Duration
60h Th
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
All year long, with partial in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
Learning to read Egyptian hieroglyphic texts.
The course is divided into two parts:
- during the first term, students follow a MOOC entitled "Les hiéroglyphes égyptiens" (https://www.fun-mooc.fr/fr/cours/les-hieroglyphes-egyptiens/). The face-to-face course operates on the principle of the flipped classroom: it is devoted to practical exercises linked to the contents presented in the weekly module of the MOOC.
- The second term introduces the different types of propositions in Ancient Egyptian and describes the non-verbal constructions (substantival, adjectival and adverbial predicatiosn). We then move on to the reading of the first hieroglyphic texts, with exercises based on authentic monuments.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
Encyclopaedic background concerning the Pharaonic culture:
- Champollion and the decipherment of hieroglyphs
- geographical and historical
- the scripts of ancient Egypt
- the hieroglyphic system: basic principles
- the hieroglyphic repertoire and its relationship to images
- transcribing, transliterating and encoding hieroglyphs
- phonograms (uniliteral, biliteral, triliteral)
- logograms
- semantic and phonetic classifiers
- radicograms
- nominal morphology
- non-verbal syntax
- outline of the verbal system
- royal cartouches
- first stelae
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
A good knowledge of his/her native language.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
- Flipped classroom during the first term.
- Visit to an Egyptian collection and reading of texts in context during the second term.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
60 hours (1st and 2nd quadrimestres)
Place and schedule : to be precised at the beginning of the academic year
Recommended or required readings
Required reading:
- St. Polis (dir.), Guide des écritures de l'Égypte ancienne, GIFAO 2, Le Caire, Ifao, 2022.
- J. Winand, Les hiéroglyphes égyptiens, Que sais-je n° 3980, Paris, PUF, 2013.
- J. Winand & A. Stella, Lexique du Moyen égyptien, Aegyptica Leodiensia 8, Liège, Presses de l'ULiège, 2013.
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- In-person
written exam ( open-ended questions ) AND oral exam
Additional information:
Written and oral exam in May/June.
The mark of the midterm exam in January will count for 30% of the June final grade.
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
During the second term, we will plan a visit to an Egyptological collection in order to take your first steps in reading hieroglyphic texts on original documents.
Contacts
Prof. Stéphane Polis (s.polis@uliege.be)
Département des Sciences de l'Antiquité
Place du 20 Août, 7, B-4000-Liège
Secrétariat
Tél. 04 366 55 44
Association of one or more MOOCs
The MOOC entitled 'Egyptologie (P4)' is associated with this course.
Additional information:
Contents
At the end of this course, which is based on the presentation of many original ancient sources, you will:
- know how Champollion succeeded in deciphering hieroglyphic writing
- understand the main principles of the hieroglyphic writing system
- recognize the main scripts used in ancient Egypt
- be able to read and write the most common hieroglyphs
- understand how Egyptologists determine the correct reading for each sign
- get to grips with reading Egyptian documents on your own
The course is divided into 10 modules, themselves subdivided into several sequences. In each sequence, experts guide you through the discovery of epigraphic documents and explain how to approach the reading of Egyptian hieroglyphs. The videos are enriched by numerous animations, interactive maps, interviews and various quizzes. This MOOC will also take you on a tour of several European museums, to give you a better understanding of the materiality of the texts analyzed.
Format
After an introduction to the course, Module 1 presents the conditions under which Champollion deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs. Module 2 provides chronological and geographical backgrounds, enabling the learner to contextualize in time and space all the examples used during the course. Module 3 introduces the main principles of hieroglyphic writing and outlines its evolution over more than three millennia. In Module 4, the learner is introduced to Egyptian cursive scripts, i.e. hieratic and demotic, as well as to Coptic, the last script used to record the language of the Pharaohs. Module 5 is devoted to this language, detailing its main phases and situating it within its linguistic family.
Modules 6 to 8 deal with the practical aspects of learning hieroglyphic signs. Module 6 teaches how Egyptian sounds are read and written, presenting the main phonograms and how to transliterate and encode them on a computeur. Module 7 shows how these interact in a complex script with logograms (which express both sound and meaning) and semantic classifiers (or determinatives, which express meaning but not sound). Module 8 goes a step further, tackling the question of signs that function as radicograms and phonetic classifiers.
By the end of the course, you will be able to read more complex hieroglyphic sequences in Module 9, such as those found in royal cartouches. You will also be able to take a virtual plunge into the tomb of Amenemope at Deir el-Medineh, and to perform in Module 10 an inovative task of reading hieroglyphic texts on the walls of an unpublished Egyptian tomb.