Global Materials along the Nile, 3400 BCE-500 CE

The material history of the ancient civilizations that belong to the Nile Valley, Egypt and Nubia, ranges from environmental shifts to complex human interaction. This course places Egypt within a wider horizon of global development. From the Nile River which acts as a source of life, travel, and connection in Northeast Africa, the understanding that ancient Egypt and Nubia were part of a larger intercontinental expansion will be investigated through materials that were made locally and those that were imported into the region. While these materials were products of social, political, and religious ideologies within specific historical contexts and for diverse purposes (e.g., local consumption, trade), they also demonstrated Egypt and Nubia’s interactions with disparate regions, their cultures, and their empires which will allow students to study the Nile Valley from a perspective of global connection. The course will follow the chronological development of ancient Egypt and Nubia, beginning from the Predynastic to the Ptolemaic period. Students will familiarize themselves with materials from across the Nile Valley as well as work with relevant comparative geographical regions (in Africa, Asia, Europe) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum. 3 credits. Satisfies the geocultural or chronological requirements.