Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian culture, history and society. The time span covered by the field is generally from the Predynastic period, dating to the fifth millennium BCE, to the extinction of the ancient religious practices and language, around the fourth century CE. New research is pushing the study of the foundations of the proto-Egyptian state back into the sixth millennium BCE.

Egyptology involves the study of politics, religion, art, language, literature, medical practices, economic and manufacturing practices, architecture and land use, military dynamics, and foreign policy. It covers a range of diverse interests from agricultural and animal husbandry practices, to child rearing, to magic.

The core scientific background of Egyptology is archaeology, but many other scientific fields now play an important part in the field, including anthropology, biology, botany, chemistry, dendrochronology, forensic sciences, geology, osteology, and zoology, to name but a few.

A host of technology-based sciences now assist with everything from computer imaging and database management to geolocation (GPS), geophysical surveys, satellite mapping, CT scanning, and provenance analysis. 

The most traditional, and best known part of Egyptology, is fieldwork: exploring and excavating sites to uncover new artifacts, monuments, texts, and ancient rubbish heaps. To learn more about fieldwork, click here.

In addition, there are many specialty branches of Egyptology:

Bioarchaeology

Bioarchaeology (also known as osteoarchaeology or paleo-osteology) is the study of human skeletal remains from archaeological sites. Bioarchaeologists can learn much about the diet, health, and work habits of ancient peoples by studying mummies and skeletal remains. They employ techniques that are also applied in forensic science. DNA analysis of ancient remains is also a component of bioarchaeology. A related field, palaeopathology, is the study of ancient diseases.

Conservation of Artifacts and Mummies

Conservation is an important component of Egyptology, as its primary goal is to preserve the cultural heritage of the world for future generations. Conservators are specially-trained professionals who examine, treat, repair, and preserve ancient artifacts and monuments. Conservators work on the conservation of artifacts, buildings, or even digital media, and may specialize in caring for particular materials, such as ivory, metals, pigments, or textiles. Conservators also preserve and conserve human and animal remains from ancient Egypt in the form of mummies. Learn more about ARCE's conservation training and projects here.

Education

Another important career choice within Egyptology is the education of the next generation of Egyptologists. A vast number of colleges and universities offer undergraduate courses in the Ancient Near East. A handful of US universities offer a PhD program, as do Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Egypt and others.

Epigraphy

Epigraphy is the study of inscriptions (or epigraphs) as writing. Epigraphers frequently work on-site, reading, copying, translating, and studying ancient inscriptions in painstaking detail. One of the best known and longest-running epigraphic projects in Egypt is the Epigraphic Survey led by the University of Chicago. To read more about the Epigraphic Survey and other ARCE-sponsored epigraphy projects, please visit the ARCE website and University of Chicago Epigraphic Survey site.

Experimental Archaeology

Experimental archaeology allows modern researchers to develop and test hypotheses about ancient cultures using archaeological source material. Experimental archaeologists utilize numerous techniques, including creating replica structures and artifacts using only historically accurate techniques and materials, re-enacting historical events, and burying and then excavating modern replica material in order to observe the impact of time and the environment on the replicas. Some examples of experimental archaeology in Egypt include Mark Lehner, Patrick McGovern, and Delwen Samuel's bread- and beer-making experiments, Paul T. Nicholson's construction and firing of experimental kilns at Amarna, and Salima Ikram's experiments with animal mummification and mud trays from KV 63.

Museum Curation

Curators are specialists who are responsible for the collections of a museum or other cultural heritage institution. Curators are involved in the acquisition, description, preservation, interpretation, and exhibition of works of art. They may also conduct original research on the collections in their care and present their findings at conferences, in public lectures, or in publications.

Philology

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources. Some Egyptologists work primarily in library and museum archives studying ancient writings, and hardly ever dig in the field, if at all. Technology is making the modern philologist's work easier every day with large, sometimes as-yet unstudied archives now appearing online. One example is the online interface called Papyri.info https://www.papyri.info/, which features the Papyrological Navigator. The Papyrological Navigator enables philologists to simultaneously search a wide variety of papyri housed in collections around the world and to retrieve digital photographs, transcriptions, and translations of the papyri when available.

Underwater Archaeology

Underwater archaeology is archaeology practiced underwater with the assistance of divers and diving equipment. For deeper sites, submarines and remote sensing tools like Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) are required. Underwater archaeology is not only concerned with shipwrecks, but with all types of submerged monuments and artifacts. Underwater archaeology conducted in the bay of Alexandria has greatly advanced our understanding of ancient Alexandria, capital of the Ptolemaic empire.

Note: Lectures on many of these varied aspects of Egyptology are part of the ARCE Orange County chapter's monthly lecture series.

Egypt's own most famous Egyptologist, Dr. Zahi Hawass, once estimated that 70 percent of his country's ancient treasures remain to be discovered.

Before sites and objects can be studied, they must first be found. A major focus of 21st-Century Egyptology is defining new sites and establishing accurate boundaries for well-known sites, as well as restudying sites cursorily studied in past centuries, by using new technologies.

Hundreds of years ago, the emphasis was on treasure hunting and trophy collection, often with no detailed mapping or recording of provenance.

Today, the most careful and exacting measurements and documentation are performed in the field, according to established scientific protocols. Goals include:

1. Determining the boundaries of settlements.

2. Establishing the hidden foundations of walls, dwellings, temple precincts, and storage structures.

3. Determining the extent of cemeteries or animal husbandry areas.

4. Finding the footprint of ancient harbors and quays.

5. Determining the usage of specific buildings or neighborhoods: i.e. barracks, brewery, grain storage, etc.

It is within or adjacent to these ancient structures, that artifacts themselves are found and their context analyzed.

Excavation Planning

To commence field study in an organized manner and to utilize expedition funds effectively, archaeologists will often perform surveys over a large swath of land in order to systematically document features that are visible to the naked eye and collect and analyze artifacts that are lying on the surface. Archaeologists may also excavate sample (or "test") trenches, or take deep core samples of soil, and then analyze the results prior to deciding upon a particular excavation site. Surveys and samples are economical and ethical ways of learning about a large site without having to excavate it completely.

Stratigraphy

Archaeologists working in Egypt utilize numerous techniques to understand the soil features and artifacts that they uncover. One of the most basic techniques is studying the stratigraphy, or the horizontal layers ("strata" or "contexts"), that make up an archaeological unit (a "square" or "trench"). Looking closely at the strata visible in the course of excavation, including those apparent along the edges, or profile, of a unit, helps archaeologists to understand the past natural and human activities at a site.

Ceramic Analysis

Another indispensible tool is ceramic analysis. Since pottery produced in Egypt changed in form, material and decoration over time, archaeologists are often able to date their strata using pot sherds uncovered there. For example, a particular type of blue-painted pottery from ancient Egypt was only manufactured between the mid-18th and mid-20th Dynasties. Thus, the appearance of a sherd of blue-painted ware in an excavation can date a stratum to that period. The current standard for ceramic analysis is the Vienna System, an internationally recognized schema for classifying Egyptian pottery.

Seriation

The relative dating technique called seriation (or "sequence dating"), whereby objects are placed in chronological order according to changes in their shape and decoration, was developed by William Matthew Flinders Petrie, the "Father of Egyptian Archaeology", while excavating Predynastic burials at the site of Diospolis Parva (Hu) in the late 19th century. The technique can be used to date ceramics as well as other types of artifacts that display changes over time, such as stone tools. Seriation is especially useful when scientific (i.e. carbon-14) or stratigraphic dating is not possible.

Archaeological Teams

Archaeological teams are frequently composed of a group of students and specialists from a variety of fields, from classically trained Egyptologists and archaeologists to architects, art historians, bioarchaeologists, ceramicists, chemists, conservators, engineers, epigraphers, geologists, photographers, surveyors, and others. Archaeological teams are typically diverse, international teams with members from Egypt and around the world. Archaeological fieldwork is truly collaborative, and the results are featured in websites, blogs, magazines, journals, and books in a wide variety of languages.

Field Schools

Archaeological field schools help to train archaeologists and conservators of the future. You can read more about ARCE-sponsored expeditions and field schools here.

The Ancient Egyptian Language: Not Just Hieroglyphs

The ancient Egyptian language, a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family, was written in four scripts ? hieroglyphic, hieratic, demotic, and Coptic ? and evolved through numerous grammatical phases: Old Egyptian, Middle (classical) Egyptian, Late Egyptian, Demotic, and Coptic. The earliest attestations of Hieroglyphic Egyptian are the ivory tags used to label burial goods in tomb U-j at Abydos ca. 3200 BCE.

Egyptian hieroglyphs can be read as logograms, glyphs that represent the word for the image depicted (e.g. a sun disk glyph is the written word for ?sun?), as phonograms, in which a glyph represents one, two or three sounds (e.g. the owl glyph represents the sound ?m?), or as ideograms, also called determinatives. Determinatives are glyphs that do not have sound values, but which serve to illustrate the meaning of the preceding logo- and/or phonograms. Thus, a ?seated man? determinative will follow the glyphs spelling out a male personal name in order to indicate that the preceding signs relate to the semantic category ?man.? Altogether, there are more than 700 hieroglyphs.

The last hieroglyphic inscription, known as The Graffito of Esmet-Akhom (or Philae 436), was written in 394 CE at the Temple of Isis at Philae. However, the Coptic language continues to be used today in the liturgy of the Coptic Church. After almost 1500 years of obscurity, Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered in 1822 following years of fervent research by Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion.

Today, all phases of the Egyptian language, especially Middle Egyptian, are taught at numerous colleges and universities worldwide, as well as through correspondence and online courses. The ARCE Orange County chapter also periodically offers introductory courses in hieroglyphs. Watch the ARCE-OC website at http://www.arceoc.org/ for announcements about future classes.

Most professional Egyptologists have a PhD in Egyptology. Doctoral students in Egyptology study both Egyptian material culture and Egyptian language, and many have the opportunity to participate in fieldwork during their studies. A number of US universities offer a PhD in Egyptology, including the University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Berkeley; University of Chicago; University of Michigan; Brown University; Yale University; New York University?s Institute of Fine Arts; University of Pennsylvania; Johns Hopkins University; Emory University; and University of Memphis.

Studying to become an Egyptologist requires training in not just Egyptian history, culture, language, religion, and art, but also in French and German, the primary languages (in addition to English) for academic publications since the 19th century. Egyptology students planning to work in Egypt may also wish to learn Arabic, either Modern Standard Arabic or Egyptian Arabic.

Those specializing in the later periods of ancient Egyptian history (the Greek and Roman periods) may wish to learn Greek. Learning Sumerian, Akkadian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Ugaritic, or Old Persian are excellent ways to explore interactions and interconnections between ancient Egyptians and their neighbors. The time to complete a doctorate in Egyptology varies by student and institution, but 7-10 years of study beyond the Bachelor?s degree is typical.