What is Egyptology?

_Elsa_

Rip realizes that he needs to tell Tiffi about Egyptology which is the study of Ancient Egypt.

‘Egyptology, the study of pharaonic Egypt, spanning the period c. 4500 bce to ce 641. Egyptology began when the scholars accompanying Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt (1798–1801) published Description de l’Égypte (1809–28), which made large quantities of source material about ancient Egypt available to Europeans. For a discussion of the long-standing fascination with ancient Egypt, see Sidebar: Egyptomania.

Written Egyptian documents date to c. 3150 bce, when the first pharaohs developed the hieroglyphic script in Upper Egypt. The documents of these kings, their successors, and their subjects, as well as the archaeological material of their culture, well preserved by Egypt’s arid climate, provide the source material for Egyptological study.

In 1799 a French engineer found the Rosetta Stone, a trilingual stela with Greek, hieroglyphic, and demotic texts. Knowledge of Coptic permitted the deciphering of the stone’s inscription, a work completed in 1822 by Jean-François Champollion. He and an Italian scholar, Ippolito Rosellini, led a combined expedition to Egypt in 1828 and published their research in Monuments de l’Égypte et Nubie. Karl Richard Lepsius followed with a Prussian expedition (1842–45), and the Englishman Sir John Gardner Wilkinson spent 12 years (1821–33) copying and collecting material in Egypt. Their work made copies of monuments and texts widely available to European scholars. Muḥammad ʿAlī’s government (1805–49) opened Egypt to Europeans and consular agents, and adventurers began to collect antiquities, often in ways that amounted to plunder. From this arose the great European Egyptian museum collections. Auguste Mariette went from the Louvre in 1850 and began excavations at Memphis, where he found the Serapeum. He convinced Saʿīd Pasha, viceroy of Egypt, to found the first Egyptian museum at Būlāq (1858; moved to Cairo, 1903) as well as the Service des Antiquités (1863). Mariette became the first director of this organization, which worked to stop the hitherto uncontrolled digging and collection of antiquities.

American museums opened Egyptian collections in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and excavations in Egypt helped enlarge their exhibits. The University of Pennsylvania, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the Brooklyn Museum, and the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University all have conducted work in Egypt. The discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb (1922), as well as Pierre Montet’s excavations of the intact royal tombs at Tanis, heightened public awareness of Egyptology.’ (Sou­­rce)

Let’s continue - Egypt today

Start at the beginning – Tiffi and Rip time travel to Ancient Egypt