES 2.) New Haven, CT: Yale University. Žabkar, Louis V. 1968. A Study of the Ba Concept in Ancient Egyptian Texts. (SAOC 34.) Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Fitzenreiter, Martin 2017. Wahn und Wahnsinn. Ka und Heka in der pharaonischen Ästhetik. In: Blöbaum, Anke Ilona, Marianne Eaton-Krauss & Annik Wüttrich (eds): Pérégrinations avec Erhart Graefe. Festschrift zu seinem 75. Geburtstag. (ÄAT 87.) Münster: Zaphon. Te Velde, H. 1967. Seth, God of Confusion. A Study of His Role in Egyptian Mythology and Religion. (PdÄ 6.) Leiden: E. J. Brill. von Lieven, Alexandra 2006. Seth ist im Recht, Osiris ist im Unrecht! Sethkultorte und ihre Version des Osiris-Mythos. ZÄS 133 (2006) 141–150. 3. Coffin Texts Faulkner, R. O. 1973–1978. The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts. I–III. Warminster: Aris & Phillips. Gestermann, Louise 2004. Sargtexte aus Dair al-Biršā. Zeugnisse eines historischen Wendepunktes? In: Bickel, Susanne & Bernard Mathieu (eds): D'un monde à l'autre. Textes des Pyramides & Textes de Sarcophages. Cairo: IFAO, 201–217. Willems, Harco 2014. Historical and Archaeological Aspects of Egyptian Funerary Culture. Religious Ideas and Ritual Practice in Middle Kingdom Elite Cemeteries. (CHANE 73.) Leiden & Boston, MA: Brill. Polz, Daniel (ed.) 2007. Für die Ewigkeit geschaffen. Die Särge des Imeni und der Geheset. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern. 4. Valley of the Kings Darnell, John Coleman & Colleen Manassa Darnell 2018. The Ancient Egyptian Netherworld Books. (Writings from the Ancient World 39.) Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature Press. Reeves, C. N. 1990. Valley of the Kings. Decline of a Royal Necropolis. London & New York, Kegan Paul. Theban Mapping Project https://thebanmappingproject.com/ Wilkinson, Richard H. & Kent R. Reeves (eds) 2016. The Oxford Hanbook of the Valley of the Kings. Oxford etc.: Oxford UP. 5. Amarna Murnane, William J. 1995. Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt. (Writings from the Ancoent World.) Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press. Hoffmeier, James K. 2015. Akhenaten and the Origins of Monotheism. Oxford & New York: Oxford UP. el-Khouly, Aly & Geoffrey Thorndike Martin 1987. Excavations in the Royal Necropolis at El-ˁAmarna. (SASAE 33.) Cairo: SAE. Martin, Geoffrey Thorndike 1974/1989. The Rock Tombs of El-ˁAmarna. VII: The Royal Tomb at El-ˁAmarna. I–II. (ASE 35, 39.) London: EES.