The Hearst Museum has one of the most important collections of ancient Egyptian artifacts in the United States and the best west of Chicago. Most of the almost 19,000 ancient Egyptian objects in the museum came from excavations undertaken in the early 1900s by George Reisner, with funding provided by Phoebe Apperson Hearst. This material is seldom displayed due to space constraints in the museum. In this seminar, we will examine the background and history of the collection, the sites from which the collection derives, and various objects from the collection. Classes will be held in the museum, and students will both learn to use various resources of the museum and also have the opportunity to work with ancient objects.
Enrollment is limited to twelve freshmen only.
Carol Redmount is an Associate Professor in the Near Eastern Studies Department. She specializes in the archaeology of Egypt and the Levant, and directs the UC Berkeley excavations at Tell el-Muqdam, a settlement site in the Egyptian Delta. She began her archaeological career the summer of her freshman year in college and has been excavating ever since. She first excavated in Egypt in 1978 and lived in Cairo for three years in the mid-1980s. She also has participated in archaeological research in Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Tunisia, and the United States.