How do I prepare for an Egyptology Major?

Archaeologist
Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:25:58 +0000

pharmakeus01:

Contrary to people urging in learning Arabic, I think you should instead study French.

Pwar and I were not discouraging the OP from learning French. In fact, I would encourage him to do so. French and German are required languages for any research in the field. Arabic, however, is an exceedingly useful language to have in addition to French and German.

A typical Egyptologist knows all phases of the Egyptian language (Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian, and Late Egyptian in both hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts; Demotic; Coptic), another ancient Near Eastern language (e.g. Hebrew, Hittite, Akkadian), French, German, and Arabic. Keep in mind that this is just the typical scholar- most know even more languages.



pharmakeus01:

Egyptology started with the discovery of Rosetta stone not by the Muslims, but by Napoleon’s expedition.

That’s the standard Eurocentric view, but it’s nonsense nonetheless. Arabic scholars were doing Egyptological research centuries before European scholars even visited Egypt.

A highly recommended read: [Egyptology: The Missing Millennium. Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings](http://www.amazon.com/Egyptology-Missing-Millennium-Medieval-Writings/dp/1844720624)